-
So much emotion, in these texts. So much is at stake. Where’s the focus, it is all bewildering. I’m not only speaking of our scriptures this evening, but also the events in Ferguson Missouri, or rather what the killing of the unarmed Mike Brown by a police officer Darren Wilson and the decision of a grand Jury not to indict the police officer, has awakened. If you've followed the events since the death of Mike Brown at the hands of the police, you know a movement has grown up around this because Mike Brown’s death is larger than his own death and larger than whether or not Mike Brown’s civil rights were violated in away the Federal Government could act upon, or even whether or not on these same criteria City and it’s police are consistently engaged in violation of the civil rights of its African American citizenry, as important as that reality is. Rather, the movement has emerged because the killing of Mike Brown by a police officer, Darren Wilson isn't an isolated incident, as a number of similar incidents where police have shot African American men (and most recently a boy of 12) occurred at the same time and have continued to occur, since. What we are awakened to is that the U.S. Justice system and policing is unjust and racist.Many are awakening to these injustices. Most likely those of us here this evening weren't completely unaware, but if you are like me you have been further roused and more attuned, to the enduring racism that floats mostly unseen, hidden behind laws, and state sponsored violence. In the midst of all this Jesus tells us to stay awake, to be watchful.The anger, frustration and grief expressed on our streets in protest and rioting, isn’t far from Isaiah’s wrenching call, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence”, such deep longing and pain behind such a statement. A longing and desire for justice and for God to act. For God to act like God did in the past, when God delivered the Israelites at the Red Sea by the complete and total destruction of the structures of the Egyptian law and order that oppressed the IsraelitesIf we pay careful attention to Isaiah, we hear a more complex story: the people of God have moved from victims to being complicit in sinful systems. There are two movements in this lament and prophesy, a deep longing for God to act and a confession that responsibility for the situation from which there is the need of deliverance is the people of God themselves. For white Christians in this country that is certainly also true when it comes to systemic racism first as slavery followed by policies of segregation and oppression and Jim Crow, continued now in mass incarceration and policing.Isaiah cries out in longing and deep pain for God to act and for justice , echoing the cries from our streets since August and Isaiah expresses the complicity with these systems of injustice, reflecting for us the place of White Christians in relations to racism in the United States.Isaiah though almost seems to throw up his hands, God isn't acting, and this lack of action seems to make matters worse. In the end we are clay in the potter’s hand, and even what Isaiah sees on the horizon and even being experienced by God’s people is on some level God’s doing. Our Isaiah text leaves us with deep longing and anguish and helpless in our own sin and failure.But our psalm points us toward the hope of being clay in God’s hands: the hope of restoration, or of a remolding. The Psalmist holds out for us the the hope of God transforming us , renewing us and the whole world.And Paul expresses this hope as grounded in the person and work of Jesus ChristWhere might all this lead?What conclusions if we take Ferguson also as our text, as revelatory of God at work in our midst?I want to draw attention to the language of shaking, and of tearing, the disruption of the fabric of what seems unalterable and just the way things are. But also that this shaking is the shaking of governments, nations, powers. In these images and if we reflect on the deliverance of the people of Israel from their oppression in Egypt, their liberation and justice doesn't come from the systems and the state, Egypt isn't the source of their liberation, nor even that which cooperates with that liberation. And if we hear Isaiah well, not even the people, can be the source of justice, transformation, and liberation. The people of God also fail at justice and righteousness. The state and the powers can and will be forced to deal justly, but they aren't the source nor the guarantor of justice nor are we the people the source or guarantor of justice.Justice comes from beyond, our hope is in that we don’t create justice rather we submit to it. But what we submit to is a caring and loving reality. Justice isn’t abstract and cold and unmoving. Rather the source of justice is a shepherd, an artist, and a lover.Lastly Jesus says that when you see systems and the powerful sun and moon and stars shaken and upended, darkened blood