It seems a man was very troubled with many problems.
He took an oath promising
to sell his house and all its furnishings
and give them to the poor
if his problems were ever solved.

And there did come a time when his problems were solved.
Life became peaceful again.
But by this time the man was not sure that he wanted
to sell his house and all its furnishings
to give the money to the poor.
He considered what to do.

       Finally he decided.
He put his house up for sale for one piece of silver.
But in order to buy the house
one also had to buy the cat that lived in the house.
The cat sold for 10,000 pieces of silver.
Soon the man had a buyer for the house
and all its furnishings
AND the cat. 

      When the deal was done
the man gave the one piece of silver to the poor
and pocketed the 10,000.

“The Oath”
from Tales of the Dervishes;
Teaching Stories of the Sufi Masters
over the Past Thousand Years
by Idris Shah.)

What do you think? Was he an ethical man? Who did he serve first – himself or the great good? Where was his heart? I think he would have struggled with Jesus saying, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” It is one of his most demanding. We hear him say it twice in the four gospels. Once in Matthew 6 and then again in Luke 16. 

"No one can serve two masters;
for a slave will either hate the one 
and love the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other. 
You cannot serve God and wealth.”

His saying echoes his ancestor, Joshua, who asked the people of Israel who were new to the abundance of the land of promise, “Whom will you serve?” (Joshua 24. 14-24) Will you serve the gods of your new neighbors, the Amorites, in this land of abundance? OR Yahweh, the Lord, the God who had brought you out of slavery and through 40 years in the wilderness to live in the Promised Land? Joshua said to the people, “As for me and my household we will serve the Lord.” 
 
Joshua’s question and Jesus’ blunt statement are still relevant for us today. Who will we serve? Yes, we must make a living, do the best we can for our children’s welfare and education, pay our debts, save for retirement. But as we do all of this, who will we serve? God or wealth. We cannot serve both with ultimate allegiance. 
 
I know this is hard stuff. When it comes down to our most important decision making what comes first? Our fears and concerns over money? OR our faith in the abundance of God? If we are trusting the God we know through Jesus who lived out God’s self-giving love, will God ask us to put the families that God gave us in danger, in order to give back to God? I don’t think we serve that kind of God. Remember the God of the Joshua and the people of Israel was the God who delivered the people from slavery and oppression, who preserved them in the wilderness. The God of Jesus was with him through death into resurrection. God has given us the abundance of life that we enjoy. Won’t this God help us make decisions about the use of our money? Doesn’t the God who gives us life here on earth and life eternal deserve our trust as we prioritize the use of all we have been given? 
 
Who will we serve? And where is our heart’s first allegiance?

Blessings on the journey,

Dear Friends,

It’s almost fall! Public schools are starting. CSU students are returning. (Traffic is picking up!) And this Sunday, August 25th, we begin a new program year at Plymouth! We go back to our school year worship schedule, 9 and 11 am and 6 pm. At each service we will begin with processing in all of the chancel paraments (the colorful hangings), the candles, the Bible, the communion elements (at 9 and 6) as a way of celebrating the beginning of a new season. 

I hope you will join us for worship! At our 10 am Education hour (which will be a fellowship time this Sunday), there will be wonderful breakfast burritos for sale just outside the Fellowship Hall at the north doors. $3 a piece! A festive touch to the coffee hour for this day. There will also be computers to register children and youth for 2019-2020 Christian Formation programming and Christian Formation volunteers to help you (or get a jump on it and register right now). And there will be tables with some Outreach and Mission volunteers activities to participate in during the coming weeks. 

Even as we start a new program year we are still working with the all-church theme for 2019, “Going Deeper.” I hope you will consider going deeper through new avenues of participation in worship, in Christian Formation learning opportunities, in volunteer opportunities in church hospitality, Congregational Life events, Outreach and Mission work. Keep your eyes and ears tuned for all of these ways to participate in the life of Plymouth and in the realm of God we are helping to build here in our corner of Colorado.Read these weekly Reflections and the Thursday Overview emails. Read the Placard and the weekly bulletin inserts. Listen to announcements before the worship services. Check out all the bulletin boards in the Fellowship Hall. Come to the Taste of Plymouth/Dinner Church potluck next Sunday, September 1 at 6 pm. Participate in the All-Church Retreat (9/13-15) and the All-Church Spiritual Practices classes each Sunday in November. Ask a friend how they are participating and if you can join them!

Above all, listen to the yearnings of your heart and the questions in your mind. Discover how God is calling you to deepen your soul work, to deepen your faith. Are you in need of study, service, prayer, the creative work of welcoming others, visiting those who are ill or cannot get to worship? Feel free to email any of the staff with questions about getting involved! 

