Here are some resources from Rev. Marta! Check out the video and find additional resources from Marta's Sunday sermon from 12/17/23 and information are the upcoming podcast, Jesus Has Left the Building.
I know that art is perhaps the strongest means we have to recall the moment of God's touch, and to affirm the profound, private message of faith we are given when we touch God. I believe it is the artist's job to make pieces that are vehicles for the "moment of the touch."
- Composer Libby Larsen in her forward to the choral anthem “Lord, Before This Fleeting Season” Last Thursday I presented a program on carols to the First Name Club following their monthly luncheon. It included select examples from both the Advent and Christmas seasons (yes, carols aren’t always about Christmas!) which we engaged in with stories of their creation, listened to, and even sung for good measure. What I came to viscerally be reminded of was the value of ritual for humanity. Specifically, the need of a song for every season. Whether it be carols sung in December, Christmas music delivered through grocery store speakers while shopping, or the often impromptu performance of “Happy Birthday” to an unsuspecting recipient, we not only have a song for just about any season but we tend to insist upon its use. But sometimes, songs with messages that challenge us can be greeted hesitantly. Once we allow them in though, we can be changed. We can gain new perspective. We can even potentially have that "moment of the touch" in the realm of God. I leave you with an encore sharing of the following Advent poem text set by composer Libby Larsen in her sublime anthem “Lord, Before This Fleeting Season.” It reminds us beautifully of perhaps what we don’t especially wish to hear this busy time of the year —the message of Advent. To slow down. To prepare our hearts for transformation in God. To embrace the promise of hope, peace, joy, and love. And perhaps even to have “a leaning to hear carols.” Lord, before this fleeting season is upon us, Let me remember to walk slowly. Lord, bless my heart with Love and with quiet. Give my heart a leaning to hear carols. Grace our family with contentment, And the peace that comes only from You. Lord, help us to do less this busy season; Go less; stay closer to home; kneel more. May our hearts be Your heart. May we simply, peacefully, celebrate You.* -Mark *“Simply Celebrate You — an Advent poem” by Mary Ann Jindra, Permission to print: Christian Copyright Solutions #11133 Advent is a glorious time of year when we anticipate the birth of Christ within us all by celebrating Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. And ironically, it has become a time within our congregation when we seem to get stuck in a December rut each year, trying to create a budget and realizing that we still have a sizable number of members who haven’t pledged. A number of folks in our congregation sense fear, anxiety, and doubt about our finances, and their angst can become contagious.
We need a new advent, a new approach, a new calling, at Plymouth that will help us to appreciate the abundance God has entrusted to us. We need a new pattern for sharing God’s wealth that doesn’t give way to scarcity thinking and scrambling to gather late pledges and cobble a budget together. Advent is a season of spiritual transformation. Two beloved stories of the season involve profound changes of heart that turn into action. After visits from three Christmas ghosts, Ebenezer Scrooge has a miraculous change. Scrooge is reborn as a kind, generous man. “His own heart laughed; and that was quite enough for him.” In a more recent story of December transformation, Dr. Suess writes, “And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.” Both Scrooge and the Grinch become happier in their transformed lives, and everyone around them is warmed by their newfound joy. That can happen for us, too! Transformation is at the heart of the Christian journey. This is metanoia, a Greek word that Marcus Borg says means to “go beyond your own mind and your own heart.” There is so much to celebrate about Plymouth. So many lives are touched every day by the mission and ministries of your church. Your giving means that pastoral visits happen, little kids have an amazing education program, teen programs are growing, worship on Sunday inspires not only those in the sanctuary, but those in our “virtual balcony” as well. It also means that you support UCC seminaries, homelessness prevention, lobbying for LGBTQ rights in Washington. Our church community of faith needs our hands and hearts, and that means giving our time and our gifts. May each of us sense our hearts grow in this season, and may we as a congregation continue to be a blessing not only to ourselves, but to neighbors near and far. Advent blessings! Dear Plymouth Family, Here we are on the day after Thanksgiving... probably already bombarded by advertising for "Black Friday." Of course, there is more to the season than consumer excess. On December 