Christmas Worship

This is a simple reminder: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we are worshiping with Immanuel Lutheran Church. The services are on Christmas Eve at 6PM and on Christmas day at 10:30 AM (note: this time had been incorrectly announced as 10 AM in past updates.).

We will resume our regular worship on December 31 at 6:00pm.


Have a Merry Christmas!

Sermon: Third Sunday of Advent

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.12:3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.12:4 And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted.12:5 Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth.12:6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. (Lectionary)

I don’t want to beat a dead horse here, but I have been thinking of Joy lately. A couple of Sundays ago, I shared a song from U2 with you, Peace on Earth. In it, Bono wrestles with the “reason for the season” and the terror of violence in Ireland.

Sometimes, we have to confess, that grief is real…and that Christmas is not always so very Merry. Some of us simply get blue around the holidays.

Larry spoke about the place of Joy in his sermon last Sunday. He spoke of the tension in “celebrating the terrible day of the Lord.” We are in the midst of such tension now…perhaps today more than others…

It is Gaudete Sunday. Some of us don’t come from traditions that have this observance. Gaudete! Gaudete Cristus est natus ex Maria Virgine. Gaudete. Rejoice. This is the Sunday of Rejoicing…the Joyous Sunday. Rejoice. Rejoice, Christ is born of the Virgin Mary! Rejoice! It is not Christmas yet…but hold on. It is only a week away. We are tottering on the edge of being in the presence of the divine born among us.

I would like to think that the committee who put together the lectionary had this in mind. Today, though it is the Gospel, only one of our readings is about judgment and the coming of trials and tribulations…of winnowing hooks, axes and fire. But even this verse is helpful. “What shall we do?” Well…and we are given answers...the veil is a little less thick, the smoke of the Judgment Fires seem to be clearing away.

Thus, in the End, we are asked to be joyful. This is not the saccharine-laden joy of a TV commercial…where we teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…or the utopian vision of Moore. This is not the laughter of denial. No. This is the joy that comes from doing the work that John asks us to do, that comes when we somehow burn away the chaff in our own lives and finally see what God is doing in the world.

We too may find ourselves crying out with Isaiah…”Make God’s known among the people!” Somehow, as Christ approaches, the scales begin to fall, loves burns away what imprisons us, or at the very least love casts such light that what is not of God stands in stark relief next to what is from God. Isaiah says that then we are to shout and sing. We are to be joyful. It is the natural response to witnessing God’s saving work in the world…not fear or trembling, but joy as God’s hand reaches out to our own in love..

If you ever see a sad hermit…then he is no hermit at all. The most joyous persons in Russia are the ones who have the eyes of a child at seventy and who are filled with the joy of the Lord, for they who have entered the silence of God are filled with God’s joy. Yes, the life of the [hermit] should be truly joyous with the quiet joy of the Lord and this will be visible. He will have the eyes of a child even if his face is old. You cannot fool people as to such things as the presence of love and joy in a human being…

It is striking to me that the writings where I discover the clearest articulation of this kind of joy are from contemplatives, people who devote their lives to practicing the presence of God. We have the lives of the Russian hermits in their paustinas or hermitages to guide us. These are men and women who devote their lives to being alone with God…and take what wisdom they learn and return it to the community.

Joy is the fruit of wrestling with God.

Brother Roger of Taize also speaks of joy.

You are called to freedom. Your past is buried in the heart of Christ, and God has already taken care of your future.

Do not be afraid of suffering. In the very depths of the abyss, a perfection of joy can be found in communion with Christ Jesus. Dare to rejoice in what God is accomplishing through you and around you. Then all forms of pessimism about yourself and about others, which are waging war on your soul, will melt away.

If you forget the gifts of the Holy Spirit in your, and if you lost the last traces of self-esteem, then what a risk of losing your balance...! The void attracts, fascinates.

With joy comes a sense of wonder. Such joy needs nothing less than our whole being in order to shine forth. It lies in the transparent openness of peaceful love. (p. 63 The Sources of Taize)

I like to think of Brother Roger as always positive, always speaking to us in superlatives, in light of progress and attraction to the Gospel and never about lack or negativity...and then he surprises me. He also speaks of what happens when joy is missing.