Go deeper with Plymouth this fall! You’ll be glad you did!

Blessings,

As someone who came of age in the late 1960s into the 1970s, I confess I have often bristled at the word “obedience.” I was not quite old enough to be caught up in the protests for civil rights or those against the Vietnam war, yet the cultural milieu of civil disobedience for change in those times still affected me. So did the early women’s liberation movement. I read Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem as a high school senior, wondering if someone headed to Oklahoma Baptist University, a conservative liberal arts college, would have the courage to fully embrace their radical ideas of feminism. Growing up under these influences, obedience was implicitly connected to a duty forced upon one by cultural norms that did not offer everyone the same opportunities in life. I stubbornly stuck to my Christian faith AND I always deeply questioned the “be an obedient doormat for Jesus” brand of Christianity that I encountered in some conservative circles. 

Since that young time I have learned to understand obedience in relation to its Latin root word. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English word “obey” comes from the Latin, obedire, meaning literally "listen to," from ob "to" + audire "listen, hear." This changes our perception of obedience from mindless duty or simply following the rules to“paying attention.” Obedient actions grow out of listening. The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures were charged with listening to God, and with proclaiming God’s word to God’s people (who were not listening to and observing God’s ways). 

Prophetic listening leads to the protest of injustice resulting in some strange prophetic actions. The prophet, Hosea, listened and was led to go against the grain of culture and marry a wife of questionable repute. Hosea, following God’s word, marries the woman named Gomer, has children with her, and takes her back when she is claimed by another man (Hosea 1:2-10). None of these actions would have been easy. Listening to God seems to lead to acts of steadfast love that take strength of character and will, as well as counter-cultural persistence. 

There is a Japanese folktale titled, “The Magic Listening Cap,” that illuminates obedience as listening. It seems there was an old man who was very poor and very faithful. Everyday he went to the shrine of his god to give gifts of thankfulness and to pray. One day he had nothing to give because in his poverty there was no food in his house. He went to the shrine and simply offered himself expecting to lose his life and die. But his god gave him a gift in exchange for his faithfulness. It was a magic listening cap. With the cap on the old man could hear the voices of creation, the conversation of the trees, the wind in their leaves, the intimate talk of the birds and animals. To make a longer story shorter, with this cap and its gift of deep listening to creation, the kind old man saved the life of a dying cypress tree, which was connected to the life of a dying man. The man he saved happened to be wealthy and he was very generous in rewarding the kind old man. The old man was never in want again and, not a being greedy man, put his magic listening cap away, never using it for indiscriminate gain. Every day he brought gifts and prayers to the shrine of his god, giving thanks for how his life had been preserved. (Click on the link above and you can hear the whole story on YouTube.)
​
Listening to our God involves faithful, everyday practice. We enter the shrines of our hearts to seek God’s presence. We offer ourselves as gifts. We wait to see what prophetic action we might be called to do. It might be a simple one of acknowledging someone who is “outcast” in our society--the homeless, the immigrant, the disabled, the mentally ill--with a smile, a direct look of respect, a greeting of kindness. Or it might be a larger action of advocating for justice, for housing for all, for medical care for all, for asylum and legal human rights for all. Or it could be the largest action of all action: working side by side with those our culture puts on the margins, befriending them, learning from them as fellow human beings.

​Our actions all begin with listening to the prompting of the Spirit. When the action takes us to the unfamiliar and hard places, we listen again; for God will be there with stamina and strength and steadfast love.
 
Blessings on the journey,
Jane Anne

I am reminded of the changes of life this week as the Summer Solstice, our longest day of light in the Northern hemisphere, arrives on Friday. Astrologically it is the first day of summer though weather and calendar wise we often think of June 1 as the first day. I am barely used to summer weather and already after Friday the days will begin to shorten just a bit each day till we reach the Winter Solstice. Our most ancient ancestors intimately knew these astrological changes. These changes indicated growing seasons and harvest, times to be fallow, times to seek shelter from storms, times to celebrate, times to mourn, times to pray.

Whether we measure our seasons astrologically or meteorologically, by calendars, or by work or school schedules, we live our lives in the midst of change. Each day is a series of changes in light, time and activity which we move through almost without thinking. So we could choose to be very open to all kinds of change as it comes to us. Life is change. And yet we are likely to be resistant to any change that brings even a hint of discomfort, any change that invites a new way to move through one of our routines, any change that rearranges the status quo of a beloved community. Some changes, such as illness, death, divorce, moving are so large that they bring understandable grief. Other changes come that are just not “the way things used to be done” or the way they “should be done because they have always been done this other way.” These changes can stretch us as much as the ones that bring us grief. 