3, we we begin the season of Advent, a time when we watch and wait and wonder. In many ways, Advent is the curative tonic we need during the holiday mayhem that our culture encourages. Even as some encourage us to "put the Christ back in Christmas," the cool thing is that faith hasn't been extracted from this season that leads us into celebrating the nativity of Christ. We have some offerings for you in this season to help deepen your journey: everything from craft night to short reflective films to worship to hanging the greens to Facebook Advent photos to Longest Night. I hope that you will join us as we celebrate this quieter time of spiritual deepening. It's also a great time to invite friends and family to join you at Plymouth on a Sunday or at another event. With so much turmoil, greed, war, violence, and incivility in the world, it’s good to have a place to recharge your spiritual batteries Rather than a written devotional booklet, this year we are offering you three short films from The Work of the People. You might watch one for each of the three Sundays of Advent (the fourth Sunday is Dec. 24 this year). Watch them with friends or family or your fellowship group at Plymouth. Just click on the video images on the Advent page, and you'll go to the Work of the People website. We've made special arrangements to view these without the need for an individual subscription from 12/1/23 -1/2/24. P.S. See all the events at plymouthucc.org/advent
Advent is a strange season in the life of the church, one that comes with an invitation. Advent listens backward to the voices of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Micah, even as it anticipates the birth of the Christ child. The words of the prophets echo in our ears as we prepare to welcome an unlikely messiah, one who from a distance of 2,000 years continues to call on us to be the body of Christ in the world. (This is the moment of invitation to you.) How are we Christ to our neighbors? There are so many ways, large and small, that we do this through Plymouth. We offer tangible help through Faith Family Hospitality Network or and help the Jan family from Afghanistan to adjust to life in a new country. For the last 18 years, the youth of our congregation have slept out on our front lawn each December to raise funds and awareness to help prevent people in Fort Collins from becoming homeless. This year was no different, as they and youth from First Presbyterian Church gathered for a vigil and braved the cold during the sleepout last weekend at Plymouth. There are so many ways we extend a hand of friendship, sisterhood, and brotherhood here in Fort Collins. These are ways of being Christ to our neighbors. But what about people in other parts of our nation or world whose help is desperately needed? People whose faces we may never see, whose names we may never learn, who stories we may never hear? They are every bit as important as people assisted in Fort Collins. Your gifts to Plymouth enable us to contribute to Our Church’s Wider Mission, which helps fund all our international mission work, as well as the work of justice and supporting the mission of the UCC. What about the young children in Ethiopia who enjoy early childhood education because of your gifts to Lango Kindergarten started by Bob and Nancy Sturtevant in our congregation? What about the young women who have been educated by schools run by the Congregational Church of Angola and founded by Tom and Paula Dille and the Dille-Dunbar Foundation? What about refugees in Hungary who have fled war-torn Ukraine, supported by your generosity to the UCC? Even if you don’t know their names or see their faces, you are helping! There are so many more examples that I cannot list them all here. Together, we at Plymouth have formed a movement that aims to heal God’s world, a concept our Jewish siblings call “tikkun olam.” How are you hearing the call to follow Christ to spread healing to God’s world? How are you following Jesus and being Christ to your neighbors? What can you do by joining hand-in-hand with your siblings in the faith at Plymouth? (Together, we are mightier than you might imagine!) Advent is a season of contemplation and action. It is a season of anticipation and hope. It is a season of listening to prophets and preparing for God’s reign of peace. It is a season when we remind ourselves that Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love are the aim of our faith, and that it is our job to help embody Christ in the world today. Together, may we make straight in the desert a highway for self-giving love and peace. May we lower the hills and level the playing field of God’s world to spread the realm of justice far and wide. And as we approach Christmas together, may we all sense the glory of God as together we live out our faith. Happy Advent! P.S. If you are not able to attend tonight’s sabbatical celebration in person, you can join the presentation via Zoom around 6:45. Just click on this link to register for the Zoom call.