red showing their violence, these are simply signs of something else. That is if we are waiting for the United States to become a place devoid of all injustice and racism we are looking for the wrong thing. We have misinterpreting the signs. Human government and systems of justice are just that human, mortal, limited and passing away, and fallible. Our human systems will fail us.Our hope is in a more lasting and radical transformation of the world in which the world once again shows forth completely the love and justice of God who is the very source the very life blood of our existence.And Tonight I proclaim to you that God did tear open the heavens and come down, and is now forever bound to the physical created universe. The systems of the world were shaken to their knees, and then went on their merry way because it was just a Jewish Galilean peasant wonder-worker easily dispatched through human justice and state sponsored violence. But in that the governments and powers exposed themselves for what they were and are systems of violence set against the very source of life. The good news is we can turn to this one and find God at work transforming us into citizens of a more just and loving world. Since God became incarnate in the Virgin Mary, God has been at work in matter and the physical world, in our very bodies transforming the world into what it should be. Are you ready for that world? Are you awake to that world? Wake up stay awake. Be a citizen of the world that is coming in which racism and all forms of oppression and injustice are shaken from the earth.Stay awake and watch for that world is coming, the signs of its coming are in the protests even the riots in Ferguson, but also right here in our midst. Right here as we take in each week the justice of God in human flesh, who awakens you to this transformed and transfigured world, slowly making you, in your very body, into a person of love and justice, a citizen of the present and coming reign of God.
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Monday, December 1
Longing and Anticipating a Just World
Sunday, November 28
Saturday, November 27
Advent Photographic meditations
The Covenant Church asked photographers in the denomination to submit photographic meditations on the lectionary texts for each Sunday of Advent. The passage chosen for the first Week of Advent starting this Sunday is Isaiah 2:1-5. You can find the meditations here.
Monday, December 14
Advent Reflection: The Gift of God's Self
We are in the third week of Advent and winter weather has come to Chicago. Snow and cold don't slow us down, things keep going and there is the frantic preparations and gift buying for Christmas celebrations. This season perhaps demonstrates for us most starkly the ways in which we are a post-Christian culture. A Christian celebration that also borrowed from pre-Christian European and Mediterranean celebrations around the Winter Solstice, has morphed into at its best a hopeful celebration of family love and hope, attached to gift giving.
As Christians, we can at times find it difficult to connect with the original meanings of our Christian traditions when they are now put to different purposes and meanings. We can bemoan and attempt to challenge these changes or can accept them as fact and simply note the connections and disjunctions between the Christian celebration of Christmas and their cultural American appropriations and adaptations. Keeping the season of Advent is a way to do this. At the time when our culture is in the "holiday" season we are asked by the church year to slow down wait anticipate the coming holiday season of Christmas and the Epiphany. Another way to do this is to understand the meaning of gift giving associated with Christmas. As a Christian tradition gift giving is to be an expression of gratitude over what God gave us through the Son becoming human in Jesus of Nazareth. The gift of God's self was given to us and the whole cosmos. This of course challenges the way in which gifts are exchanged especially if they are only given to those we know and like; God's giving of God's self to that which was and is estranged from God asks us to be more expansive in our giving. If gift giving is an expression of gratitude and imitation at a time that we celebrate God's gift, our giving of gifts perhaps needs to move beyond familial and cultural expectations of who is a recipient of this act. But also we are reminded that while this particular ritual of gift giving marks a particular feast of the church year the posture of self donation is one, as those Baptized into Christ that is to exemplify our own daily life. As such it is something we grow into ever more as we are continually filled with Spirit and grow in Grace and Truth. The ritual of gift giving to family and friends is then a small gesture and a token sign of the divine posture of self donation that we are called to emulate in our daily lives as members of the body of Christ.