In his book, Quietly Courageous; Leading the Church in a Changing World, Gil Rendle writes of the changes challenging the church in our times. Those of us who were around in the last part of the 20th century experienced a convergent culture during and after World War II. This was a time in America when the people tended to converge, pull together to work for the common good of the country, of the community, the church, the family. This was a culture of joining institutions that built community through the joys and responsibilities of membership. The flip side, of course, was that important differences were swept under the rug so as not to rock the status quo. As the 20th century wound down starting in late 60s, our culture shifted to a divergent culture. In a divergent culture the social contract moves from seeking membership in societal institutions to seeking individual well-being. Now in the 21st century “the correct way to get on with life is to recognize that each of us has the right to live as he or she pleases so long as we do not interfere with the right of the other people to do likewise.”[i] The celebration is that differences are no longer swept under the rug but are free to be expressed!

Historically, strong churches have been built with the social contract of a convergent culture, the culture of the group. But that time has gone. Now we live as the church in a culture of the individual. This is neither good not bad....it just IS. It is the cultural change that we are dealing with as church in the 21st century. We can no longer just say, “The problem is membership. There must be a specific solution from back in the day, from the way we used to do things. If we just return to _______ (fill in the blank), we can rebuild our church membership.” We are learning to say, “Here is our new situation in this new divergent culture. Let’s bring together all our diverse ideas and seek God’s ideas for our changing times. What are the new ways, maybe, some old ways, and more importantly, ways we haven’t yet encountered in which God is leading us to be and build the Body of Christ in the world?” Rendle’s book encourages us to be “quietly courageous” as we lead one another into the future. 

I paraphrased Psalm 23 at the beginning of this reflection because it is a song of encouragement for quiet courage, a song that reminds us that through all changes God accompanies us. We are never left alone! As you move through the changes of your life, as we change and grow at Plymouth, may we always remember the “Accompanying God” of this psalm. 

I also leave you with words from a prayer by the late William Coffin, a former pastor of Riverside Church in NYC and a former chaplain at Yale University.

​O God, whose mercy is ever faithful and every sure,
​who art our refuge and our strength in time of trouble,
visit us....

We need a hope that is made wise by experience 
and is undaunted by disappointment. 

​We need an anxiety about the future that shows us new ways 
to look at new things, but does not unnerve us... [ii]

May the words of the psalmist and the words of the pastor send you forth into the inevitable changes of life “with a gladsome mind, free and joyful in the spirit of Jesus [the] Christ!”[iii]
 
Blessings,
Jane Anne

[i] Gil Rendle, Quietly Courageous; Leading the Church in a Changing World, (Rowman & Littlefield, New York, NY, 2019, 46.)
[ii] Ibid., 10.
[iii] Ibid., 11.

Once there was group of well-intentioned Americans visiting the Moroccan city of Tangiers. They went to the famed Casbah to see the market there and to buy brass pots. 

Now the merchants in that place have a particular way of bargaining. When they are trying to settle a price with a customer they step close to the person so that they may exchange breaths with them. Each time a merchant stepped close to one of the American tourists, the tourist grew nervous and stepped back. So the merchant stepped closer. It became a dance with two frustrated partners. The merchant stepped closer; the tourist stepped back. 

Finally the American tourists were so uncomfortable and angry they fled to their bus. This enraged the merchants because they considered the tourists rude and disrespectful. Their practice was to come to some sort of agreement on a price -– even if it was to agree to disagree -– before they parted ways. They followed the Americans angrily to their bus where they proceeded to shout at them and spit on the bus.

There was one woman among the group of tourists who had not been afraid to bargain with the merchants in their way. When the merchant stepped close she stepped closer. She joined the dance in a different way. And eventually she bought a brass pot for a very good price. As she headed back to the bus she saw that she was the last tourist to return. She saw all the angry merchants shouting at the bus and spitting. Not knowing what had happened, she wondered how she would be able to get through the angry crowd. As she neared the bus, the merchants turned as if to begin shouting at her. But from the back of the crowd came a voice -- the voice of the merchant who had successfully sold the woman the pot –- “No, no! She’s all right! She is one of us!” And the crowd parted for the woman to join her group.
 
In John 14, Jesus says to his disciples at their last supper together, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

“Peace I give, my peace,” says Jesus; and by implication, this is not the peace the world gives. Are there different kinds of peace? The peace of the world in the late first century when the gospel of John was written was the peace of the Roman Empire, a peace achieved through conquering other peoples, peace achieved through war, peace achieved through all people following the right laws and the right ruler, the Emperor.