If joy were to vanish

If the spirit of festivity were to fade away...

If we were to wake up, one fine morning, in a society that was functional, technologically advanced, but where all inner life had vanished...

Science and technology are indispensable for making the earth fit to live in. But if we forgot the trust of faith and the intelligence of the heart, so vital in building the future of the human family...

Where could we find an overflowing inner life, in the spirit of joy vanished from that unique communion which is the Body of Christ, his Church, and if the Church's motherly love were replaced by moralistic lectures?

If we were to lose childlike trust in the Eucharist and in the Word of God...

If the prayers of Christians were expressed in a language heavy with boredom, leaving no room for intuition, for poetry, for the adorable presence of the Risen Christ...

Here is the cataclysm which we fear. This is the end that we await in horror.

You see, joy is real…and not some whitewash veneer over our suffering. Joy and suffering are equally real. One comes from the admission of the other.

The lack of joy has real consequences…our spiritual death, because such a thing would be a sign of oblivion.

Sometimes I wonder if the end times does not actually mean an end to time…but the beginning of real love and life and joy. But when love and life and joy are gone, then all things come to an end and all we are left with is an oblivion of our own making, an idol to ourselves.

Christian joy is not the escaping of life, it is not hiding out in the pews hoping that God will not find you…or hiding behind a smile, praying that your neighbor (The one who is called by God to love you, I’d like to point out.) does not see your pain.

No…we need joyous prophets like Zechariah, Isaiah and John…ones who call us to task.

Have you not known? They say.
Have you not heard? They wonder.
Has it not been told you from the beginning? They frighten us with such promise…
You shall have a song, and gladness of heart.

This is the season of Advent...when the stories that have shaped us are told anew. Stories of angels and prophets and the coming of a child, of shepherds and God's grace outpoured.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!

Office Hours

Larry will not be at his office hours this Tuesday and Wednesday, 12/20 and 12/21 and next week 12/27 and 12/28.

Bible Study

There will be no Bible study this week, 12/19/2006.
We will begin our next Bible Study Tuesday January 9th.

Reconciler Update

Christmas is fast approaching and we are probably getting more and more caught up in the various ways the time of Advent can be busy. As we attend Christmas or Holiday parties, shop for Christmas gifts, and prepare to go see family, in the midst of all this, may we keep in mind the point of all of this: God has come to us as a human being. God didn't just appear as a human being fully formed but was born into this world like every other person we know. This uniting with God's creation is a great gift to us. We celebrate we exchange gifts with friends and loved ones to honor our God who gave us this greatest gift. We celebrate a God who continues to give himself to us and the world. May our preparations during the rest of Advent also be a preparation to receive again this gift of God's self in the Christ child, and may we be prepared to walk with Christ this coming year from baptism to Cross and Resurrection.

Announcements:
Please take the time to comment here on the changes in our liturgy during Advent. We value your ideas and feedback. The pastoral team and worship committee would like to know what your experience has been, and your thoughts and ideas.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we are worshiping with Immanuel Lutheran Church. The services are on Christmas Eve at 6PM and on Christmas day at 10:30 AM (note: this time had been incorrectly announced as 10 AM in past updates.)

January 7th is Epiphany Sunday and the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord. On this day we celebrate God's appearing to the gentiles in the coming of the Magi and the showing forth of who Jesus is when he was baptized by John in the Jordan. It is customary to remember our own baptism as we celebrate the baptism of Christ in the Jordan.

On January 9th we will begin our new Bible study on Praying the Psalms. The Bible Study will be through the season of Epiphany and conclude during lent. We will be reading Eugene Peterson's book Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer also we are encouraging all who participate in the Bible Study to pray a Psalm a day either individually or by joining the Community of Holy Trinity in their morning or evening prayer.

In Christ,
Larry

Office Hours change

This Wednesday December 13th Larry will be at Metropolis Cafe from 5 to 7 PM.

Sermon, Second Sunday in Advent

Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 1:68-79
Philipians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
Who Can Endure?

