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

-------------
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

Seasons

Dear friends,

Today I am looking out my office window at a most beautiful fall day! I hope you've had some opportunities to enjoy the sunshine and the changing of the leaves. Each fall, with the changing of the season, I find myself reflecting on the seasons in life and the many changes and transitions we all go through. Each of us, individually, may find ourselves in a particular season of our lives. As a church, I think that we, like the earth, go through cyclical transitions. We are nearing the end of the liturgical year, preparing for Advent, a season of waiting. My first Sunday with you all, I shared that a friend once said to me that "sometimes God gives us just enough light to see the next step." As the days get shorter and the nights continue to grow longer, perhaps this is worth remembering. We are in a time of change, and sometimes we have just enough light to see the next step. And then the next, and then the next. And the more people and participation we have, the more light there will be. So I hope you will continue to come and share your light with us, so that we can all continue to move forward, together, through this season of change.

This Sunday, we'll have a guest preacher, Wayne Gustafson. And after worship, please plan to stay for an all-church meeting; read below for an invitation from the Church Council.

Blessings,
Manda

Invitation to an All-Church Meeting

You’re invited to stay after church on Sunday to hear from several church leaders.  Your Church Council would like to give you a brief update about our work.  You will hear about the progress of the Interim Search Committee, and also about a workshop, “Talkin’ Transformation, which was attended by nine people in the church.  Throughout the meeting, you will have a chance to participate, adding your questions and comments to the conversation.  The meeting will take one hour.


Texts For This Week:
Prophets           Jer. 31:7-9
Gospels            Mark 10:46-52

Spirit Day

If you look at my Facebook profile today, you'll see that my picture is purple. Today is Spirit Day, when people are encouraged to wear purple to take a stand against bullying and show their support for LGBTQ youth. This movement was started by a Canadian high school student named Brittany McMillan, who wanted to respond to the high-profile suicides of LGBTQ youth in 2010. Brittany initially wanted to show support in her own high school, and then she began working with GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to broaden the effort.

You can watch Brittany talk about Spirit Day here: http://youtu.be/H9NeKoHN0R8

As Brittany says, "You should never back down from what you believe in, and you should always speak up when you can. Ultimately, I want Spirit Day to make just one person feel a little bit better about his or herself, to feel safe enough in their own skin to be proud of who they are. Maybe even save a life."

And that's one of the reasons our church is Open & Affirming - so that young people - and all people - will know that there is a place where they are safe and loved, "no matter who they are or where they are on life's journey."

Today and every day, I hope you take every opportunity you can to tell others that they are loved - and to know that you are also loved and cherished. Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday and sharing brunch with you after worship (bring a dish to share or just come as you are!).

Blessings,
Manda


Texts For This Week:  

Epistles   -   Hebrews 5:1-10

Gospels  -   Mark 10:35-45

Love The One You're With

I want to share with you some excerpts from an article by Mary Sellon and Dan Smith, of the Alban Institute. Click here to read the whole article (it's worth reading!). Consider the questions they raise and how we might love one another more authentically.

Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday, and I hope you can stay for the AfterWord, where Marcy Schaeffer will share one way we can love our Burmese neighbors.

Blessings,
Manda

Texts For This Week:  
Epistles  -  Hebrews 4:12-16
Gospels  -  Mark 10:17-31 
___

Our charge is to love. An old song by Stephen Stills featured the recurring line, “Love the one you're with.” Though the songwriter intended a different meaning, the line provides a fitting admonition for members of faith communities. “Love your neighbor” directs us to love whomever we are with, whether we like them or not.

The question from the Gospel of Luke in the Christian scriptures, “Who is my neighbor?” expresses a natural desire. Let me find someone I can naturally love and I will claim that person as my neighbor. The truth is that God gives us each person we encounter as a neighbor. Our neighbor is the person begging money outside the grocery store, the telemarketer who calls at dinner, and the person at the committee meeting who drives us crazy...