This is not the peace of Jesus. Jesus’ peace was God’s peace, peace through compassion and love, peace even in the midst of conflict and persecution. God’s peace crosses the boundaries of otherness between peoples and nations. God’s peace builds bridges in relationships. It is empowering power, power that works in and through people to bring justice to those who have been oppressed and marginalized. God’s peace crosses boundaries without diminishing or destroying human dignity and integrity. God’s peace enabled the woman in the story above to step closer the merchant, to enter into his ways, though they were new and strange to her. God’s peace empowers us to step outside our comfort zones to experience someone we may think of as “the other” with welcome and grace. 
 
Pay attention this week! Where are you called to step closer, to bridge a gap, to enter a new space or relationship and discover God’s peace?
 
Blessings on the journey,
Jane Anne

We entered Holy Week this past Sunday with all its pageantry and music and story. Church tradition is ripe with ritual to celebrate the passion story of Jesus through this central week of our faith. I hope you will join us for our Plymouth traditions. (See the box below for a reminder of all our events for this week!)

We have many events for participation. Yet I think that each year we have a choice at Holy Week. We can through the liturgical motions vaguely remembering the stories. Or we have the choice to participate letting the tangible and intangible power of resurrection sink deeper into our bones as we go through the week. 

As in the story above, Hakon came to participate in reconciliation and peacemaking, yet he had not chosen those things in his heart as Magnus had. So he was not willingly to let the power of making peace take root deep down. Will you choose God’s power of resurrection this year despite the evidence in our world that conspires against it? External political and social circumstances in our world may rarely give us direct and factual cause to hope for resurrection. Will we choose fear or will we choose compassion and life? The usual stresses of daily life, family concerns and friends who are in need are never ending. Will we choose peace or further engagement in the surface turmoil? 

The traditional lectionary scripture texts for Easter Sunday urge us toward hope in the midst of tragedy and despair. In the face of our “realities” we can choose to trust and affirm that God is “about to create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17).  Choose to trust and affirm that “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22). We can choose with Paul to affirm the testimony of good news handed to him by the first disciples, testimony that he has handed on to us in I Corinthians 15. Christ died, was buried and was raised on the third day, appearing first to his closest disciples, then five hundred other followers and lastly to Paul on the road to Damascus.  

Ironically the Gospel of Luke tells us that the first twelve disciples did not believe when the women who experienced the empty tomb returned and proclaimed the good news. The men thought it was “idle tales,” make-believe. Crazy emotional women! But then Peter, who just thirty-six hours before Easter morning, denied that he even knew Jesus, decided in his inimitable style to choose ACTION in response to the news. In spite of his disbelief and despair he chooses to run to the tomb to see for himself. Will we respond like those first disciples and not take the news of resurrection to heart? Or will we allow the power of God to cultivate our lives and like the sparse, rocky, lifeless soil of the Orkneys become rich, fertile soil full of prayers and promise for Paradise?

This year I challenge us all to take Peter’s choice to heart, to act on the news of resurrection. To go and see for ourselves. To let the deep roots of God’s salvation sink deep within our souls. May we choose to trust the biggest story of our faith. It is not a choice to take lightly. And it is not the safest choice. But it is the resurrection choice. And just as that ancient man, Magnus, following the example of Jesus, chose life in the face of betrayal, God will also work through us and our choice. 

May your Holy Week be blessed as you walk the road into Jerusalem, find the upper room and then the garden, follow to the cross and finally to the joy of the empty tomb. We walk together with God’s presence step by step!
 
Jane Anne

Dear Plymouth,

I did not grow up with the tradition of Lent. I came to it when I moved into the United Church of Christ in the 1980s. Since then I have learned layers of meaning for the season and traditions of Lent. 
 
Lent – derived from the Old English word meaning “spring season” and the Old German word meaning “lengthening of days.

Lent – a penitential season of 40 days in the Christian liturgical calendar; in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th century church, a time of final examination and catechesis for those wishing to join the faith at the Easter Vigil.

Lent – a time of fasting, study and penitence; also a season to explore new avenues of prayer.

Lent – a faith journey from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday; a time to travel wilderness paths of spiritual reflection; a time to go deeper putting our faith roots down into the soil of God’s love.
 
Lent – a time ....

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion. ...
From “Eagle Poem” by Joy Harjo

The proverbial Lenten journey is what we make of it each year. It can be a time to add a spiritual discipline to your life in a search for spiritual renewal. It can be a time to abstain from an activity in order to have more time for just Being. It can be a preparation time for the new life of spring, a time to plant seeds literally and metaphorically. A time to till the earth, spread compost and start the garden as a spiritual action. It’s a time for listening in new ways to our souls, to God’s wisdom that lives within us as well as in scripture and tradition. 
 