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” (Malachi 3:2a) It is this question of Malachi’s from which I preach today. I want us to reflect on the meaning of this text because I believe it is a key to not only the meaning of Advent and Christmas, but also the ambiguity Tripp highlighted through the U2 song “Peace on Earth”. A line in the song that stuck in my thoughts was “But hope and history won't rhyme.” Is saying what Malachi’s question there is something about God’s coming that does not quit fit with and in history. And here is the ambiguity for we are proclaiming in advent that God has come and is coming. There is tension in this there is something we can’t see, something graceful has happened and yet everything seems to have remained the same. This is perhaps something difficult for us to grasp when we want everything now, and not just frivolous things, but we hear phrases like “Justice Now” or “Peace now”. Another thing we must face in hearing Malachi’s question is that our culture long ago domesticated God’s coming. I believe in light of our text today we must face and question the ways we embrace a Christmas as a tranquil domestic scene with a beatific child and parents looking on in bliss. Because in this image there is no echo of the cataclysm of God’s coming. In our nativities not even the appearance of angels causes us to tremble, not even a little. How is this possible? We forget that the prophesied coming of God was prophesied with cataclysmic images of the mountains melting, earthquakes, and complete upsetting of those things we consider permanent. Christmas then is a day of judgment, we cannot forget that god coming was redemptive and salvation because it was also judgment. In the prophets salvation and judgment are one and the same thing. However, there is something else going on here, something unexpected something the prophets didn’t quite see: god as a baby. Judgment as a child, a birth a life lived like one of us. It is this juxtaposition that creates the ambiguity, of “Peace on Earth”, and leads us to lament and long. Judgment has come such that it is also deferred. God’s coming this cataclysm in a manger becomes good news indeed because salvation comes as present judgment deferred..

Are there places we could look for a more theologically robust image? I want to direct our attention to two icons one “Our Lady Emmanuel” and of the “Holy Nativity.” First Our Lady Emmanuel could be the quintessential icon of Advent. At the center is Jesus Christ shown not as child but as the preexistent Logos, always shown ichnographically as a young man or older boy. This is God the Son. Mary is in the position of prayer hands raised ready to receive the logos into her womb. Potentially significant is that we do not have a family. This is not Mary pregnant as any other woman is pregnant; this is the virgin bearing the Logos of God in her womb with out husband. We should see in this icon that there is in the very least a disruption that is inseparable from God’s coming. Who can endure this disruption, do we?

I struggled for years with the virgin birth of Jesus. I could see why there would be such a dogma why it would even emerge as an idea very early, but theoretically it seemed that god could have attached himself to the human with a normal birth, after all if we protestant accept that Mary had other children than Jesus with Joseph why keep the virgin birth. But I was missing one of the things this icon proclaims, God does not come and simply leave us to have the life we have always had. God does not come and provide us with a life and world simply improved and augmented like an upgrade for your computer. The virgin birth reminds us of this. It was while painting this icon that my doubts about the virgin birth disappeared as I saw that God’s coming is disruptive. God didn’t come as a child and Mary and Joseph continue on as just the same family as though Jesus were just a child like any other. No, first and foremost a woman Mary accepted freely to bear a child who was hers but not her husbands, she agreed to always be the mother of God, the theotokos, god bearer. Does this not disrupt the very relationship that could have been between Joseph and Mary? There was no going back to some ideal domesticity.

It is why I find the icon of the nativity so theologically rich, as opposed to most contemporary nativities. Joseph is in the corner in contemplation troubled, to emphasize the reality and recall the messiness of the birth of god as a human birth there are the midwives washing Jesus. Mary and Jesus are near the center, but Mary reclines alone. She has just given birth she is not standing, but she too is contemplative and troubled, and Jesus all wrapped peering out of a manger that looks like a sarcophagus in a dark cave. The magi are coming still on their way and the shepherds stand apart. The landscape is alien as it usually is in iconography to depict that the kingdom of God makes things strange. Unlike our tranquil images the icon teach us that we should tremble a little at this event, there is something unheimlich, uncanny, something un-homey, something that unsettles. Who can endure this?

