Skip to main content

December 24/January 25 newsletter article

Happy New Year Church! Advent is the beginning of the liturgical new year. We change the colors to Royal Blue or Purple to mark this time of waiting and anticipation. We will decorate the church and our homes. How will we prepare our hearts this season?

As I write this, we are a little over one week post the election and emotions are mixed in the church and American society. Some people are breathing sighs of relief and others feel like they can’t breathe. I get it on both sides. But where are our hearts post-election?

Traditionally, each week of Advent has a particular theme: hope, love, joy, peace. As the light of the Advent wreath grows, we should be growing in our faith. We are called to be people of hope; hope that things will get better. Hope that we can be God’s hands and feet in the world to those who are hurting, scared, unsure, grieving, excited. We are called to be people of love: loving all our neighbors and society, yes even those we don’t like or agree with. We are called to be people of joy; sharing from the blessings we have, even when its hard to see/feel them around us. We are called to be people of peace; peace abroad and in our hearts and homes.

If we spend time each week reflecting and looking for these things in our lives and society, our hearts will change and grow. Our lives will become different as we embody more of God in our daily living. Is this easy? No. Will the world keep distracting us? Sure will. But let us try and try and try again to reorient ourselves to focus on God like things. Let us be moved to actions of justice, hope, love, joy, peace, mercy so we can build ourselves, each other and the world up.

Let us prepare our hearts for a new year, a re-birth of ourselves as we prepare to hear the familiar stories of Jesus entering the world once again.

Peace and Blessings – Kate

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Political vs. Partisan in Preaching

For years now, I have heard in preaching and clergy circles about being political in sermons; the good, the bad and those who state that church shouldn’t be political. There are workshops, books, and podcasts talking about politics in the church with a variety of opinions. What do people mean when they make the statement that the church shouldn’t be political? The IRS has the most say about the rules for the separation of church and state/politics. If your church wants to be tax exempt, there are rules: don’t endorse any candidate or party, if you allow one party to use your space, other political parties also must be allowed to use the space, etc. The UCC’s general counsel, Heather Kimmell, has a webinar on this topic if you’d like to hear a more detailed explanation which can be found on the UCC’s YouTube channel. Churches have gotten “creative” in how to get around this, often partnering with another non-profit group to give support to a particular group. The UCC is proud to claim...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Day in the Life: A Minister and Forgiveness

 I shared in one of my last blogs that I had complaints lodged against me by a small group in my congregation. Most seem to have moved on after our group meeting, where I apologized for a lot of things - probably more then I should have had too. But I'm the professional in those settings so I did it.  I'm not being told, second hand, that two of those in that meeting want a one on one apology from me because what I said in the meeting wasn't good enough. This is the couple who cursed in my church, have flat out lied about me and have repeatedly stated that the only outcome they're willing to accept is my termination.  Let me explain why I won't be having a one on one meeting with this couple and I won't be giving any more apologies. First, lets start with the apology part. I have apologized for my actions - maybe my misinterpretations is a better term. Based off of their actions and words, I communicated with the proper board/committee and asked for consensus ab...
Post a Comment
Read more

Priorities

A common statement I hear from church folk is if we had more programs people would come - the whole field of dreams philosophy. And while in theory this works people forget that's more to having programs in a congregation. It takes time, money and talent. And when I say time and talent I'm not just saying that it's the minister's responsibility. I've seen that the biggest complainers about lack of programming are the ones who don't show up to things most of the time. I've heard the excuses "they had soccer, band, ROTC" the list goes on and on. I'd hate to tell people this but with the rise of social media and when your whole family are my friends I know that you are not busy with those things every weekend. You just choose not to show up. And when you choose not to show up that's when the frustration kicks in. Think about it...most people don't like to work hard to create a program to not have people to show up. Why is it okay to think ...
Post a Comment
Read more