I invite you to plunge into Lent this year through Plymouth’s worship services, through spiritual growth classes and retreats, through deepening relationships in Christian fellowship. Check out:

• the upcoming Intergenerational Art Retreat, Going Deeper: Putting Down Soul Roots, Friday and Saturday, March 8-9
• the Rev. Dr. Mark Lee’s Tuesday evening class, Experimental Theology, March 19-April 23, 
• our ongoing Sunday morning Christian Formation classes for all ages at 10 a.m.
• our youth group activities for middle school and high school students
• the Congregational Life Bingo Night, Friday, 3/15. 

Find more info on all these activities in Plymouth’s Thursday “Overview” email. 
 
Above all this Lent find a way to call your spirit back from aimless wandering. Call your spirit to an intentional journey following Jesus the pioneer and model of our faith in God.

... Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.
Open the door, then close it behind you.
Take a breath offered by friendly winds. ... Give it back with gratitude. ... 
Call your spirit back. It may be caught in corners and creases of shame, judgment, and human abuse.
You must call in a way that your spirit will want to return.
Speak to it as you would to a beloved child.
Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. ...
From “Calling Your Spirit Back From Wandering the Earth in Human Feet” by Joy Harjo

With you all on the journey,
Jane Anne

Dear Plymouth,
 
Spring and Lent are coming! Even though as I write this to you it is snowy and 21 degrees according to the thermometer on our deck! Still deep under the frozen ground, the roots of our trees and perennials are growing and the seeds we scattered in the fall are germinating. There is life deep down! 
 
Life is always stirring deep in our souls as well, no matter the outer state of our lives. This Lenten season (which begins Ash Wednesday, March 6, with our annual 6:15 p.m. soup supper and Ash Wednesday service at 7:00 p.m.) we are “Going Deeper.” As a faith community, I invite you to join with me and with one another as we put the roots of our faith deeper within the soil of God’s love in all our worship, formation, outreach and fellowship activities. 
 
To further your Lenten journey, please join your Plymouth family in a time of reflection, creativity and fellowship at our first Plymouth intergenerational art and spiritual retreat, Going Deeper: Putting Down Soul Roots, March 8-10.  We will explore and follow the life of trees through art projects for ALL ages and ALL art experience levels, reflection on poetry and scripture, prayer, fun and fellowship. Friday evening, 3/8, from 6:30-8:30 and Saturday, 3/9, 9:30-11:45 and 1:00-3:00, led by our artist/theologian-in-residence, the Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera.
 
Do you know what trees and people have in common? The “giveaway” answer is that both function much better in community. The recent NY Times best-seller, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, tells us that isolated or solitary trees do not live as long as those in a forest. Sustenance comes from a network now being studied by researchers about how trees communicate, warn of danger, feed, sustain and nurture even the weaker members of the forest. 
 
With this background knowledge from the science of creation, our retreat time with Linda will function on the assumption that making art is an intuitive and concrete way of knowing. Engaging in a variety of art experiences around the theme of trees, all designed for fun, we will also engage reflective processes to help us listen to the journey of the soul, deepening our understanding of how God’s Spirit is working within us individually and communally. 
 
Our artistic and spiritual retreat journey this weekend will be grounded in Jesus’ time in the “wilderness,” which is the traditional gospel lesson for the beginning of Lent. Expanding on the traditional view of wilderness time as a time of trial, we will journey with Jesus in a soul-enriching time, thinking about what he might have gained from his time in nature. It is no surprise to us here in Colorado and particularly in our community, rich in environmental scientists, that God’s creation has so much to teach us about what really matters in this world. 
 
Our artistic and spiritual work will culminate with an Lenten art installation of trees, roots, and connections created by YOU under Linda’s leadership and direction. The plan is that together, adults, youth and children, will create a network of roots connecting our individual art pieces of trees and roots, and linking it all to the base of the cross in the sanctuary which will “grow” a large system of roots joining everything together. Come and see what you can create with zip ties, twisty wires, braided heavy twine and raffia! How will hot glue guns, stencils highlighting the work of Gustav Klimt, rocks, and your own creativity shape a forest of spiritual connections that deepen the roots of our faith community? Come and find out!
 
Sign up now by clicking this link.........or registering at the “Going Deeper” Art Weekend table in Fellowship Hall, February 23 and March 3 before and after worship times. 

College students, youth, and kids are free! (But please register so we know you’re coming.) Adults, $35.00 and Families with two adults, $60.00. Don’t let finances get in the way...assistance is available...just talk to me or send me an email.
 