In Christ
Pastor Larry
Church of Jesus Christ Reconciler
As Christians, we can at times find it difficult to connect with the original meanings of our Christian traditions when they are now put to different purposes and meanings. We can bemoan and attempt to challenge these changes or can accept them as fact and simply note the connections and disjunctions between the Christian celebration of Christmas and their cultural American appropriations and adaptations. Keeping the season of Advent is a way to do this. At the time when our culture is in the "holiday" season we are asked by the church year to slow down wait anticipate the coming holiday season of Christmas and the Epiphany. Another way to do this is to understand the meaning of gift giving associated with Christmas. As a Christian tradition gift giving is to be an expression of gratitude over what God gave us through the Son becoming human in Jesus of Nazareth. The gift of God's self was given to us and the whole cosmos. This of course challenges the way in which gifts are exchanged especially if they are only given to those we know and like; God's giving of God's self to that which was and is estranged from God asks us to be more expansive in our giving. If gift giving is an expression of gratitude and imitation at a time that we celebrate God's gift, our giving of gifts perhaps needs to move beyond familial and cultural expectations of who is a recipient of this act. But also we are reminded that while this particular ritual of gift giving marks a particular feast of the church year the posture of self donation is one, as those Baptized into Christ that is to exemplify our own daily life. As such it is something we grow into ever more as we are continually filled with Spirit and grow in Grace and Truth. The ritual of gift giving to family and friends is then a small gesture and a token sign of the divine posture of self donation that we are called to emulate in our daily lives as members of the body of Christ.
In Christ
Pastor Larry
Church of Jesus Christ Reconciler
Wednesday, December 24
Reconciler Update -- December 14, 2008
Dear Reconciler Friends, and Friends of Reconciler,
I enclose a very brief Advent meditation I wrote some years ago, while working as a hospital chaplain. I was asked to write the Christmas message from the Pastoral Care department to staff and patients. I was keenly aware that not everyone staying at the hospital was looking forward to the holidays.
No matter our situation, we may have mixed feelings about the season. There were years I dreaded or felt disappointed by it. As an adult, I learned to enjoy it in a realistic way, and to recapture on a different level the magic Christmas held for me as a child. One thing that helped me do so was learning to live into the spirituality of Advent.
Advent is a wonderfully "dense and multi-layered season," as a colleague writes. Its twin themes are joy and repentance. We remember the first coming of Christ and await his future coming, while attuning our senses to signs of Christ already in our midst. We celebrate a three-fold Advent: past, future, and present. This incarnational focus on a Christ at work in the the world, though unseen, is one I am repeatedly drawn to. It helps me feel more grounded in a season that can frenetically pull us in many directions. It is also very Anglican.
I wish you the deep peace of the prince of peace during this season of hope. Prepare him room to be born anew in your hearts.
Here's the meditation I wrote at the hospital:
Opening the Present
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” the carol says. And so it is!
The human race seems at its best. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or winter solstice, we rejoice in the light that breaks through the darkness.
Yet holidays can be difficult. Sun and shadow intertwine in every life. Sometimes we wonder where on earth peace is. We experience loss or illness. We struggle with an uncertain future or a painful past.
Life is a present. But sometimes we don’t get the gift we were expecting.
Few of us are prepared for how our lives unfold. God’s grace moves through our days, abundant but sometimes strange. Who knew the oil would last eight days? Who foresaw the Messiah would come to us in a manger?
As we encounter life’s joys and adversities, we can be open to the present. The openness of a woman giving birth. The openness of a shepherd who has come a long way to see a baby born in poverty. A child with nothing but the whole world in his hands.
“Emmanuel” means God is with us. Perhaps our lives are not unfolding as we’d thought. But God is present. And we find God by being in the present. May these holidays remind us of God’s great gifts to us: unfailing love and unfathomable grace.
+++
Love,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for The Pastoral Team
312-316-9697 The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements:
Church Council meets Thursday December 18th at 7:30 PM in the "Nidge. All are welcome. This meeting will be more of a congregational meeting than a Council meeting. We are looking at how we want to function as church in the new year and beyond. If you have been attending Reconciler, consider it your church home, and want to have input, please come and have your voice heard.