Six Essential Questions and Choices
We find six choices crucial for every relational interaction. These choices provide the groundwork for the relationship to be a loving relationship. These six choices make it possible for us to relate in loving ways and move toward fulfilling and life-giving relationships:

1. What do I want my relationship with this person to be like?
2. What attitudes and values do I want to honor as I’m with this person?
3. What must I let go of in order to turn towards this person?
4. What is the goodness in this person that I will see and trust?
5. How will I acknowledge to the person the holy goodness that I see in her or him?
6. What will I dare to ask of this person?

Discipline yourself to answer these questions as you prepare to be with people. These choices can enhance already good relationships and improve difficult ones. Practice making these choices with a variety of people. Over time, this process will become habit, done with unconscious competency. These six practices will strengthen all of your relationships and increasingly connect you in deep ways with others.

Excerpted from Practicing Right Relationship: Skills for Deepening Purpose, Finding Fulfillment, and Increasing Effectiveness in Your Congregation, copyright © 2005 by the Alban Institute. All rights reserved.

World Communion Sunday

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday, an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to "coming back to the table" - for it is God who sets the table and invites us to come, and it is God who has the power to heal wounds and build community. It is a powerful meal in which we, the Body of Christ, become bread for the world.

In addition to inviting you to join us this Sunday, I also want to share with you an opportunity to learn about how you can be involved in a meaningful ministry to world neighbors who are becoming Ithaca neighbors. Read below for more information from Marcy Schaeffer, and plan to join us on the 14th after worship to learn more.

Blessings and peace,
Manda

Texts For This Week:
Epistles - 2 Timothy 1:3-12
Gospels - Luke 14:1-14 

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.


Dear Church Friends,

I’m asking you to join me in doing something so meaningful. Just a small amount of
time on your part could have tremendous impact.

It’s about a family that has been waiting for 10 years in a refugee camp in Thailand and
with financial support from the United States is moving to Ithaca. I will join 40 or so
sponsor families who are helping 122 Burmese refugees. Although I will be the primary
contact for this family, I cannot do it alone, and do it well. So, I’m asking for your help.

The parents of this family fled religious (they are Christian) persecution in Burma (Myanmar) where many Christians have been injured or killed.  They fled to refugee camp in Thailand.  The parents met, married and had children at the camp. Two of the father's siblings died from illness at the camp.  The 3 children are spaced about 3 years apart with the youngest a 5 month old.

As political refugees these Burmese immigrants are provided with relocation funds for housing, food and in a year can apply for a green card and in 5 years can take a test to apply for citizenship.  The father of this family has a sister and her family (the Htoo family) have been here for over a year so they will be able to help with translation, logistics and welcome support.  The sister's family Ae Say, Aung Htoo, Will Mu Htoo (fifth grade at Belle Sherman) and Roe May Htoo (third grade at Belle Sherman) participated at the FMSC at the church Sept 7th.  Aungh Htoo thanked me for bringing them to help.  The Htoo family have their own sponsor who some of you may know, Graham O (a beloved midwife)  and her husband Ken "Otto".

There is already support for immigrants in Ithaca (Burmese and others).  The adults go to English classes Mon-Fri at the First Presbyterian Church for the first year and many continue longer. An Ithaca College professor,  Dr. Cathrene Connery has helped coordinate her education students, community refugee sponsors, school support staff and community leaders supporting the Burmese community.

The Afterword on Oct 14th will include information about opportunities, an invitation to join the Lotsa Helping Hands website for this family and may include a video from one of the high school Burmese immigrants about what they transitioned through.  If anyone has specific questions or comments beforehand please feel free to email me so I can be as prepared as possible. 

