Come, Now is the Time to Worship!

HOSPITALITY: September 8- October 13, 2019
Welcoming everyone is the core of our faith.  Starting in September we will focus on the gift of Hospitality both received and given.  Everyone longs to belong and to find shelter where one is accepted, affirmed and given lives of meaning and purpose.  Join us for the spiritual journey where we learn about God’s Hospitality for the stranger that challenges all communities who can sometimes become like a private club.  God loves variety and challenges us to live with our differences in a community of grace and interconnectedness with all of humanity and creation!

A LIFE of GRATITUDE: October 20-November 24, 2019 
The word gratitude or thankfulness from the Latin word “gratus” means pleasing or thankful. It is a feeling of appreciation felt by the recipient of kindness, gifts, help, or other such acts of generosity, towards the giver of such gifts.  God our Creator is the ultimate gift giver.  This series of messages will help us to reflect on the scriptures that reveal how gratitude is central to being a person of faith.  Your minister’s would like to challenge each of us to start a ‘Gratitude Journal for October into November’.  Find a little book and each Sunday we’ll be connecting to our own journal and feel free to bring yours too!

Open to God’s Gift of Hope: December 1-December 24th, 2019
Anne Lamont tells the story that “One year during Advent, our parish priest invited us to write down on a slip of paper a word that named something that is keeping us from getting closer to God. He suggested it might be a fear, resentment, or an attitude that shuts us off from the love God so wants to give. We were to fold the paper over a few times, grasp it tightly in one hand, and make a fist around it while he began to preach on the Scripture readings.

After a minute, my hand began to ache. At two minutes, my hand grew numb. At three minutes, the hand started shaking uncontrollably. He told us to open our hands. I found how hard it was to do that. After grasping the piece of paper so tightly, my hand had stiffened and seemed to have a mind of its own.

I can’t remember what else he said that day, but I have never forgotten that lesson. Hold on to a resentment, fear, or bad attitude long enough and you will become paralyzed. As I begin Advent every year now, I start with the realization that I need to let go of any and all spiritual impediments I’m hanging onto. 

Advent is a time of receiving. It’s hard to receive if your hands are clasped shut. So I begin Advent once again with this prayer: Holy Spirit of God, open my hands, my eyes, my ears, all my senses, and all of my heart so I will be ready to receive your Advent blessings. And then I sit there in the Advent darkness, my hands open before me, waiting on God.”