Mark your calendars now! We will be having a joint service with Immanuel and St. Elias on December 21, the fourth Sunday of Advent. A potluck dinner will begin at 4:00 p.m., and the service begins at 6:00 p.m. in the Immanuel sanctuary. We need people to bring food to the potluck, and to help set up and clean up. If you can do so, let someone on the pastoral team know. Thanks!
Also, Christmas eve and Christmas Day are joint services with Immanuel. The Christmas eve service begins at 6:00 p.m.and the Christmas Day service begins at 10:30 a.m. Both services will be held in the Immanuel sanctuary.
Mark your calendars for a Reconciler Party for Laura and Melissa. Laura, Reconciler's Episcopal priest, and Mellssa, Reconciler's interim Baptist pastor, will both be departing the pastoral team on Sunday January 4th. There will be a farewell party for them on Jan 4th following our usual 5:00 service. Stay tuned for more details.
Malaria Nets Challenge- Malaria is a terrible disease which has been eliminated inmost of North America, but kills the children of Africa at the rate of two per minute. The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago can put a medically treated net over the bed of a child for just $12. Kate will be collecting the funds and passing them on to the diocese. Let her know to direct your cash, or check made out to church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler (write "malaria nets" on the memo line) Malaria Nets Challenge, or drop it in the offering pot with a note; you can also mail it to her c/o Reconciler at 1510 W. Elmdale Ave., Chicago IL 60660.
Opportunities for service! If you would like to help out at Reconciler, we need you! We are currently in need of greeters each Sunday (to arrive 15 minutes before the service begins). We also need volunteers as nursery workers, and perhaps someone to help with the bulletin each week. If you want to volunteer, contact the pastoral team.christreconciler@hotmail.com
Reconciler now has a phone- You can reach the pastoral team at 312-316-9697
+++
10 tips from Laura for making the most of this time of year (and you can share yours with me):
1) Tune out the excess materialism. Ignore the constant reminders that Christmas is all about things. But enjoy the giving and receiving. At heart, these are spiritual disciplines.
2) Give gifts of time and attention.
3) Support charitable organizations, as your time and finances permit. Give fairly-traded gifts.
4) Take time for your spiritual life. Listen to and sing carols, the Messiah, pray the Magnificat, light candles. Reflect. Go to church.
5) Create or continue holiday rituals that are meaningful and enjoyable for you.
6) Don't over-do. This from a pastor and a parent of young children! Remind me to take my own advice. :-)
7) Open your senses to simple joys: the taste of a snowflake, a smile shared with a stranger on the street. In what quiet ways and unexpected places can you find glimpses of the real spirit of Christmas?
8) Keep your expectations realistic. The season presents us with challenges as well as reasons for joy. Just knowing that can ease the stress associated with having overly high hopes.
9) Watch good Christmas movies!
10) Allow yourself to enjoy the corny and fun aspects of Christmas. Don't worry too much about whether Santa and other not-necessarily-Christian stuff detracts from the real meaning of Christmas. You can always celebrate St. Nicholas, the 4th century bishop from Myra (now Turkey). As long as you're clear about what Christmas is about, a little synchretism and commercialism won't kill you. It's OK to sing "Frosty the Snowman."
+++
I enclose a very brief Advent meditation I wrote some years ago, while working as a hospital chaplain. I was asked to write the Christmas message from the Pastoral Care department to staff and patients. I was keenly aware that not everyone staying at the hospital was looking forward to the holidays.
No matter our situation, we may have mixed feelings about the season. There were years I dreaded or felt disappointed by it. As an adult, I learned to enjoy it in a realistic way, and to recapture on a different level the magic Christmas held for me as a child. One thing that helped me do so was learning to live into the spirituality of Advent.