Blessings on our journey together deeper into God’s love,
Jane Anne

​Dear Plymouth,

I confess that each morning one of the first things I do is look at the News app on my phone to see what is happening. Yesterday the most useful and uplifting thing I found was a new recipe for dinner. The news which is dominating the headlines is about governmental discord and the mistreatment of American people, as well as those waiting at our border, by the officials who are supposed to be serving the people. It’s discouraging and overwhelming, isn’t it? Should I just ignore the news for my own peace of mind? That doesn’t seem to be right. Where is the wisdom I need to read the news with any kind of equilibrium?

The definition of “wisdom” from the online etymological dictionary is: "knowledge, learning, experience.” The word descends from Old English, German and Norse. The Greek word for wisdom, “sophia,” is a bit broader in meaning: "skill, knowledge of, acquaintance with; sound judgment, practical wisdom; cunning, shrewdness; philosophy." When the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek early in Christian history, “sophia” became the word for wisdom as it was personified in a female form in the book of Proverbs and the Book of Wisdom. 
​
Where in these definitions do we find the “wisdom” to look at our world, our country, in these times? We can be well-informed with knowledge about events. We can learn about policies and points of view we do not understand. We can consider this information with shrewdness, sound judgment, practical sense, philosophical reasoning and maybe, even some cunning. We can measure all this against our own experiences. And still we can be overwhelmed by all that is happening! 

I need more solid ground. The female form of wisdom in the ancient Hebrew scriptures, “Sophia,” became synonymous with “divine or holy wisdom.” Is there a clue here? Is wisdom truly found when we include a spiritual component to our search?  

In her book, Welcome to the Wisdom of the World and Its Meaning for You, Joan Chittester investigates the five major faith traditions of the world to discover the meaning of wisdom in a sacred and holy context. She asks the question of what it means to be a “holy person” and concludes that the essence of holiness and maturity lies in the cultivation of spiritual consciousness. Holy people throughout the ages in all faiths “sought to grow beyond the husk to the core of life, beyond the manuals of spiritual life to the essence of the spiritual life.”[i] Chittester relates a story from the Islamic Sufi tradition to illustrate this.
 
“’Tell us what you got from enlightenment,’ the seeker said. ‘Did you become divine?’
‘No, not divine,’ the holy one said.
‘Did you become a saint?’
‘Oh, dear, no,’ the holy one said.
‘Then what did your become?’, the seeker asked.
And the holy one answered, “I became awake.’”[ii]
 
This is my prayer for myself and for Plymouth this year as we continue in all of our ministries of worship, study, learning, outreach, social justice and fellowship. May we become awake in ways we have yet to experience to the Divine presence within us, shaping us, nurturing and challenging us! May we become awake as we seek to respond in love to our overwhelming times rather than react in fear or anger! May we become awake to life moment by moment as we breathe in the joy of creation, as we love even our enemies, as we seek circles of community rather than levels of rigid hierarchy! May we become awake to the life of Jesus that lives in each of us!
 
Blessings and prayers,
Jane Anne

[i]Chittester, Joan, Welcome to the Wisdom of the Word and Its Meaning for You; Universal Spiritual Insights Distilled From Five Religious Traditions, (Grand Rapids, MI:  William B. Erdmans Publishing Company, 2007), xiv). 
[ii]Ibid., xv.

This is the irrational season
when love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
there’d have been no room for the child.

By Madeleine L’Engle, from A Cry Like a Bell, 1987.

As we all prepare for the holidays in this last week before Christmas, I am thinking of the Song of Mary, The Magnificat, that we will hear in song and scripture this Sunday. Mary sings this song of praise in Luke 1 after she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. It is a song of abundance and of justice for the marginalized. As the story goes Mary said, “Yes” to the angel who proclaims she will bear the Son of God. And we know it was not a rational answer. It caused her problems as she was technically an “unwed” mother. She had not known a man though she was betrothed to Joseph. Why would she put herself in this compromising situation as a young, vulnerable woman? Why does she say “yes?” It seems to be the irrationality and joy of deep faith rather than the rationality of a “what’s in it for me” attitude.
 
Mary seems to understand L’Engle’s poem. She understands about love blooming “bright and wild.” The writer of Luke puts the psalm we know as The Magnificat in Mary’s mouth to prompt and challenge our understanding of God’s irrational ways of love in the world. Sending the child, Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us, was not a rational solution to the world’s problems in the 1stcentury Roman empire. It is still not rational in the 21stcentury. Yet it is the exact miracle we need year after year after year.
 
“First Coming”
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.
 
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
 
till hearts were pure. In joy he came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt,
to a world like ours, of anguished shame
he came, and his Light would not go out.
 