Malachi in our reading asks the question who can endure the coming of the Lord precisely because Malachi understands why this coming has to happen in the first place. What Malachi prophecy’s has to happen is because our world and we are impure, mixed like precious metal before it is refined, and like wool cloth before it has been cleaned. In Advent one thing we proclaim is that there is only one thing that can melt away what is false and corrupting in the world, only one thing that can wash away all impurities from our world and that is God’s own presence. To make way, as John the Baptist does is to be prepared to be burned and scrubbed. . We in advent sit in anticipation of the continued revelation of the terrible day of the Lord that has come. This is so because the prophets saw clearly that when God comes it is salvation and redemption because it is also judgment. We need salvation because there is a deeply imbedded virus in the world that only God’s coming can remove, this statement is about judgment. What we long for as Zechariah saw was both rescue and judgment, John the Baptist preparing the way, proclaims this the only way to be ready for the coming of God is to even if you are the chosen people to admit your sin, to admit human failing. This is to admit our world needs God to come because there is no other way to remove the impurities that much up our world, and the mess we see both in our lives and the world around us everyday.

However, God’s coming occurs in a way that neither the prophets nor Zechariah anticipated precisely. The judgment and the salvation of the world come through the womb and a human birth. Who can endure this? Yet we do and have, we even attempt to go on as if nothing has happened; there is both grace and judgment in this. God has come and there is still history. And while hope and history don’t rhyme they reside together in the same line. This is possible because God has veiled himself in human flesh, God has come as his creation and so we endure and history and the created order continue on, and so we wait and we long.

This purifying and refining has become the process of God come to woo us to show us our true selves purified This waiting and longing than is part of the Gospel, because God seeks to refine his creation so that it may endure the day of God’s coming. The wait then is part of the salvation God has chosen to bring us, because God judges in such away that his creation that we can endure the refining process at which Malachi tremble. This means the Day of the Lord is long, and the world, even we who know the story can ignore what should lead us to tremble and rejoice at the same time. God has come,
God has come as a human being as a child. God forever is Jesus of Nazareth, god has forever bound God’s self to the created material world in being born as Jesus of Nazareth Son of Mary. The embrace of this is our purification, our world being washed of all that is filled with the impurities of death, sin: oppression, injustice selfishness, and hatred. The day of our purification has come and is here, and we endure, and it is by grace that history and hope don’t rhyme.

On this the day of the Lord we wait and celebrate God transforming the universe, by entering into it as a person part of God’s creation. And so we wait the final outcome of this slow burning purification. We wait and proclaim it because this day remains hidden like the Logos as a little infant in a manger. By God’s grace and love most of the world is oblivious to the terrible thing that quietly happened in a backwater part of the world. Any other way and nothing would have endured God’s coming. May we be roused from an oblivious domesticity that cannot receive the Christ child, because it cannot tremble at what should have been unendurable. By God’s love and grace the world continues on even after the day of the Lord has come. And so sing, and we long Come Lord Jesus come. May we celebrate this terrible day of the lord, with Zechariah, the day which we all endure because it came in a human child: God the refining fire now purifies from within God’s own creation slowly transforming and purifying us that we may see God face to face and live.

That was the longest litany in the history of the universe...but I think I liked it.

Edit. I have changed the date on this post to keep it to the top. Also please your thoughts on the lighting of the Advent Candles and the silent procession we began this past Sunday December 10th.LEK
Well, brothers and sisters, you did it. You managed to pray and praise your way through a sung Eucharist and the Great Litany. Excellent work in the processing, all. And a special thank you to Rev. Dave Hedges for his assistance. I thought it went well.

But I want to know what you all thought.

What did you think of the Great Litany? The language? The processing? The chanting? The bells?

What did you think of processing in general?

Regarding the Eucharist, what was it like to sing so much of it, or to hear the prayers chanted? I am curious how it was for those who are unfamiliar with the practice.

What element from the liturgy would you like to see make another appearance?
What would you rather not see again?
Anything riding the fence for you?

Let us know. Comment away!