Advent is a wonderfully "dense and multi-layered season," as a colleague writes. Its twin themes are joy and repentance. We remember the first coming of Christ and await his future coming, while attuning our senses to signs of Christ already in our midst. We celebrate a three-fold Advent: past, future, and present. This incarnational focus on a Christ at work in the the world, though unseen, is one I am repeatedly drawn to. It helps me feel more grounded in a season that can frenetically pull us in many directions. It is also very Anglican.
I wish you the deep peace of the prince of peace during this season of hope. Prepare him room to be born anew in your hearts.
Here's the meditation I wrote at the hospital:
Opening the Present
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” the carol says. And so it is!
The human race seems at its best. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or winter solstice, we rejoice in the light that breaks through the darkness.
Yet holidays can be difficult. Sun and shadow intertwine in every life. Sometimes we wonder where on earth peace is. We experience loss or illness. We struggle with an uncertain future or a painful past.
Life is a present. But sometimes we don’t get the gift we were expecting.
Few of us are prepared for how our lives unfold. God’s grace moves through our days, abundant but sometimes strange. Who knew the oil would last eight days? Who foresaw the Messiah would come to us in a manger?
As we encounter life’s joys and adversities, we can be open to the present. The openness of a woman giving birth. The openness of a shepherd who has come a long way to see a baby born in poverty. A child with nothing but the whole world in his hands.
“Emmanuel” means God is with us. Perhaps our lives are not unfolding as we’d thought. But God is present. And we find God by being in the present. May these holidays remind us of God’s great gifts to us: unfailing love and unfathomable grace.
+++
Love,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for The Pastoral Team
312-316-9697 The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements:
Church Council meets Thursday December 18th at 7:30 PM in the "Nidge. All are welcome. This meeting will be more of a congregational meeting than a Council meeting. We are looking at how we want to function as church in the new year and beyond. If you have been attending Reconciler, consider it your church home, and want to have input, please come and have your voice heard.
Mark your calendars now! We will be having a joint service with Immanuel and St. Elias on December 21, the fourth Sunday of Advent. A potluck dinner will begin at 4:00 p.m., and the service begins at 6:00 p.m. in the Immanuel sanctuary. We need people to bring food to the potluck, and to help set up and clean up. If you can do so, let someone on the pastoral team know. Thanks!
Also, Christmas eve and Christmas Day are joint services with Immanuel. The Christmas eve service begins at 6:00 p.m.and the Christmas Day service begins at 10:30 a.m. Both services will be held in the Immanuel sanctuary.
Mark your calendars for a Reconciler Party for Laura and Melissa. Laura, Reconciler's Episcopal priest, and Mellssa, Reconciler's interim Baptist pastor, will both be departing the pastoral team on Sunday January 4th. There will be a farewell party for them on Jan 4th following our usual 5:00 service. Stay tuned for more details.
Malaria Nets Challenge- Malaria is a terrible disease which has been eliminated inmost of North America, but kills the children of Africa at the rate of two per minute. The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago can put a medically treated net over the bed of a child for just $12. Kate will be collecting the funds and passing them on to the diocese. Let her know to direct your cash, or check made out to church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler (write "malaria nets" on the memo line) Malaria Nets Challenge, or drop it in the offering pot with a note; you can also mail it to her c/o Reconciler at 1510 W. Elmdale Ave., Chicago IL 60660.
Opportunities for service! If you would like to help out at Reconciler, we need you! We are currently in need of greeters each Sunday (to arrive 15 minutes before the service begins). We also need volunteers as nursery workers, and perhaps someone to help with the bulletin each week. If you want to volunteer, contact the pastoral team.christreconciler@hotmail.com
Reconciler now has a phone- You can reach the pastoral team at 312-316-9697
+++
10 tips from Laura for making the most of this time of year (and you can share yours with me):
1) Tune out the excess materialism. Ignore the constant reminders that Christmas is all about things. But enjoy the giving and receiving. At heart, these are spiritual disciplines.
2) Give gifts of time and attention.
3) Support charitable organizations, as your time and finances permit. Give fairly-traded gifts.