No one likes to wait. The often frustrating experience of inconvenient stasis and failed expectations of arrival can easily darken one's mood. But what if those seemingly idle moments can be a gift of the spirit in our lives? Through the prayerful discipline of the liturgical calendar year, we are called to be patient for the birth of Christ during Advent, the season of waiting. By doing so, we immerse ourselves further into the story of Jesus year to year. But perhaps a more appropriate word for waiting is preparing – to be more receptive to the love of God in this season and every one thereafter. I am always reminded of the choral anthem "Lord, Before This Fleeting Season" by Libby Larsen at this time of year. The text by poet Mary Ann Jindra beautifully expresses the message of this fleeting mysterious season. May it make your waiting all the more worthwhile. Lord, before this fleeting season is upon us, Let me remember to walk slowly. Lord, bless my heart with Love and with quiet. Give my heart a leaning to hear carols. Grace our family with contentment, And the peace that comes only from You. Lord, help us to do less this busy season; Go less; stay closer to home; kneel more. May our hearts be Your heart. May we simply, peacefully, celebrate You.* Mark *“Simply Celebrate You — an Advent poem” by Mary Ann Jindra Permission to print is through Christian Copyright Solutions #11133 AuthorMark Heiskanen is Plymouth's Dir. of Music and Organist. Learn more about him and read his weekly Music Minute here. I hope that you all had a chance to hear my colleague, JT Smeidendorf’s, sermon this past Sunday, "Hard Truth, Sweet Fruit." If not, click the link to experience it. His scripture text was from Luke 3 in which John the Baptist, the wild man prophet, is proclaiming God’s call to freedom, to new life, in the wilderness. “Change your life!” calls John. “Empowered by God’s grace and forgiveness.” “Learn to resist oppression through sloughing off old ways of resentment, fear and scarcity through sharing your abundance and God’s love.” The call to new life in God’s realm is freeing and joyful. It is also hard. It comes with hard truths, with a keen, realistic view of the world with all its beauty and treachery. It is a call to a journey towards wholeness that we know only through learning to walk in the darkness of the shadow side of ourselves as individuals and communities. JT illuminated John’s call and its joyful costs of service as we lit the pink Advent candle of Joy on Sunday. This year’s Plymouth Advent devotional, Advent Unbound, sheds light on the prophet’s call to joy and hard times. “Among shadows of sorrow, grief, and despair … we light a candle of joy. Joy that God calls us to lives of simple generosity and justice: Got two coats? Give one away. Be fair. Be grateful. And joy that God promises to burn away the “chaff,” the husks on our hearts that get in the way of doing such simple, beautiful things.” Late last week I was contacted by a young adult who has been attending Plymouth regularly, Gray La Fond. In the midst of recovering from a booster shot, caring for an aging, ailing and beloved dog, and finishing finals, Gray is on a mission of Joy. Here is the mission in Gray’s own words: “Hello, my name is Gray La Fond and I am a new attendee of services here. I wanted to invite you to participate in a project of mine to bring blankets, socks, jackets, cash, gift cards, wipes/toiletries, and Christmas cookies to the homeless. I am making three types of cookies and I will be buying a few blankets and some warm socks. This is an independent, unaffiliated project of mine as I see my vocation as service. I plan to distribute these supplies to the places where I usually see the homeless, like outside grocery stores, this week until the 19th. I am a CSU student and I will be flying back to San Diego on the 20th, hence the end date. If you would like to drive around with me, I would love that. If you don’t have time to pass anything out yourself, you can give it to me and I can do that part. If you feel inspired to do something on your own, that is great, too. Please contact me via email or at (858) 281-3042 to let me know if you want to join me.” Psalm 30.5b tells us that “Weeping will stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” Lamentations, a book of lament and grief, tells us in chapter 3, verses 22-23, that “The steadfast love of the God never ceases; God’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” I believe Gray understands this, as did John the Baptist in his call. And they both inspire me to look for God’s joy each morning in this third week of Advent. This morning (Tuesday) I brought some Blessing Bags with toiletries and warm socks as well as a gently used coat to donate to Gray’s efforts and placed them in a box in Plymouth’s narthex. You can find what I am calling Gray’s “Joy Box” there and place your donations in and around it until the office closes on Friday (12/17) at 4 pm. Or contact Gray (info above) and help distribute the Joy! With you on the Advent journey, Advent Unbound Week Three: Joy