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
 
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
               By Madeleine L’Engle. From A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
 
I hope you will join us this last Sunday in Advent at 9 or 11 a.m. or 6 p.m. to celebrate the Song of Mary and its relevance for our world today. And join us on Christmas Eve at all our family friendly services, 3 p.m. for our “instant” Nativity Pageant service or at 5 and 7 p.m. for our services of Lessons and Carols! At 4:40 and 6:40 there will also be pre-service choral performances of the Christmas Oratorio by Camille Saint-Saëns.
 
Blessings for Advent and Christmas,

Jane Anne

* Image Credit
Visitation, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56718 [retrieved December 17, 2018]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johndonaghy/22885862/ - John Donaghy.

Each week at Plymouth we welcome children and youth in the name of Christ. This is part of our mission and ministry, our programming, our duty and our privilege. And it is an important part of our budgeting each year. We have a highly qualified and dedicated staff of nine childcare workers who welcome and care for our youngest ones during all our worship services and certain special events during the year. They are hired and trained by the Rev. Mandy Hall, our Director of Christian Formation for Children and Youth. You may occasionally see them in their sky blue childcare team t-shirts as they come and go from the north wing to the kitchen in their cleaning duties. (After every shift all the toys used are washed as well as the rooms cleaned by these staff members.) I always find them cheerful and upbeat and I am trying to learn all their names in order to welcome them personally to their workplace. They are a hidden, but VERY important part of our community and ministry. I encourage you to greet them, learn their names, make them feel welcome because they are welcoming our children in Jesus’ name! 

After a resolution by our 2017 UCC General Synod on equity in pay and minimum wage requirements, Plymouth’s Leadership Council and Budget and Finance Committee made a commitment to raise our pay for contract workers at Plymouth to the national minimum wage goal of $15/hr by 2019. This goes into effect in January. This is right and just to do. It also ensures that we get and keep the best caregivers for our children. Your pledge to Plymouth will empower this justice action of fair pay and this ministry action of welcoming and caring for our youngest children.

Please bring your pledge card to church this coming Sunday to celebrate Consecration Sunday! (You can also send it in the mail, or pledge online with a form here, or pledge using the F1Go app right on your smartphone or tablet!)

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” says Jesus. Having children is one of the most humbling experiences in this life. You are suddenly responsible for these ones who are so fragile and yet so resilient. Who soak up love and learning, yet teach us so much about ourselves.

May we remember that we are all children of God. May we treat each other as beloved children in need of love, respect and care even as we humble ourselves to receive love, respect and care from one another. May we remember to humble ourselves before God, giving back to God from the abundance we have been given. May we remember that whoever welcomes one such child in Jesus’ name welcomes Jesus who came to reveal to us the face of God.
 
Blessings on the journey, 
Jane Anne

​In her book, The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources, author Lynne Twist, writes, “The word wealthy has its roots in well-being and is meant to connote not only large amounts of money but also a rich and satisfying life.” With this in mind, we do not have to be financially rich by the definition of our consumer culture to be wealthy. With basic needs met, we can be wealthy in friendship, in the beauty of nature, in the smells from a home-cooked meal. With basic needs met, we can be wealthy in sharing what we have with our neighbors. Our lives can be rich and satisfying. Those of us who have more than our basic needs met are wealthy as we remember that well-being is not all about money. In our sharing we discover again and again that we are part of God’s beloved people to whom God has given all creation and all manner of grace, abundance, love and forgiveness. 
 
It is easy to talk about the wealth we have been given in sunsets, in friends and loved ones, in the joy of community. It is tough to talk about the wealth we have been given in money. When we introduce the word “money,” along comes the emotions of competition, scarcity thinking, shame, not being enough. I urge you this stewardship campaign season to let these emotions go as quickly as you can when you consider money and your generosity. Let them simply drain away, knowing that is you really need them they will always return. 
 
Instead think of your money as soul power. Let it stand for who you are, what you believe, and what you hold most dear. Money, like water, has the power to create, sustain, and nourish when it flows freely from one to another. It stagnates when it is hoarded. As Lynne Twist writes, “Money becomes a currency of love and commitment , expressing the best of who you are, rather than a currency of consumption driven by emptiness and lack and the allure of external messages.” Money grounds us and puts power behind our commitments. It can be the great translator of intention to reality, vision to fulfillment. Jesus said it and it is still true, “Our hearts follow our money: where your treasure is there is your heart also.” 
 
No matter whether your bank account covers basic needs, just a bit more, or a whole lot more, you are wealthy in the love of God in Christ, in the beauty of creation, in the sustenance of this church community. As you consider your pledge to the 2019 budget that will fund our ministry for God in the coming year, let your money be a source of soul power for you. Give the few pennies, dollars that you can as a way to join with God in making God’s intentions reality in the world through Plymouth. Jesus treasured the widow’s mite. If you are so blessed, give the many dollars that you can to join with God and your fellow Christians in making God’s intentions reality in the world through Plymouth.

