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Joni’s Reflections

12/25/2016

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4th Sunday of Advent Matthew 1:18-24

​“And they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means God is the with us.”

Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent and for many of us we may be wondering how fast this season of light, hope, joy and peace has come the lighting of the fourth candle.  Advent is a challenge as it calls us to slow down and be still in the waiting and longing for the birth of Christ.  Slowing down and being still gets to be more and more difficulty each year as the marketing industry pushes the season of Christmas further into the month of July instead of December. So what can we do to save the moments of Advent?

Well for me I try to spend time re-reading on of my favorite books titled Watch For the Light Readings for Advent and Christmas.  What I love most about this book of reflections by numerous authors is that each year it is as if I am reading the reflections for the very first time.  Honestly, I find great mystery and grace in this simple joy of accepting that, because when you thing about it our lives are constantly evolving into something more; and words and prayers can offer different experiences according to where you are at that time in your life.

If you were to look back over the past three weeks, can you see where you have taken time to be still?  If you have been distracted by the busy chaos of shopping for gifts, decorating your homes, planning meals for your special guest, crowded malls, unemployment, underemployment, failing health, anger, a sick love one, disappointment, political issues of immigration and war, and the struggle for justice as we listen to the pain of families across America that have lost their love ones to violence.  The I would like to suggest this short meditation from Psalm 46:11 “Be still and know that I am God.”  Take the time to slowly release each word until you are at the word “Be” now in total silence be embraced by God.

At today’s mass we have the wonderful opportunity to enjoy the gifts of our children in grades K-7th Religious Education program.  They are the hope and joy of our future church and world.  In place of Bro. Ray’s homily the children will read a very beautiful poem written by Dr. Maya Angelou titled A Christmas Poem.  This poem tells the simple story of a family who join in with their community—rich and poor, black and white, Christian, Muslim, and Jew—to celebrate the holidays.  On Christmas Eve at the 5:00 pm mass our teens in the Confirmation program will share their gifts; as they too are the future hope of our church and world.  Their program will include the Posadas.  Posadas is a Spanish word meaning “shelter.”  This tradition is most often attributed to the Hispanic people; however it is a celebration for everyone.  The Posadas reenacts the story of Mary and Joseph as they searched for a place to stay in Bethlehem.  In today’s world, full of people who are displaced in one way or another, Posadas offers an opportunity to reflect on where we are going in our life.

As you discern where you are going in your life here is a prayer for Peace on this fourth Sunday of Advent, Light four candles and sit for a moment in silence.  You can even include Psalm 46:11 with this prayer., “Christ our peace, Glow brightly in each moment.  Enlighten our vision so that we see the illuminating light of your love that shines so brightly in the evening stars.  Lord relieve us, if just for a moment, of our worries and stress.  We await your coming with abundant joy.” Amen.

Amazing Peace,
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Pastor’s Pen

12/18/2016

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​I suspect we are all getting weary from shopping and preparation for Christmas, but the church calls us to get up and Rejoice!  Today, on this third Sunday of Advent we have already begun our new church year.  We are reminded during this season of Advent to stay awake and not allow the routines of our days to make us numb to life.  How often we find ourselves running through our days with no consciousness of anything but the next task.  This season of Advent is supposed to be a slowing down and allowing God to meet us in new places. It’s the call to remember why and for whom we’re waiting.  We are waiting for Christ to break into our hearts in a new way allowing us to find wells of compassion within us, passion for justice for all those treated unfairly, a spirit of reconciliation and inclusion among all of us, and a peace and joy that refuses to allow the struggles to get the upper hand.  We all know how busy these days will be.  The shopping has begun!  We have a choice, though.  We can either fall into place with the rest of America and shop til we drop, or We can stay busy until the first of January and be so exhausted that we have little time to just be with the people we love.  The season offers us another possibility.  We can just stop for a minute and pace ourselves and remember what’s most important about this season.  The gifts will pass away, the meals will be forgotten and all that will remain will be the memories.  It will be the memories of times we laughed so hard we couldn’t catch our breath or the moments of tenderness when we were reminded that we were loved by family and friends, or the times we stayed awake and were able to see the beauty of the world all around us.  We have to stay awake so we don’t miss anything!  This is our moment, or advent, or time of expectation.  We sit in wonder and excitement for all the moments Christ will bring us in this new year.  We always have a choice whether to sleep or stay awake.  We can choose to go through the motions or embrace our days with passion and joy.  We can reject the people who are trying to love us and sleep in our own self pity or we can wake up and enjoy life in all it brokenness and beauty.  I don’t know about you but I want to try and stay awake this year!!
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Deacon's Deliberations

12/2/2016

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The first time I heard the beloved verse from today’s first reading, that in the days to come “many peoples .. shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears in pruning hooks,” excerpted from Isaiah Chapter 2, was when Anwar Sadat incorporated it into his remarks at the singing of the Camp David peace treaty in 1979.  Sadly, I watched the clip in the reporting on President Sadat’s assassination in 1981.

​Whether it came from the high visibility that the Middle East had in my childhood, sadly because of all the warring there, or whether it came from the beguiling performance by Yul Brynner as Rameses II in The Ten Commandments
(it holds up – am I right?), from childhood I longed to see Egypt, and made the first of many trips there in 1996.  “The gift of the Nile” was way better than the movie.  The site, fuhgeddaboudit: the pyramids, the Nile, Khan Eh-Khalili, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the temple at Luxor, and on and on.  What I hadn’t counted on was falling for the people, who a colleague affectionately called “the Italians of the Middle East.”  Egyptians are funny, hard-working, hospitable, quick to anger and quicker to forgive, spontaneous and stalwart.  By the time a trip finished (I went a lot for business, to Cairo, and to the Red Sea resorts) I was exhausted and maybe more than a little fed up, but the next time I saw that I was ticketed to go I grinned.


The treaty between Israel and Egypt has to date fostered only a “cold peace;” flights are limited, trade is strangulated, and cultural contacts are rate.  After a bombing at a resort in Taba, at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba where Israel, Egypt, and Jordan come together, followed by more attacks along the Red Sea coast of the Sinai Peninsula, Israelis stopped heading south for the holidays and now go much farther, even to India and South America.  Thus, they rarely meet Egyptians, so how can peace build?


Why the stalemate?  Your poor deacon puts it to a failure of imagination, loss of hope, and a lack of faith in the future itself, which by definition is unknown.  It was the image of a beautiful yet unknown future that moved Isaiah, and that stirred hopes in President Sadat, Prime Minister Begin, and President Carter, and it was faith that put those hopes into action.  This progression, of imagination begetting hope begetting faith begetting action what is at work in the Incarnation, which we as Church pray on and prepare for in the weeks of Advent.  I look forward to embracing them with you.

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