Fairview United Methodist Church

I think it is safe to say that the holidays are over. This week I sent in our “end of year” reports, 2011 has entered the record books. Looking at the church through our numbers was encouraging and challenging. We are faithful, we feed people, we help people, we make a positive difference in many ways. Well done, good and faithful Fairview, now we have some work to do moving forward.

Speaking of work…..our most important work will be our worship focus in the coming weeks, our relationships. Get prepared to examine your love life, the love Jesus asks us to have for one another. How do we love our friends? How do we love our children? How do we love our partners? How do we love the obnoxious person in front of us at the grocery store? How do we love the neighbor who complains about everything? How do we love the child who just pushed our last button?

It is personal and very important. Someone can be loving person and not be a Jesus follower, but a follower of Christ is a loving person by definition.

Love is more than a feeling, love is a way of life, a choice, and it gets messy.

Thank you to all who participated in our morning worship services last week. I loved seeing the younger members of our community involved in leading worship. It was great having Epiphany get such a special treatment.  Insider question of the week: I chalked my front door, did you?

The main message of the “Advent-Christmas-Epiphany” season is that “God is with us”, once and forever. We may pack away the seasonal decorations but not the message! The baby grows up and offers us a chance to keep on growing. The message we just celebrated is about relationships, ours to God and one another. God loves us and we are to love one another. It’s a simple message and not the least bit easy.

United Methodists designate the third Sunday in January as “Human Relations Sunday”. The designation stems from the Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration. It is my personal tradition to use this Sunday to focus on race relations in the light of our Christian calling. We human beings come in different varieties, thank God, how we live in our blessed variety deserves our worshipful attention.

Does the mere mention of race relations stir up something in you? Bring it to worship.

You can read Mark 12:28-34 and John 13:34-35 in preparation.

Blessings and hoping “Christus mansionem benedicat” marks your home.

I hope a star is shining brightly on you. Around the world, Christians are celebrating the ancient tradition of Epiphany. Some people are having King’s Cake, some are getting gifts, and some are having special worship services. Cultural and church traditions vary but the meaning is consistent; Christ is manifest to the people, by magi visits or baptismal dove. While January 6, is the actual date of Epiphany, our worship celebration will be this Sunday on January 8, this Sunday. Our children (and their helpers) will be leading us in worship. What a joyful way to end the season.

Paying attention to the special days in our Christian tradition can be a meaningful spiritual discipline. Not only are we learning and living our faith story; these celebration days offer us insight. Epiphany commemorates that God has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The magi followed a star and found a king, not an ordinary king.

I love the symbol of the star guiding the magi and shining brightly above the earth. The light has come into our world. It is our light in the darkness, our guide, our light at the end of a tunnel, and our hope for a new day or New Year. It can symbolize many things for us. As we begin again this year, ask yourselves a couple of things. How does Christ need to shine in your life this year? Where is Christ shining in your life? What are you doing to be the shining light in someone else’s life?

Don’t miss the celebration; Christ has come for all people.

I hope you are enjoying the twelve days of Christmas coupled with spring like weather!

I’m still hanging onto Christmas and enjoying a slower pace, for the minute. Having New Year’s Day on Sunday makes it a perfect time for a service of renewal and it will be more meaningful if you join me in some preparation.

Give some thought to these questions: How would you like your spiritual life to be different in the New Year? What short prayer can help you make a needed change? Is there something in your life that needs a change of heart? Is there something you need to offer up to God? What is your personal mission statement for 2012?

I don’t put much faith in resolutions but spiritual renewal means we have God as a covenant partner in our quest and that makes all the difference.

See you in 2012!

Peace and Grace,

Kate

I do hope you have some merry along with some holy this Christmas. It is easy to complain about all the fuss around the holidays but the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ deserves an annual fuss.

That God so loves the world, us in all our “as is us-ness”, that God came among us, received very worldly treatment, and still God loves us, is fuss worthy. Let it be a part of all your celebrations, let it be a part of every present given and received. Let God’s gifted grace fuss you into a new year and new opportunities of hope and peace.

Blessed Christmas to all, Kate

Little Bethlehem was big this year! We had 799 guests, a record for having it just one weekend, according to my informal sources. It was amazing to witness how it all came together and it leaves me grateful for everyone’s hard work and dedication. It was incredibly well done and seemed very meaningful to many of our guests. Thank you, everyone, who participated.

This Sunday the Festival Choir will we lead our worship by performing “Shout the Good News!”. This new cantata contains familiar carols and original music bringing to life the telling of the Christmas story. It will be the major part of both morning services and deserves to have a congregation to share the experience. What a blessing to have such wonderful music.

Tonight, Thursday, I bring one of my traditions to our Advent-Christmas season, a Blue Christmas Service at 7:00 p.m. This worship honors the complexity of feelings we have during our winter holidays; especially those who are experiencing grief. It is a quiet reflective service that offers light in the darkness and hopefully, balm for your soul at Christmas.

Next Wednesday, at noon, Mother’s Morning Out will have their annual Christmas program. The program will be short in time and long in adorability. Afterwards, the parents will be bringing finger food to share. Everyone is encouraged to stop by for the festivities. I urge members to attend this special event if they can on Wednesday.

Tis’ the season for hope, peace, joy, love, and a few armadillo’s.

It’s impossible to arrive at a life giving Christmas without going through Bethlehem. I’ll see you there this weekend. What a joy!

Big News: Christmas banners found and hung. More joy.

Life after little Bethlehem: On Thursday, 12-15-11 at 7:00 pm we will have a Blue Christmas Service, because Christmas isn’t always merry or jolly or joyful. If you know anyone who has a hard time during the holidays or is facing the first Christmas after the death of a significant other, invite them to this service. It’s quiet, simple, and filled with the tender hope of Christmas.

I have witnessed Christmas action this week, Fairview style. There have been Bethlehem builders busily doing “things” and leaving a trail of light. I saw the gray cat sleeping with angels that appeared unannounced. More “hall decker’s” rummaged around decking and another pretty Christmas tree appeared. I also heard a serious practice of “jingle bells” by toddlers and had my heart strangely warmed by the growing pile of gifts around the tree in the narthex. What I love about those gifts is they come from Christ and not Santa.

There was also the action of learning about hunger in mid-Missouri and the actual feeding of the hungry! Add to that the bible study, the praying, the music making and I say the action at Fairview was faith filled and awesome. Just when it seems good, it gets better, we are represented in Haiti this week by the VIM team installing water filters. What a great way to begin, to prepare, for the celebration of Christ coming, especially if Christmas is life giving.

The first week of Advent, last week, was all about hope; “Christian hope is open to the unexpected character of what lies ahead precisely because it relies on the faithfulness of a God who is always doing new things.” This definition of hope has been my bedrock as I prepare for the second week of Advent and preaching on peace. For an idea that gets a lot of Christmas attention, peace is a real challenging expectation. Peace, like hope, has many meanings and it goes right to the heart of what it means to follow Christ. Can we really have peaceful lives and peace on earth? I hope so.

Special announcement: There will be another meeting of the “Advent Armadillo Club” this coming Sunday. We have several important items on our agenda. We will induct new members, review our charter, solve mysteries, do bible study and get another advent word. Please share this information with any club members you have in your household.

As we enter the special seasons of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, (not to mention welcoming a New Year) the pastors and staff of the church send you blessings and greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. Our deepest wish is that you have a “Life Giving Christmas” in 2011.

Please use the gift of this Advent season to center your attention on the hope, peace, joy and love made possible by the steadfast love of our gracious God. These four weeks before Christmas, Advent, require no more than lighting a weekly candle and being attentive. What a blessed antidote to the excess of everything else that fills our holidays.

We celebrate the coming of Christ in days of lessened daylight with the additional stresses of celebrating the holidays. It’s a challenging season on many levels. And yet, Christmas is a season of light, a time to renew the hope of our faith, knowing that God is always doing new and unexpected things.  Let the Christmas lights you see everyday  be symbolic stars of Christ and carriers of the message that help us under- stand the depth of God’s love.

This is also a time of looking back on a year soon to end. It has been a year of many changes and challenges. As we approach 2012 we can be certain that the pace of change will continue to impact many aspects of our lives. Change is the new normal for the times in which we live. Celebrating Christmas once again is our reminder that Jesus is born into this day just as he was born in Bethlehem centuries ago. Born not to tie us to the past but move with us into the future. With that in mind I look forward to entering a new year with Fairview and spending time with you in Little Bethlehem.

May you be blessed by God and gifted with a bit of merry.

Kate