AuthorThe Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, Associate Minister, is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. She is also the writer of sermon-stories.com, a lectionary-based story-commentary series. “Advent is not a time to declare, but to listen, to listen to whatever God may want to tell us through the singing of the stars, the quickening of a baby…” – Madeleine L’Engle For almost an eternity, it seems I’ve been told (and have said myself) that Advent is a time of waiting. For little kids, it’s about anticipating Christmas celebrations, opening Advent calendars one window at a time, smelling luscious aromas of baking cookies and decorating them is a manner that would make Jackson Pollock jealous. But what of us older folks? What are we waiting for? Surely not a new sled under the Christmas tree. To be sure, we anticipate gatherings and carols (which we sang wonderfully at First Name Club last Thursday!). But for those with a more mature faith, what is waiting all about? I’ve never been a particularly patient person, and we live in a culture that doesn’t value waiting. Are we waiting for the Kingdom of God to come? We pray for God’s realm to come twice each Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer, as our forebears in the faith have done for 2,000 years, but it still hasn’t come in its fullness. School shootings happen, pandemics happen, wars happen, homelessness happens, global warming happens, and the list goes on. Yet, there are significant ways that life is better now than ever…even if it doesn’t feel that way to us. Our efforts and those of our forebears are yielding fruit! In 1900, women couldn’t vote, “separate but equal” was the racial law of the land, and LGBTQ folks were deeply in the closet. In 1900, about 85% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty (today that figure in 10%). Child mortality has shrunk from 35% of kids dying before the age of five to 4% today. Educational attainment in 1900 was such that 65% of the world’s population had no formal education; today 14% of the world’s population has no education. Literacy has grown from 20% in 1900 to 85% today. (source: https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-living-conditions-in-5-charts) Life expectancy has increased dramatically. In the US in 1900, life expectancy was 49 years and today it is 79 years. (source: ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy) Global peace is markedly better than it has been in the past 100 years with the fewest battlefield deaths…in the wake of the bloodiest century ever with two World Wars. (source: www.visionofhumanity.org/world-become-peaceful-since-wwi/) The Social Gospel movement in this country lasted from the end of the Civil War through the First World War, when it was judged to be overly optimistic. After all, how could God let WWI happen? Were the Social Gospelers just wearing rose-colored glasses? I don’t think so. They were working for real reform in racial justice, industrial working conditions (especially for women and children), and to promote the Kingdom of God here and now, imperfect as it is. The above data may give us reason to hope and to think that the Social Gospel movement had some impact (as it surely did on the Progressive Movement in the early 1900s and the New Deal in the 1930s). Are we waiting for the Second Coming? Some Christians do, and they pin their hopes of God cleaning up the mess that we humans have created. And perhaps that will happen, but in the meantime, I find it helpful to focus on what we can do while we wait, namely, to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God. We have a long way to go, but at least while we wait for “God’s glorious reign of peace,” we can appreciate the progress we made instead of just wring our hands for the ways we fall short. And we can listen…listen for the murmurings of the Spirit, for the sounds of hope, the singing of the stars. Blessed Advent to you! P.S. If you need help finding the “On Being” poetry readings that accompany our Advent Devotional readings this week, here they are:
AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal here. Dear Plymouth!
This year we are sending each household a printed copy of the SALT Project’s Advent devotional, Advent Unbound. It is a unique and joyful way to enter this season of preparation for welcoming the Christ as a child once again into our hearts. Look for your copy in the mail! (A digital copy was emailed to members mid-month.) The Adult Forum Team will be using this material each Sunday morning of Advent. Join them in the Forum Room at 10:00 am or Zoom in to their presentation. (The Zoom link will be in the Saturday email.) Sara and Peter Mullarkey are facilitating a Zoom discussion of the devotional each Thursday evening in Advent (2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd) 6:30-8 p.m. Sign up on the Advent page. Just to entice you…here is an excerpt from the intro to Advent Unbound: God becoming incarnate in a human being is too astounding, too dazzling, too impossible an event to merely celebrate on a single day. We need to prepare beforehand, and extend the jubilation when it arrives (“On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love said to me...”). And so we add Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, a preparatory candlelight vigil. But even that isn’t enough – and so we design a whole season of anticipation, four weeks of waiting and preparing, all so we’ll be ready to welcome and receive Jesus when he comes. The word “Advent” means coming or arrival. The Christian year begins not with the trumpets of Easter, or the wonder of Christmas Eve, or the winds of Pentecost – but on the contrary, in Advent, we begin in the shadows of despair, conflict, sorrow, and hate. For it’s here that the God of grace will arrive. And so it’s here that God’s church is called to light candles of heartfelt hope, peace, joy, and love. Poetry can help, as can “unbinding” poetry from dusty bookshelves or intimidating expertise. The Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama’s beloved podcast, “Poetry Unbound,” is an inspiring case in point: evocative, accessible poems illuminated with sensitivity and insight by Ó Tuama’s commentary. In this Advent devotional, we let scripture and “Poetry Unbound” be our guides, together pointing us toward weekly practices that can help deepen and enrich our experience of the season – a perfect way to prepare for the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christmas day. So grab a Bible and your favorite way of listening to the “Poetry Unbound” podcast (the poems and episode transcripts can also be read online at onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/). Week by week, poem by poem, we’ll wait and prepare and listen and sing, unbinding the season – and with God’s help, unbinding our hearts – along the way. Hope you will make the journey through Advent with our Plymouth community and this devotional offering. Remember the two discussion opportunities above! And you can discuss what shimmers for you, challenges you, comforts you with friends and family at dinner. Play a poem for your kids! Happy Thanksgiving and join us Sunday for Advent! AuthorIn December 2019, Carla started her two-year designated term pastorate at Plymouth. She spent the last 5 years consulting with churches on strategic planning, conflict transformation and visioning. Before going to seminary she volunteered at her church through Stephen Ministry, visiting ministries and leading worship services at a memory care unit and a healthcare facility. Learn more about Carla here. Advent is the season of waiting, something I’ve never been particularly fond of or adept at doing. This Advent, however, occurs in the midst of a global season of waiting. So, it is like waiting squared. Are we Christians really waiting for Jesus to return to earth in any corporeal way? Some do, some don’t. It isn’t really a big part of my theology…I figure that the historical Jesus (who lived and taught in the 1st century) gave us fairly clear instructions to be co-creators of the kingdom of God, we humans just haven’t been compliant, so far. Is that what we’re waiting for, or is it something perhaps less dramatic, but every bit as profound? (I’ll be preaching on that this Sunday, so tune in at 10:00 or the next day on our website!) We are waiting for a lot of other things to fall into place right now: waiting for vaccine approval…for vaccine production…for vaccine distribution… to see our friends…waiting to see our families… to be back in our church home… to sing (outside the shower and in the company of others)… to give big hugs… to venture into the store… to have a beer together at the brewpub…to go back to the gym and the pool…to start a new job after being laid off…to have some relief in making rent payments…to have a sense of normalcy in our everyday routine…to have friends over for dinner…to travel..to have the occupant of the White House admit defeat. Some time we are going to get the good news that we’ve turned the corner in dealing with Covid-19. The pandemic has caused us to wait, but not everything has been delayed. We still have a relationship with God. We continue to worship. We continue to be in touch with family and friends, even if it’s through a phone call or a Zoom connection. We have ongoing work to do, personally and vocationally. One of the things you may have thought you had to postpone (but that I encourage you not to