Minister's Message
Happy New Year!
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
Last year in my new year’s sermon I asked why everyone thought 2020 would be so much better than 2019. That turned out to be an understatement. 2020 will be remembered as one of those tough years where we suffered the many horrible consequences from the COVID pandemic.
I can’t help but also be grateful for all the good that happened as people showed in 2020 to meet the needs. I mentioned this theme in my Christmas Eve sermon which is below. Thanks to all who showed up for our service. I really appreciated seeing you all.
New Years' is a time to set goals with the feeling that the coming year offers a clean slate to reflect on what needs to change in our lives. Most of those goals are about our material life, but Sunday I’m going to explore how we can set spiritual goals for our inner life in this coming year.
This year will be exploring the lives of each other. I’m going to do spiritual life interviews with members willing to share what brought them to this moment and what they’ve learned through their inner journey. If you’d be willing to volunteer for a Sunday to be interviewed let me know and I’ll help provide text and title for your Sunday.
Christmas Eve, I shared a video of the US Army Band performing at the church. You can watch the entire special by clicking this link.
See if you can pick out the church parlor and upstairs chapel and our sanctuary.
Benevolence Fund
During this time when many are suffering financially, the church established an emergency fund for anyone in our community in need. The maximum, one-time gift is $500. There is no application. You just have to ask me. This will be done confidentially. Let me know if you’d like to make your own special donation to this fund. I’m happy to report that it is being used. If you need help, let me know.
See you Sunday,
Rev. Rich Tafel
We Must Show Up for Each Other
Christmas Eve Sermon 2020
Rev. Tafel
Christmas Eve is such an incredible night to gather together and sing familiar songs and read about the baby Jesus being born.
There’s something reassuring that the same story we retell each year.
But, what does it all mean?
God became flesh. The infinite became finite. God incarnate?
The theology of Christmas is quite deep and profound.
Entire religions have been created depending on how you answer these questions.
What does it all really mean? And how is it relevant today?
The simplest way to understand Christmas is that time when God showed up as Jesus to heal the world.
At that time of Jesus, the world was in darkness. A narcist king ruled Israel under the thumb of a ruthless global empire. Evil was on the march. Goodness was hard to find. Even the opportunity to choose to be kind and good was slipping away.
The world needed to be healed.
Jesus showed up to be our healer.
His life on earth was marked by miraculous physical healings, but he reminded everyone he was really on earth to heal our souls.
Today, we live in a world that feels dark as well.
Narcissist authoritarians dominate our political, business, and celebrity culture. We mark success by how much we make and how many know us. The gap between those that have too much money and those that can’t get by has never been greater. We still judge people based on their gender, the color of their skin, or whom they love. We have stopped speaking to those who don’t vote as we do.
And in 2020, we were all reminded of our mortality.
A plague, of Biblical proportions, has swept our planet leaving some to die early, others to be sick and all of us to live with some degree of fear.
How does Jesus come today?
Well, Christmas teaches us that God showed up for humanity with love.
Mary and Joseph couldn’t make sense of what was happening or what they were being asked to do, but they showed up in love for each other.
The shepherds showed up to their jobs for another night of work, only to be told by angels to go see Jesus. And, they showed up at the manger, not sure what to make of it all.
The Wisemen studied and followed a star, not sure where they were going. And, they showed up with gifts in love.
The message of Christmas is that the healing of the world happens when we show up in love.
Today, as followers of Jesus, we too must show up for one another in love.
What does that look like today?
We saw it this year.
When health workers showed up in compassion and risked, and sometimes lost their lives, to heal us.
When grocery store workers showed up to feed us.
When truckers drove to supply us.
When teachers showed up to teach us.
When pastors showed up to preach to us.
Parents who have done everything they can to get their little ones into a seat to stare at a screen knowing that the goal is really just to show up.
In a year that made it almost impossible to show up, we have found new ways.
That’s how we heal each other, ourselves, and the world.