May our money not be a source of anxiety, may it be a source joyful power through which we give thanks to God by living the most generous lives of well-being possible.
 
Blessings on the journey,
Jane Anne

P.S If you missed "Grateful: A Love Song to the World" (the video Stewardship showed during worship on Sunday, October 14), or if you just want to dance to it again, you can view it here.

We apologize for the confusion on Sunday regarding our parking! For those  who were not present, notes were distributed to cars in our parking lot as warnings about the possibility of being towed. On Sundays our parking lot is open to ALL our members, friends, and visitors! Let us say that again! On Sundays our parking lot is open to ALL our members, friends and visitors. 
 
Here is some additional information about our current parking system at Plymouth:

• During the week, a portion of our parking lot is used by the residents of the Rams Crossing apartment complex. These spots are clearly marked for use by Rams Crossing except on Sunday. The Rams Crossing residents are to move their cars by 8:00 am on Sunday mornings to free up our parking lot for our members, friends and visitors coming to worship. The apartment complex monitors these parking spots and they are responsible for towing.
• Parking stickers! A parking sticker is not required for Sunday church parking. However, a sticker is available to you and it would be very helpful to those monitoring our parking lot if you use it. Better safe than sorry, in case there is any confusion.
• If you regularly come to Plymouth during the week you will need a parking sticker! You can obtain one in the office and on designated upcoming Sundays. Stay tuned for those dates.

Once again we apologize for any confusion and distress related to our new parking situation.

This Sunday is Jubilee Sunday, i.e. “Welcome back after summer” Sunday! To kick off the program year the ministers will be doing a sermon series on “Thorny Theological Themes” at all three services, starting this Sunday with discipleship.*

As progressive Christians we may “balk” at the word discipleship. It may have rigid, rule-based, unimaginative connotations. Join us for worship and the Involvement Fair at Jubilee Sunday this week as we open up the parameters of discipleship.

Consider this story from our Jewish sisters and brothers. How does it open the concept of discipleship?
 
The Rebbe’s Melody 
(adapted by Jane Anne from Yiddish Folktales, ed. Beatrice Silverman Weinrich, trans. Leonard Wolf)
 
Tradition had it that whenever the rabbi sat down to his studies he would sing:
“All the angels, all the seraphim
Ask who God may be.
Ah woe, what can we reply?
‘No thought can be attached to Him.’
 
All the people – every nation –
Ask where God may be.
Ah, woe, what can we reply?
‘No place is without Him.’”
 
One day as the Reb Zalman was teaching the Torah he noticed a new student in the midst of all his disciples. The man was older. He face was fierce with a frown of concentration. Yet it was full of grief in not understanding.
 
After the lesson the Reb sent for the new student. The man came to his study and the rabbi asked what he had understood that day. With that the man broke down into tears. “Nothing!” he cried. He explained that he came from a poor family that did not have the money for synagogue school when he was a child. And his father had died when he was young leaving him as the eldest child to help his mother provide for the family. So he worked hard all his life. He married and had a family and provided well for them so he did not have time for Torah study.
 
The man said, “All I can do is recite the Psalms and even though I do so daily, I do not understand them well. Now my children are grown and on their own. I have time to study the Torah, but I fear it is too late. Most scholars laugh at my misunderstandings but I heard that you turn no one away from your table of study. So I came to you. Please, help me.  Is it too late to learn Torah?” And once again the man began to cry.
 
Reb Zalmon looked at him kindly and placing a hand on his shoulder he said ”No tears today for today is the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of joy in God’s presence. You have made a wise and humble choice my friend to study Torah. Today I was explaining the great Rabbi Baal Shem Tov’s understanding of Hasidism. If you did not understand listen to this melody for all his wisdom and the wisdom of God are hidden in it.”
 
The rabbi began to sing to the man, a sweet, sweet melody. The man listened with rapt and perfect attention. He found his soul caught up in the sound. After a time a light began to dawn in the man’s face and suddenly he smiled and then he laughed through tears. When the rabbi finished singing, he cried out, “I understand, I understand! Oh, Rabbi, thank you. Now I feel worthy to be your student and to study Torah in God’s presence.”
 
So it became a custom for Reb Schneur Zalman to always finish his lessons with the singing of that simple, profound and sweet melody. Just in case there was someone at the table who had not fully understood the teaching that day. And the melody became known as the Rebbe’s Melody.
 
Blessings on your journey into our new Plymouth worship and program year,
Jane Anne

*Thorny Theological Themes schedule: