News & Notes 12/31/08
My final greetings to you . . . in 2008!!
While no contemporary visual depiction of the first Christmas can begin to come close to showing us “reality,” the following link may prove beneficial for your journey of faith as you spiritually progress through the Christmas season. It came to me from Karen Schutt. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/v/Z_ypUnnqr8Y&autoplay=0
I have offered the following message a number of times, in different settings. I hope you don’t tire of hearing it - and will give it a try, if you haven’t done so already. “Ask most people why they became Christians, and they’ll likely tell you the story of other people whose witnesses were their inspiration. Ever since the shepherds and the wise men left the manger, telling what they saw to the people they met, Christians sharing their personal encounters with God have been the most important evangelism tools in the church. It’s no different today. On the job, in our neighborhoods, while running errands — throughout our daily living — we encounter people who are yearning for a deeper relationship with the living God. And our individual testimonies, told with humility, earnestness and gratitude (not pomp and self-righteousness) are often the stepping stones brothers and sisters need as they take that closer walk with God. If Christ has made a difference in your life, you ought to tell somebody… Learn to share your story.” (from Interpreter magazine, October 2000)
I’m finishing this issue of “News & Notes” while the storm is “storming” outside - and as people are traveling for New Year’s Eve celebrations. May all the celebrations occur without harmful incident, and, come what may, may 2009 bring you ever closer to our God, and ever closer to the faithful disciple that God is seeking for you to be. But that’s enough sermons!!
This Sunday, at both of our services, we’ll celebrate communion, and it’ll be offered in the context of John Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service. Many folks at St. John’s find this service, which is more liturgical than a normal service for us, to be a very moving and important beginning for their journey of faith as they begin the new year. At both services we’ll receive communion at the communion rail. And as we always do on communion Sundays, a special offering will be received for the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund.
Speaking of special offerings, I am thrilled to be able to share with you that our Christmas Eve offering enabled St. John’s Church to give approximately $660 to EACH of the four organizations that we had mentioned ahead of time (Dover & Rochester SHARE Funds, Somersworth Food Cupboard and the Dover Cooperative Ministries Food Pantry)! That is just wonderful! Thank you for your sacrificial gifts!! Just think of all the people that will benefit by your giving!!
Following worship this Sunday - at Noon - the Church Council is sponsoring our annual Calendaring meeting. This is a time for us informally to evaluate 2008 - to do some dreaming about the new year - to extend grace when schedules conflict - and to set the calendar for 2009. While this meeting is really important for committee chairpeople, everyone in the church is welcome! Bring a bag lunch if you wish. We strive to be completed by 1:30 PM, at the latest.
On Friday, January 9th, St. John’s Church will host the next Red Cross Blood Drive - from 2 till 7 PM. The surprise treat for your donations will be a pound of Duncan Donuts coffee! I’m sure Jinny Scott would request donations of soups, squares, cookies, etc. once again. But mostly importantly are our donations of blood. Folks need our help.
Offering envelopes for the new year are available. If you didn’t get your box this past Sunday, they’ll be out this coming week, too. If there isn’t a box with your name on it, and you’d like to use offering envelopes, let Sandy Dearborn, our Office Manager know.
I just got off the telephone with Diana Schuman, who shared the sad news with me that Bob’s Mom, Eva Schuman, passed away this afternoon around 4 PM. No funeral arrangements have been made yet, but I would ask you to keep Bob and Diana and their family - and Eva’s extended family - in your prayers.
A week from this Saturday, on January 10th, at 2:30 PM, the Worship Committee and anyone who might be able to help, will gather to de-decorate the sanctuary - to take down and store all the wonderful decorations that have adorned our worship space for Advent and Christmas. Can you offer an hand? “Many hands make light work!”
I have a hunch these lines came from messages on church signs:
God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
Do the math .. count your blessings.
Faith is the ability to not panic.
If you worry, you didn’t pray. If you pray, don’t worry.
As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.
Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
The most important things in your house are the people.
When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.
A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
That’s all that I have for today. I’m going to close, but want to share a message with you from Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners. It makes ya think!! Happy New Year. See you in church. Peace, Mark
Christmas in the Trenches
We (i.e. Sojouners magazine) first published this reflection by Jim Wallis in 2002. It has since become our Christmas tradition, kind of our own Charlie Brown Christmas special, if you will. With the ongoing conflicts raging during each passing year, it remains tragically relevant.
Silent Night, by Stanley Weintraub, is the story of Christmas Eve, 1914, on the World War I battlefield in Flanders. As the German, British, and French troops facing each other were settling in for the night, a young German soldier began to sing “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.” Others joined in. When they had finished, the British and French responded with other Christmas carols.
Eventually, the men from both sides left their trenches and met in the middle. They shook hands, exchanged gifts, and shared pictures of their families. Informal soccer games began in what had been “no-man’s-land.” And a joint service was held to bury the dead of both sides.
The generals, of course, were not pleased with these events. Men who have come to know each other’s names and seen each other’s families are much less likely to want to kill each other. War seems to require a nameless, faceless enemy.
Following that magical night the men on both sides spent a few days simply firing aimlessly into the sky. Then the war was back in earnest and continued for three more bloody years. Yet the story of that Christmas Eve lingered - a night when the angels really did sing of peace on earth.
Folksinger John McCutcheon wrote a song about that night in Belgium, titled “Christmas in the Trenches,” from the viewpoint of a young British solder. Several poignant verses are:
“The next they sang was ‘Stille Nacht,’ ‘Tis ‘Silent Night’,” says I.
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
“There’s someone coming towards us!” the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man’s land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave ‘em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?”
‘Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore.”
My prayer for the new year is for a nation and world where people can come out of their trenches and together sing their hopes for peace. We here at Sojourners will carry on that mission, and we invite you to continue on the journey with us.
Blessings to you and your families.