Thank you, Marcy Schaeffer

Mjcsch@gmail.com

The Gift of Pause

Dear friends,

On Thursday, I joined Laura Lee for her monthly lunch with church members who live at Longview. They had a new staff person, who was incredibly friendly and gracious, albeit a bit slow. But that's to be expected with anyone who is learning something new and finding their way in a new environment. I was reminded of the gift of pause, and I chose to sit and enjoy the present moment with these wonderful people, rather than thinking about the next thing on my agenda, or the tasks that weren't getting accomplished while I waited for food.

As we move into this weekend and Laura Lee's last Sunday with us, I think this devotional from the UCC is worth our time and reflection. I invite you to breathe deeply and be in the present, to have patience with one another as we find our way through uncharted territory, and to listen with open minds and open hearts.

Blessings and peace,
Manda


Texts For This Week:
James 2:1-10, 14-17
Mark 7:24-37

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

The Monks Who Take Long Pauses

http://www.ucc.org/feed-your-spirit/daily-devotional/the-monks-who-take-long.html

September 28, 2012

The Monks Who Take Long Pauses

August 24, 2012

Psalm 69:7

"Because of you, I look like an idiot."  (The Message)

Reflection by Lillian Daniel

I had the chance to join some Benedictine monks for evening worship with a group of pastor writers at theCollegeville Institute. The Benedictines, well known for their hospitality to the stranger, asked our mostly Protestant group to meet with Brother John outside the chapel fifteen minutes before worship for an orientation. He spoke to us a bit about the striking modern abbey church, and then took us inside to our seats in the section next to the monks. 

There he explained which book we were to open and when. It was complicated and we needed all the help we could get. There were going to be all kinds of responsive readings where the leader would speak, and then the monks on one side of the church would respond as "choir one" and then the other side would respond as "choir two." "You're choir two," he told us, and then added this as an afterthought:

"The pace here at the abbey is slower than what you are used to," he explained. "The monks take pauses in the responsive readings, pauses that will seem long to you. So you might want to hold back at first and really listen to them, to get their pace before you join in."

I had no idea what he meant until the service began. Then, when it was choir two's turn to read several lines of a psalm, I heard my own voice and a few others from the visitor's section bleating out alone, as the monks took a long silent breath after each line. I am so used to finding my place and quickly saying my lines in a rush. But the monks said a line or a phrase and then all stopped to pause, as if to really listen to it, to take it in.

I was struck by how often I just barrel through readings in worship and how often I barrel through conversations in life. What a difference a few quiet pauses might make.

Prayer

Listening Lord, help me to listen too. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

Upcoming Meeting

Dear Members & Friends of FCC,

Our Church Council has invited you to an All-Church meeting following worship this coming Sunday. I plan to attend and encourage you to come and be a part of the conversation. Certainly, we will come with a wide range of feelings and our elected leadership wants to listen. We will come with many questions, which I believe the Council members will address as best they are able.

Last April, as the Church Council began to address various complaints, I  told them and the members of my Pastoral Relations Committee that I trusted they would work diligently to discern God's leading and would make decisions based on what is best for the whole church. I know that this decision-making process was truly difficult and that for some of them quite sad. I trust everyone honored their role as a church leader when they determined it was not possible for them to work with me to address the challenges facing our church. Thus, a change in pastoral leadership is best for the whole church.

This is not the decision I would have made. However, I have always trusted that the Holy Spirit moves among us all.  In our congregational polity, pastors are called to work with the elected leadership and the whole membership to strengthen the Body of Christ. If this is not a shared trust, it is not possible for us to move forward together.

Paul's encouragement to the Romans may stand us all in good stead: “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."

Like Paul, I encourage you to join me in the hope that God is preparing someone to come here with whom your leadership can work to move FCC in different directions and that God is preparing a place for me where it will be possible for me to use my gifts and skills to build up the Body of Christ.

It is imperative for all of you to come to the meeting and share your thoughts, questions and feelings. Most of all, come to listen for the leading of the Spirit, as you prepare for an important journey of transition.