Reconciler Almost Weekly Update

A prayer: Christ, Savior of every life, you come to us always. Welcoming you in the peace of our nights, in the silence of our days, in the beauty of creation, in the hours of intense inner combat, welcoming you means knowing that you will be with us in every situation, always. - Brother Roger of Taize

Advent continues apace. Trish and I decorated the tree last night. We try to decorate the tree as close to the Feast of St. Nicholas as we can. I am not entirely sure why we do this...But I know I have a love for St. Nicholas. And yes, it is because of Santa Claus. Color me foolish, but I still find myself enjoying some of the more silly aspects of the holiday. Sugar plum fairies dance through my head. I have a Yukon Cornelius doll (Is there a better word for a 14" stuffed cartoon character?) that is unpacked at this time this year. I catch myself singing "Silver and Gold" like Burl Ives. I am a sucker for the sentimentality of the season.

And yet even I know that "white Christmas" barely begins to scratch the surface of Advent. Last Sunday we prayed the Great Litany from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. And it is indeed great. Long. Monumental. We pray for much.

That it may please thee to make wars to cease in all the world;
to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord; and to
bestow freedom upon all peoples,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord...

That it may please thee to preserve, and provide for, all
women in childbirth, young children and orphans, the
widowed, and all whose homes are broken or torn by strife,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord...

That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive
us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue
us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our lives
according to thy holy Word,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.

That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors,
and slanderers, and to turn their hearts,
We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord...

For me, this is Advent. We are praying for God to enter into every aspect of our lives...all of our relationships and situations. There is no place where God is not already present, but the act of naming so much is powerful to me. Processing and singing, the ringing of the bells...they are holy reminders of Whom it is that comes, and that there is no place that God's Advent does not touch us and offer us salvation.

Announcements:

If you have any comments about last week's liturgy, please go here and share your thoughts.

On Saturday, December 16th at 11:00am, we will gather at St. James Cathedral Episcopal Church 65 E. Huron St. Chicago, IL to celebrate the ordination to the priesthood of Rev. Laura Gottardi - Littel.

Remember for Christmas Eve and Christmas day we are worshiping with Immanuel Lutheran Church. Services are 6PM Christmas eve and 10:00AM Christmas day. If you plan to attend either of those services the choir of Immanuel would appreciate more voices. If you are interested in singing with the Immanuel Choir at those services contact Tripp or Larry and they can direct you to the Choir director Scott.

You are invited to a Christmas party at the Community of the Holy Trinity 16th 7:00pm.

Peace and All Good Things!

Tripp Hudgins
Pastoral Team
Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler

Larry's office hours tonight

Larry will be at Ennui Cafe tonight from 7:30-9:30

sermon: heaven on earth

Sermon: First Advent, 2006
Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler

Peace on Earth
- U2

Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on Earth

Where I grew up there weren't many trees
Where there was we'd tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you

And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you
And it's already gone too far
You say that if you go in hard
You won't get hurt

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth

Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth

She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They're reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won't get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
Their lives are bigger than any big idea

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth

To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

Jesus and the song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth
This peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth

The song is entitled Peace on Earth and is by the rock group U2, from their 2000 album All That You Can’t Leave Behind.

Their lead singer, Bono, has become quite popular lately for his many political activities…in his work to undo systems of poverty and to bring more awareness of the effects of the AIDS pandemic on the third world and emerging nations.

For each of us there is likely something, some time, or a place that resonates with this song…with the grief expressed.

Bono has his own political agenda to be certain, but the notion he shares, the struggle he shares is common to us all. He grieves and wants to know where God is in the midst of the struggle he perceives. For each of us there is likely something, some time, or a place that resonates with this song…with the grief expressed.

It is not a question of whether his political position is correct, but whether or not he is asking the right questions in the first place…if he is asking the right questions of God. He is speaking out of that place of confusion and hurt. In scripture, the psalms and in other places, this would be called a lamentation. Bono laments. And in singing the song for you this morning, in listening to the song before, I find myself in the midst of my own lament.

I plead for understanding and justice, for God’s mercy for all. O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

For “hope and history won’t rhyme.”