4) Take time for your spiritual life. Listen to and sing carols, the Messiah, pray the Magnificat, light candles. Reflect. Go to church.
5) Create or continue holiday rituals that are meaningful and enjoyable for you.
6) Don't over-do. This from a pastor and a parent of young children! Remind me to take my own advice. :-)
7) Open your senses to simple joys: the taste of a snowflake, a smile shared with a stranger on the street. In what quiet ways and unexpected places can you find glimpses of the real spirit of Christmas?
8) Keep your expectations realistic. The season presents us with challenges as well as reasons for joy. Just knowing that can ease the stress associated with having overly high hopes.
9) Watch good Christmas movies!
10) Allow yourself to enjoy the corny and fun aspects of Christmas. Don't worry too much about whether Santa and other not-necessarily-Christian stuff detracts from the real meaning of Christmas. You can always celebrate St. Nicholas, the 4th century bishop from Myra (now Turkey). As long as you're clear about what Christmas is about, a little synchretism and commercialism won't kill you. It's OK to sing "Frosty the Snowman."
+++
Thursday, December 4
Reconciler Update
We are in the Season of Advent, a time of expectant waiting. As Laura encouraged us on Sunday, take time to wait expectantly on God and God's presence among us and in our world. In this busy time we should remember that the busyness of this time is that we are preparing for the celebration of Christmas. This sense of preparation is also what Advent is about. This expectant waiting is to be a time of preparing for what is to come: preparing ourselves for the appearance of God in Christ, as we celebrate and remember the first coming of God to the world in Jesus Christ.
At this time for our congregation waiting and preparing are difficult because we are facing some changes as we are still without a permanent Baptist pastor as Melissa is stepping down from serving as interim and as Laura is stepping down as our Episcopal Priest and will finish up with us in the Season of Christmas. We have questions about what this means and we may want to rush ahead and think out solutions or worry about our vision as an ecumenical congregation or what it will be like with only one pastor. I wish to encourage us though to wait on God. To take the time of Advent and Christmas to prepare ourselves for what God has for us as Laura leaves us. I encourage us to reflect on where God has brought us, and our character as a congregation with this vision of grass roots ecumenism. I encourage us to remember Laura's ministry in our midst for the past two years, the various ways she has touched our lives and provided pastoral care and lead this congregation.
God may have changes in store for us and Laura's leaving at this time may show what those changes should be but for the moment let us wait. Take time to say goodbye to Laura, to remember and to look forward to how God will come to us in this coming year. God is with us, Emmanuel, this we are promised and assured in the incarnation. So, like four years ago when six or seven of us met for worship in Chase Cafe and waited to see how God would fulfill the vision the Spirit put in our hearts we now find we are still waiting having seen how God has brought us this far and continues to be with us. May we wait and prepare in the hope of Emmanuel.
One possible way to take time to slow down and wait upon God in the season of Advent is on online daily Advent devotional Following the Star.
Announcements:
Would you like to be part of the process of creating a new safety plan for the congregations that meet on this campus? If so, join us on Dec. 11 at 7pm in the Immanuel Library for a meeting. During this meeting we will make suggestions for a new safety plan and this plan will then be approved by each of the congregations.
Church Council meets Thursday December 18th at 7:30 PM in the "Nidge. All are Welcome.
Mark your calendars now! We will be having a joint service with Immanuel and St. Elias on December 21, the fourth Sunday of Advent. A potluck dinner will begin at 4:00 PM, and the service begins at 6:00 PM If you would like to participate in the service or help in some way, please contact the pastoral staff.
Malaria Nets Challenge- Malaria is a terrible disease which has been eliminate din most of North America, but kills the children of Africa at the rate of two per minute. The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago can put a medically treated net over the bed of a child for just $12. Kate will be collecting the funds and passing them on to the diocese. Let her know to direct your cash, or check made out to church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler (write "malaria nets" on the memo line) Malaria Nets Challenge, or drop it in the offering pot with a note; you can also mail it to her c/o Reconciler at 1510 W. Elmdale Ave., Chicago IL 60660.