In Christ, Laura Lee 

Texts for This Week:

Psalm 15

Mark 9:30-37

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

The Feed My Starving Children

The Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack was a great success! Thank you to everyone who participated and donated funds. With the help of over 1,500 volunteers we packed 334,368 meals.  That will feed 916 children for an entire year!

Continuing our focus on hunger, the special offering for the rest of September will go to our local Kitchen Cupboard.  Together we can truly impact the problem of hunger.  Many of you know that September is traditionally when we take a special offering for the School Nurses fund.  Happily, at this time, the fund is financially very healthy!  However, we have recently learned that our local Kitchen Cupboard, on the front lines of our local hunger initiative, is in dire need.  Did you know that our canned goods donations only account for 5-10% of what they need to operate?  As of the last ACT meeting, Kitchen Cupboard indicated that they have only $3000 on hand for buying food. They are now spending $4 to 6,000 each month due to increased local need!  To respond in a timely way to this urgent appeal, our September special offering will benefit the Kitchen Cupboard.  Thank you for your continued generosity which surely serves as witness to the local community!

This Sunday our Children and Youth programs resume.  We look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday.

Blessings,
Laura Lee and Manda


Texts for Sunday

Romans 14:7-12

Mark 8:27-43

Summer blog posts

During the "program" (school) year, Laura Lee and I offer 2 blog posts per week. Starting this week and through the summer, we will only post one reflection per week, which you can find and follow at Ithaca UCC Reflections. Hope to see you over there in the blogosphere, and here in worship and around Ithaca as well. Have a great summer!
Manda

Fear of Spiders

I've always had a bit of arachnophobia...when I was a little girl, I would have nightmares that my bedroom floor was teeming with spiders and scorpions, and I would have no way to escape. I was terrified of killing a spider, for fear that its relatives might come after me while I was sleeping! As I grew older, my fear became more manageable - except for the several months after I made the mistake of watching the movie Arachnophobia when I was 16!

Syed will probably tell you that I still get a little freaked out by spiders - especially the ones that like to feast on all the summer bugs that come into our house. But overall, I think I've found ways to live with my fear without it overtaking me. One thing that helps me is just observing the fascinating nature of arachnids. Many of them spin breathtaking webs, only to have to start again when strong winds tear them down. But I still have no desire to hold a tarantula!

Fear, in and of itself, is neutral. It can save our lives by "raising our hackles" to alert us to dangerous situations (like spiders crawling on you!). But it can also hold us back and keep us from moving into an uncertain future. And sometimes our fear becomes all we know - so that we imagine danger even where there is none.

This Sunday, I invite you to step back and observe the things that frighten you - is your fear telling you to take a different path? Or is it an opportunity to find new trust in God?

Have a great weekend - hope to see you on Sunday!

Blessings, Manda

Texts for Sunday:
Job 38:1-11
Mark 4:35-41

Anticipating Miracles

An old tv ad invites us to long for the rich taste of  super thick ketchup as we watch it slowly ooze toward the mouth of the bottle.

The Gospel text this week invites us to long for the Realm of God as we ponder the mystery of tending the seeds of the Spirit that have been planted among us. It also invites us to expect miracles in this garden of faith - huge bushes from tiny mustard seeds!

The ketchup ad and the parables of Jesus acknowledge that waiting can be frustrating as we bang on the bottom of the bottle or keep scanning the garden for new shoots, we aren't always able to be patient. And so, we are called to live in the mystery of growth that is happening, even when we cannot see it. 

So it has been over the past few months, we have been tending the seeds of our commitment to Feed My Starving Children and tomorrow, I expect we will see the miracle of abundant fruit in our Strawberry Festival. All of this has taken patience and faith and really hard work. And just as the text says, we are called to expect the miracles of abundant growth from the tiniest of seeds. For all things are possible in the Realm of God, the realm we anticipate this day and every day!

Blessings and hoping to see you all tomorrow at the Strawberry Festival and on Sunday,

Texts for This Week:

+Ezekiel 17:22-24

Psalm92:1-4, 12-15

IICorinthians  5:6-17

*Mark 4:26-34

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

"You're Being Called

 My dad used to tell this great story: One of his golfing buddies, Joe, was given a cell phone for Christmas - a gift from his son in California. A few days later, they were on the golf course and Joe's phone rang. He took it from his pocket and said, "Hello." Apparently it was the son who had given him the phone because, the next thing he said was, "Hey, you're all the way in California, how did you know I was on the 12th green?"

The whole thing was a mystery to Joe!

Sunday is Celebration Sunday at FCC, a time to celebrate a year of ministry with our Children & Youth (and theirs to us)! And, we will focus on the calling of the prophet Samuel - a child. The call came in the middle of the night and Samuel thought his guardian, Eli was calling to him, but it was God - a mystery.

A mystery that God would call a child, would know where he was, would know his potential to become a leader of his people......

The truth is that God calls each and every one of us, knows we are in the kitchen, in worship on Sunday or on the 12th green! God knows our potential to become people who sow love instead of hate, people who are always seeking and granting forgiveness, people who work for peace instead of divisiveness.....

The truth is, you are being called this Sunday - to celebrate with all of us. So come, celebrate the children & youth and the adults who make our ministries with them and their families so rich. Come, celebrate your own calling to build up the body of Christ and to celebrate the good news of the gospel with all you meet. Come and respond to God's call in your life and celebrate the mystery!

Hoping to see all of you on Sunday,   Laura Lee

Texts for This Week:

+Psalm 92:1-4,12-15

*I Samuel 3:1-10

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

"On the Journey"

If you haven't seen this movie, I recommend it for many reasons. It is a perfect illustration for Sunday's text from Romans. Everyone in the movie has the same destination - a retirement hotel in India, but the similarities end there. For some this is an adventure and for others it is scary.

Some embrace the experience and at least one of them can never adapt. One finds some closure and one opens up. And one, goes through a pretty radical transformation.

Paul knew that Christians are a similar 'motley crew' bound for the promises of life in Christ, but that it is a different journey for each and every one of us. Some are ruled by our fears and are always wanting to turn back and some just 'hold back'. Some think there might be possibilities and sort of 'wait & see' and others assume that it will all be good.

The important thing is that we are all on the journey together and we choose how it will be for us. Will we embrace the spirit of God's amazing grace, live in it and share it with others or will we be enslaved by our fears and turn back? The invitation of the Gospel is clear, we are all children of God, fully embraced, fully loved and fully welcome at Christ's table and we are all part of Christ's family. The only thing that holds us back or keeps us out is our own spirit. I find this exciting and scary at the same time. The way I know seems less threatening because it is familiar. But the new way is the one that promises me joy and adventure and new possibilities.

Funny how some things never change and some people never change. The good news is that Paul understood this and so does God, who transforms us all in love!

I am hoping to see all of you on Sunday. The journey promises to be a good one as we welcome new members, receive the gift of music from Sophie Viscuso and connect with each other at the table of true communion. 

Blessings,  Laura Lee

Text for This Week:

Isaiah 6:1-8

+Psalm 29

*Romans 8:12-17 p.158

John 3:1-17

 

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

From Diversity We Praise

Last Sunday, Laura Lee and I reflected on the prayer of Jesus in John 17 and also the motto of the United Church of Christ: "that they may all be one." We posited that unity is not the same thing as uniformity. Our church did some dreaming together, coming up with all kinds of reflections and ideas that demonstrate that we are certainly not uniform in our thinking!

What a great time to be approaching Pentecost - which we often call the Birthday of the Church. God's church is born out of diversity - and that diversity is not a problem to be solved, but rather a gift to be celebrated. The chorus of one of my favorite hymns begins, "Many gifts, one Spirit, one love known in many ways. In our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise."