Bono seems to be waiting for the Lord. He prays and begs for some sign. “Jesus, can you take the time to throw a drowning man a line?”

Peace on Earth.

Many of us, too, find difficulty in understanding the proclamations of the holiday season when they are juxtaposed with the world we live in. Some of us don’t look forward to time with family. It is stressful and difficult. Some of us find grief at Christmas and not joy. We find that we say with Bono…“Jesus in the song you wrote…these words are sticking in my throat…Peace on Earth.”

Feelings such as these don’t seem to belong to Christmas, or to Advent. But if we take a closer look at the scripture passages for this evening, we may find that such frustration does indeed have a place. Jeremiah speaks of a promise fulfilled in the midst of difficult times, earth shattering, difficult times. And he does not imagine some panacea for the people. Jeremiah is speaking of a real salvation, a political shift in the landscape. He is not speaking of something that simply resides in the imagination. He proclaims something human, something possible, and someone real.

33:14 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 33:15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 33:16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

Jeremiah speaks of real salvation because he is speaking of real grief and real struggle.

So too does Jesus in our passage from Luke. So often, I believe, our tendency is to fall into the trap of wondering why Jesus sets up this impossible timeline and why Luke holds on to it in his retelling of the Gospel story. We start thinking in terms of hours and days and weeks. We may find ourselves reading the newspaper trying to find the signs of Christ’s coming. “Heaven on earth,” we say, “we need it now.”

The Advent of God is the preparation, the waiting for what is…The end times are at hand…they are now. They always have been. God is here. God is the Great I am, Emmanuel, the Word, the Alpha and the Omega. Whenever God appears the world collapses upon itself.

And this evening the symbols and strange language in Luke find their meaning in God’s promise of peace. With the coming of Jesus, peace is the natural order of things. Anything else is out of alignment. It is not the other way around. Thus, like Bono, we proclaim hopefully: Peace on Earth.

Brothers and sisters, we do not worship the God who is The Great I Will Be. We worship the Great I AM.

Peace on Earth!

Bono seems hesitant to me. I think he find hypocrisy in the words. But only at first. For me, in the repetition of the phrase “Peace on Earth,” it becomes a proclamation. And the proclamation becomes stronger. The song becomes something other than a lament.

It is a rally cry, a statement not simply of belief, but of a divine reality revealed. Bono proclaims its presence, not its possibility. And in doing so he indicts all who cannot live in peace, who will not live in peace, who refuse to live in peace. And he proclaims God’s enduring presence.

Bono is not the first to do this. Longfellow gifted us with a similar statement. Many of you know these words…

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

This poem was written during the American Civil War. Longfellow was responding to real grief, was seeking real political reform.

The poem concludes.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”


The Great Am is coming. Emmanuel, God with us, is here.

Peace on Earth!

Amen.

Update

Advent is upon us. this coming sunday is first Advent, it is also Reconciler's second anniversary. 1st Advent 2004 we officially began having worship services at Chase Cafe in Roger's Park. Advent is a season of waiting and anticipation, and as such has always been a significant time for Reconciler as we have and continue to wait on what God is doing and continues to do in our midst. In this season we remember that what ever God has done or is doing it is all centered on God coming in the form of human being: The event of the incarnation is what the prophets look forward to and what we look back and from which we live out our faith. Lastly, God with us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth frames our future hope.

I hope and pray that each one of us will take time, during this busy time of preparing for Christmas, to reflect on this great and terrible event of grace that changed our world

Some announcements-
If you are going be at worship this sunday we encourage you to arrive early. The service music is new and unfamiliar to us and we'd like as many of us as possible to sing through it before service.

Remember for Christmas Eve and Christmas day we are worshiping with Immanuel Lutheran Church. Services are 6PM Christmas eve and 10:00AM Christmas day. If you plan to attend either of those services the choir of Immanuel would appreciate more voices. If you are interested in singing with the Immanuel Choir at those services contact Tripp or Larry and they can direct you to the Choir director Scott.

You are invited to a Christmas party at the Community of the Holy Trinity 16th 7PM.

In Christ
Larry