Opportunities for service! If you would like to help out at Reconciler, we need you! We are currently in need of greeters each Sunday (to arrive 15 minutes before the service begins). We also need volunteers as nursery workers, and perhaps someone to help with the bulletin each week. If you want to volunteer, contact the pastoral team. christreconciler@hotmail.com
Reconciler now has a phone- You can reach the pastoral team at 312-316-9697
At this time for our congregation waiting and preparing are difficult because we are facing some changes as we are still without a permanent Baptist pastor as Melissa is stepping down from serving as interim and as Laura is stepping down as our Episcopal Priest and will finish up with us in the Season of Christmas. We have questions about what this means and we may want to rush ahead and think out solutions or worry about our vision as an ecumenical congregation or what it will be like with only one pastor. I wish to encourage us though to wait on God. To take the time of Advent and Christmas to prepare ourselves for what God has for us as Laura leaves us. I encourage us to reflect on where God has brought us, and our character as a congregation with this vision of grass roots ecumenism. I encourage us to remember Laura's ministry in our midst for the past two years, the various ways she has touched our lives and provided pastoral care and lead this congregation.
God may have changes in store for us and Laura's leaving at this time may show what those changes should be but for the moment let us wait. Take time to say goodbye to Laura, to remember and to look forward to how God will come to us in this coming year. God is with us, Emmanuel, this we are promised and assured in the incarnation. So, like four years ago when six or seven of us met for worship in Chase Cafe and waited to see how God would fulfill the vision the Spirit put in our hearts we now find we are still waiting having seen how God has brought us this far and continues to be with us. May we wait and prepare in the hope of Emmanuel.
One possible way to take time to slow down and wait upon God in the season of Advent is on online daily Advent devotional Following the Star.
Announcements:
Would you like to be part of the process of creating a new safety plan for the congregations that meet on this campus? If so, join us on Dec. 11 at 7pm in the Immanuel Library for a meeting. During this meeting we will make suggestions for a new safety plan and this plan will then be approved by each of the congregations.
Church Council meets Thursday December 18th at 7:30 PM in the "Nidge. All are Welcome.
Mark your calendars now! We will be having a joint service with Immanuel and St. Elias on December 21, the fourth Sunday of Advent. A potluck dinner will begin at 4:00 PM, and the service begins at 6:00 PM If you would like to participate in the service or help in some way, please contact the pastoral staff.
Malaria Nets Challenge- Malaria is a terrible disease which has been eliminate din most of North America, but kills the children of Africa at the rate of two per minute. The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago can put a medically treated net over the bed of a child for just $12. Kate will be collecting the funds and passing them on to the diocese. Let her know to direct your cash, or check made out to church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler (write "malaria nets" on the memo line) Malaria Nets Challenge, or drop it in the offering pot with a note; you can also mail it to her c/o Reconciler at 1510 W. Elmdale Ave., Chicago IL 60660.
Opportunities for service! If you would like to help out at Reconciler, we need you! We are currently in need of greeters each Sunday (to arrive 15 minutes before the service begins). We also need volunteers as nursery workers, and perhaps someone to help with the bulletin each week. If you want to volunteer, contact the pastoral team. christreconciler@hotmail.com
Reconciler now has a phone- You can reach the pastoral team at 312-316-9697
Saturday, December 22
Worship 4 Advent 12/23/2007
Our worship Sunday December 23 will be held at 1:30 PM, in a joint worship service with St Elias and Immanuel.
We return to our regular worship time of 5PM on on Sunday December 30th
We return to our regular worship time of 5PM on on Sunday December 30th
Friday, November 30
Reconciler Update
This Sunday is the 1st Sunday in Advent. Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas like Lent is a season of preparation for Easter. Advent means coming. We wait for the coming of Christ, we hear words from the prophets that speak of the coming of the messiah, and of John the Baptist preparing the way. We also hear of the final coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God. Advent then is a time of waiting on God's coming into our midst and remembering that God promised to come to humanity as God with us, Emmanuel.