This Monday, Americans will observe Memorial Day. Our nation is not perfect, but it is incredibly diverse and varied in culture and race. But I am dismayed at the ways that difference and diversity are often disparaged in public discourse. I consider it a precious gift to be in relationship with a Muslim man who was born in Pakistan, for our varying experiences bring us to a deeper understanding of one another and, by extension, of our faith communities.


The Rev. Dr. Eric D. Barreto, in his reflection on the Pentecost text in Acts 2, writes, "Notice what happens at Pentecost. God, through the Spirit, chooses to meet us where we are: in the midst of a multitude of languages and experiences....At Pentecost, God makes God's choice clear. God joins us in the midst of the messiness and the difficulties of speaking different languages, eating different foods and living in different cultures. That is good news indeed." (Click here to read his full reflection)

This Pentecost Sunday, I hope that you will bring yourself, in your uniqueness, and perhaps invite someone who is unique in their own right, maybe even very different from you. I look forward to celebrating with you that no matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here, and your difference is a gift of God.

Blessings this holiday weekend,
Manda

Texts for this Sunday:
Psalm 104:24-35
Acts 2:1-21

Some Things Change.....

Massive protests.....at the political conventions, against the war, French-speaking students disrupting commerce...Young black men being randomly shot....women's rights to health care under assault....prices for gasoline skyrocketing....

Our tumultuous world.... now and in the late 1960's..... It seems to some of us (of a certain age) that some things never change. It seems that we are destined to tumult and strife over and over again. And, yet, if you listen, you will hear quiet, but important calls to 'dream'.

The Hebrews were facing total annihilation and exile, when Jeremiah called them to dream of a future when they would buy and sell land again. The disciples were paralyzed by the very thought of life without Jesus, when the day of Pentecost came and they were called to see visions and dream dreams. Martin Luther King called all Americans to share his 'dream' for justice.....

The call is not to dream our way out of painful realities or to avoid what's going on around us. The call is to imagine God's realm...of peace, of justice, of cooperation, of hope and then, to move our way out of the trials and into the future.

On Sunday, our Church Council will lead us into a time of dreaming for our church. It will be a time of worshipful imagining, of discerning what God is calling us to do and be, of working together to be the Body of Christ. When we recall the dreaming of the prophets  ancient and modern, when we answer the call to dream, we realize that some things do change.....when we live into the dreams.

I hope to see ALL of you, All of you on Sunday, Laura Lee

Text for This Week:

*John 17:17-26

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

It's So Easy.... It's So Complicated

Sunday is Mother's Day... that's easy... honor your mother. After all, everyone has one. But, it's also complicated... some of us can be with our mothers on Sunday, many cannot. Some of us are (or were) close to our mothers and some of us aren't (or weren't). Some of our mothers did yoga with us or read to us or baked cookies with us or played soccer with us and some of them were not so present..... You get the point.

In Sunday's Gospel text, we are called to 'love one another'...that's easy....just be kind, thoughtful and generous. After all, we are people who care about loving. But, it's also complicated. Some people are really difficult to love: they are self-centered or need to run things, or have awful ideas or are just not kind themselves.... You get the point.

Parenting and loving are aspects of human life that are easy to talk about and easy to lift up as values - after all, every human on earth has experienced parent-child relationships and hopefully, most of humanity has experienced love at some point. This is probably why Jesus often described God as a parent and why he talked about loving a great deal. But, Jesus also knew that parenting relationships and loving are often very complicated, conflicted and difficult. And, so we can see his parenting metaphors and talk of loving as an invitation to acknowledge and struggle through the complications with grace and faith.

So, on this Mother's Day, think of your own mothers (and if you're a mother - your own children) and pray....To God who is the simplest and most complicated parent; for love which is the easiest and hardest thing to do; and for the life you have been given by God and by your own mothers (and fathers).

Hoping to see you on Sunday, Laura Lee

Texts for This Week:

+Acts 10:44-48

Psalm 98

I John 5:1-6

*John 15:9-17

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.