delay) is the experience of joy. This is different than being happy or satisfied or contented or jovial. Joy is a deeper emotion that plays more in the heart than it does in the mind. Most of us aren’t exactly joyful that we got a new iPhone for Christmas…but we are joyful in seeing a sister or brother or child or grandchild on FaceTime or Zoom. Most of us don’t experience joy when we get a positive report card in school, but we do experience joy when we see a stunning sunrise. Where do you experience joy that wraps together wonder and love and a sense of the numinous, a glow that opens up beyond your own, individual experience? I invite you to open your heart to the possibility of encountering joy in this season, to look for the footprints of the divine in your everyday life. And when you have that experience, to see it as a glimmer of the Christlight in your midst. And to see this as joyful good news – Joyeux Noël! AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. How many times were you asked as a child, “What do you want for Christmas?” How many times have you asked this? On the surface this is a very material question, a question that can lead straight into the consumer side of this holy season. Yet underneath there is an existential longing....”What do you want?” We continue to ponder this question no matter our age? “What do you want?” Health and happiness for our families, peace on earth, justice for all...housing and food abundance for all...healing for the earth...and end to war....an end to the climate crisis..... What do you want during this holy time, this last week of Advent that leads to the Sunday when we light the candle of Love? What do you want from your heart, from the soul house within your heart? Joseph, the father of Jesus, just wanted propriety, no drama, no scandal, when he discovered that his betrothed, Mary, was with child. The implication in our gospel reading from Matthew 1 this coming Sunday is that Joseph probably did not buy into the “with child from the Holy Spirit”explanation... “...being a righteous man and unwilling to expose [Mary] to public disgrace,” he planned to break off the betrothal quietly. However, the dreams of God got in his way. “...just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit ... you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." ... When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” .... (from Matthew 1:18-25) What do you want during this holy time, this last week of Advent that leads to the Sunday when we light the candle of Love? Are you willing to listen to the dreams of your heart and soul? Will you listen to the dreams of God in scripture to discern what you want? I leave you with a poem titled, “What We Want” by Linda Paston from her book, Carnival Evening. Ponder with the poet, “What do you want this Christmas?” What we want is never simple. We move among the things we thought we wanted... But what we want appears in dreams, wearing disguises.... We don't remember the dream, but the dream remembers us. With you on this final week of our Advent journey, AuthorThe Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, Associate Minister, is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. She is also the writer of sermon-stories.com, a lectionary-based story-commentary series. Read more Lately in our staff meetings and at last night’s Leadership Council I’ve heard a common refrain: Let’s do less at Plymouth…and do it better. Does it seem to you that we sometime confuse being effective as a congregation with just being busy? Do we sometimes form Ministry Teams or launch events that may not align with our mission? We need to get better at saying, “No, thank you” to good things that just don’t fit in with our mission priorities and direction. All of that sounds very hard-and-fast, but it also has deep resonances with Advent. We must be willing to say, “no” in order to keep ourselves focused on what is really important in this season. If you are a parent, it may seem supremely important to buy the right toy or technology for your child. There may be family traditions (making cinnamon bread at our house) that may sometimes seem like more of a burden than a joy. Decorating your Christmas tree and the inside of your home, not to mention illuminating the exterior, make take up more of your time than seems reasonable to you. Left unchecked, the shopping, cooking, traffic, dreaded holiday parties, and general busyness all can, ironically, keep us from our Advent task as Christians. I’ve been preaching about newness and transformation the past two Sundays, and it occurs to me that these are part of my task (and perhaps yours) in this season. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes, Imagine a whole company of believers rethinking their lives, redeploying their energy, reassessing their purposes. The path is to love God, not party, not ideology, not pet project, but God’s will for steadfast love that is not deterred by fear and anxiety. The path is to love neighbor, to love neighbor face-to-face, to love neighbor in community action, to love neighbor in systemic arrangements, in imaginative policies. The decrees of Caesar Augustus continue to go out for taxes and for draft and for frantic attempts to keep the world under our control. But the truth is found in the vulnerable village of Bethlehem outside the capital city, the village that disregarded the imperial decree. It will take a village to exhibit this alternative, and we are citizens of that village. (from Celebrating Abundance) What newness may be breaking into your life this Advent? What unexpected direction might God be luring your toward? What may be gestating within you that God may be calling you to deliver? In anticipation of transformation, Advent is a season of waiting, reflection, and renewal: the hope for new light to enter our lives. It is one of the briefest seasons of the liturgical year second only to Christmas, lasting just four weeks. It is easy to miss. The busyness of Christmas shopping, arranging of travel plans, preparing for house guests (planning and preparing church services!) often overshadows the present: this fleeting season of Advent. The annual Longest Night service, this year on December 22 at 6:00 p.m., acknowledges the shorter and darkening days of December but welcomes the promised Light of Christmas. A beautiful Advent message. On December 15, we will experience services of lessons and Advent carols. Inspired by the Anglican Advent Carol Service instituted in 1934 at King's College, Cambridge, the words of the Old Testament prophets will be followed by seasonal carols telling of the coming Light in Christ's birth. The choir anthem offering for the 11:00 a.m. "choral" service on December 15 beautifully speaks to the heart of Advent. "Lord, Before This Fleeting Season," a poem by Mary Ann Jindra, asks God for an enlightened appreciation of the season: "to walk slowly," to give our "heart a leaning to hear carols," to "do less," "go less," and, most importantly, to "simply, peacefully, celebrate You." A lovely meditation for this time of the year and one duly needed. The composer Libby Larsen masterfully sets Jindra's text and succeeds in embodying the tidings of Advent. I leave you with the following prayerful synopsis of this work by the composer herself....have a Blessed Adventide. There are moments in life, private moments, when we seem to see beyond the reality of our lives -- when we are flashes of clairvoyance. At these times we know joy, peace, wisdom, hope, with a surety that sustains our belief in God. So stunning they are, that we are simply unable to recreate even a pale shadow of that eternal touch. All we can do is believe in the knowledge that such moments exist for every human being. Mark Heiskanen Director of Music/Organist AuthorMark Heiskanen has been Plymouth's Director of Music since September 2017. Originally from Northeast Ohio, Mark has experience and great interest in a diverse range of musical styles including jazz, rock, musical theatre, and gospel. He is thrilled to serve a congregation and staff that values diversity and inclusion in all facets of life. Read his mostly-weekly Music Minute here. Happy Thanksgiving from the clergy & staff of Plymouth! Gratitude is foundational to our faith, and more than a single-day event. Yet taking one day to focus completely on being grateful allows us to Go Deeper in our thankfulness. (Note: the church office will be closed Thursday, November 28 and Friday, November 29.) Then we transition to Advent, our preparation for the Nativity of Christ. We encourage you to do what your life permits to set aside Advent from the lure of holiday madness. Consider doing the bulk of your shopping this weekend (including not only Black Friday/Cyber Monday but Small Business Saturday), so that you can look forward to the arrival of "Love, the Guest." Here are some Advent resources you may choose to explore: Advent Calendars to Color (from Praying in Color) - Meditative, individual/family (time commitment variable by day) #AdventWord - Worldwide, participatory/social media (small time commitment): a global, online Advent calendar. Each day from the first Sunday of Advent through Christmas Day, #AdventWord offers meditations and images to inspire and connect individuals and a worldwide community of believers to the themes of Advent. At the link you can sign up for daily email or follow them on Facebook or Instagram. You may choose to participate by posting of photo that captures that word for you (please tag our Plymouth Facebook or Instagram pages so we can share them with others in the church), or just let the images inspire you. A ministry of Virginia Theological Seminary. Advent Conspiracy - Worldwide, social justice + worship focused (time commitment your choice): "Over a decade ago, a few pastors were lamenting how they’d come to the end of an Advent season exhausted and sensing they’d missed it – the awe-inducing, soul-satisfying mystery of the incarnation... drowning in a sea of financial debt and endless lists of gifts to buy.... An overwhelming stress had overtaken worship and celebration.The time of year when focusing on Christ should be the easiest was often the hardest.... So, in 2006, three pastors, Chris Seay, Greg Holder, and Rick McKinley, decided to try something different. They called it the Advent Conspiracy movement, and came up with four tenets—Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All—to guide themselves, their families, and congregations through the Christmas season." May a blessed Advent be yours. Plymouth Clergy & Staff |
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