Our hope is that in Advent even as December can be a busy and stressful time that we will be able to as individuals and a community sit and wait on God, to reflect on what God's coming has meant and can mean for us and the world. Take time in this season to wait on God, so we can find anew the awe that God came to us as one of us entering the world as each of us has as a baby. That we may gain a renewed and deepened understanding of the incarnation and what it tells us of God's character and love.
Announcements:
This Sunday First Sunday of the Season of Advent, and is Reconciler's Third Anniversary. It was first Advent 2004 when we had our first official worship service at Chase Cafe in Roger's Park.
We still need people who will light the Advent candles on the second and Third Sundays of Advent.
Also on Sunday December 2 Eileen Crowley Assistant Professor at Catholic Theological Union the Artist in Residence this year at Immanuel will join us for worship and then after the service present to us her ideas of media art in worship and ways we can be involved in the creation of this media art for Easter Vigil.
We are working towards having child care during our worship services. Part of that process is having a Workshop on "Keeping God's People Safe." This Wednesday December 5th from 7:00 - 9:30 pm, Randall Warren, Pastoral Care officer in the Diocese of Chicago, will show us a DVD and lead us in conversation about how Reconciler can help protect children in our midst from sexual abuse. This is eye-opening and useful information for anyone, regardless of whether or not you have children/work with children. Also it is important that members of the council be present.
Sunday December 9th there is a brief congregational meeting to present and approve the slate of officers for our church council that will be up for election at our annual meeting at the end of January.
4th advent December 23 we will be having a joint worship service with Immanuel and St Elias, at St Elias' worship time of 1:30 PM. We will not worship at our normal time of 5 PM. We are invited to come to a brunch at 11:30 put on by Immanuel and a Christmas dinner organized by St Elias after the service. If you would be interested in helping out the preparation and organization of either meals let us know and we will get your name to the people in charge of organizing the meals.
In Christ,
Larry
Our hope is that in Advent even as December can be a busy and stressful time that we will be able to as individuals and a community sit and wait on God, to reflect on what God's coming has meant and can mean for us and the world. Take time in this season to wait on God, so we can find anew the awe that God came to us as one of us entering the world as each of us has as a baby. That we may gain a renewed and deepened understanding of the incarnation and what it tells us of God's character and love.
Announcements:
This Sunday First Sunday of the Season of Advent, and is Reconciler's Third Anniversary. It was first Advent 2004 when we had our first official worship service at Chase Cafe in Roger's Park.
We still need people who will light the Advent candles on the second and Third Sundays of Advent.
Also on Sunday December 2 Eileen Crowley Assistant Professor at Catholic Theological Union the Artist in Residence this year at Immanuel will join us for worship and then after the service present to us her ideas of media art in worship and ways we can be involved in the creation of this media art for Easter Vigil.
We are working towards having child care during our worship services. Part of that process is having a Workshop on "Keeping God's People Safe." This Wednesday December 5th from 7:00 - 9:30 pm, Randall Warren, Pastoral Care officer in the Diocese of Chicago, will show us a DVD and lead us in conversation about how Reconciler can help protect children in our midst from sexual abuse. This is eye-opening and useful information for anyone, regardless of whether or not you have children/work with children. Also it is important that members of the council be present.
Sunday December 9th there is a brief congregational meeting to present and approve the slate of officers for our church council that will be up for election at our annual meeting at the end of January.
4th advent December 23 we will be having a joint worship service with Immanuel and St Elias, at St Elias' worship time of 1:30 PM. We will not worship at our normal time of 5 PM. We are invited to come to a brunch at 11:30 put on by Immanuel and a Christmas dinner organized by St Elias after the service. If you would be interested in helping out the preparation and organization of either meals let us know and we will get your name to the people in charge of organizing the meals.
In Christ,
Larry
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