How about our church, have we shown up in a year when we’ve been shut down?
After my message tonight you are going to see something really special. The US Army Band recorded their Christmas special this year at Church of the Holy City.
Our church found ways to show up.
When you arrive on Sunday services on zoom, sometimes cooking, sometimes eating, sometimes watching the football game over your screen sometimes with no camera because you are in your pajamas (I know), you make this all possible, simply by showing up.
In the early weeks of the pandemic, Annabel and Kateryna helped me figure out how to go virtual within a few days, so we never missed a week. We showed up.
A pastor of the church I heard stories from visitors using our church for events this last year.
When a young lesbian woman told me that she found the church space so welcoming she received healing. I didn’t get it.
What did we do? What did we say?
There was no three-part marketing strategy. Just said she just felt welcomed. She said it was just the way we showed up authentically for her and she could show up as her authentic self, something she never expected in a church.
Many I’ve talked to this year share with me their stress and depression. Sometimes just getting up out of bed is all we can do. And, yes, that’s showing up too.
Our world needs healing.
We need healing.
And, with God’s love working through you, we can heal.
All we have to do is show up.
God will do the rest.
Who will you show up for in the coming weeks and year?
Like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Wisemen, we don’t have a complete plan to deal with this, we don’t have to.
That ability to show up in love is the deepest meaning of the healing power of Jesus coming into the world.
That is the message of Christmas!
Amen.
Sunday Service Order
Second Sunday After Christmas
January 3, 2021
Light a Candle
Open the Word
Greetings and Check-In
Invocation
Gracious, God, we ask that you make each of us an instrument of your grace. Weave us into a community showing forth your power and tenderness. Bless us and our differences and undergird our courage to stand together. We call on you today to gather us in your love. Lead us to better know you and glorify you on each step of the journey of our lives. Amen.
Confession
PSALM 51 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
First Reading
Proverbs 3
My child do not forget my teaching,
but keep my commands in your heart,
2 for they will prolong your life many years
and bring you peace and prosperity.
3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Psalm 118
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say:
“His love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say:
“His love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord say:
“His love endures forever.”
5 When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord;
he brought me into a spacious place.
6 The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
7 The Lord is with me; he is my helper.
I look in triumph on my enemies.
8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in humans.
9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
Gospel Lesson
Matthew 6
Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in nor steal, 21 for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The Light of the Body
22 “The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is unclear, your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
God and Money
24 “No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Care and Anxiety
25 “Therefore, I say to you, take no thought about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? 27 Who among you by taking thought can add a cubit[a] to his stature?
28 “Why take thought about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: They neither work, nor do they spin. 29 Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. 30 Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is here and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore, take no thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 (For the Gentiles seek after all these things.) For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you. 34 Therefore, take no thought about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take thought about the things of itself. Sufficient to the day is the trouble thereof.
Swedenborg Insights
Within peace, lies trust in the Lord. You trust that he is in complete charge, taking care of everything, and leading it to a good ending. When we believe this, we are at peace, because we then fear nothing and have no worries about the future that might disturb us. (Secrets of Heaven §8455)
There are certain things that we all think about constantly. These thoughts are of utmost importance in our minds. These are our deepest thoughts. . . . It is important to realize that what is of utmost importance in our thoughts becomes implanted into our will. Our will is the innermost part of us because it is shaped by our deepest love. Whatever we love, we want, and whatever we love above all else is our deepest desire. (Secrets of Heaven §8885:2)
Offering
Please give generously to our ministry
(Be Careful to Remove the Tip Feature)
Community Prayer with Lord's Prayer
(congregation responds, "Lord hear our prayer.")
Benediction
Now may the peace that passes all understanding be with you all this day and forevermore.
AMEN
Discussion Time Follows the Benediction
This time is for those who would like to remain after the service to ask questions and hear the questions of others.
Guidelines:
Participate by asking questions only.
Be curious and open-minded in your participation to the views of others.
Keep your questions brief.
Listen deeply to the questions of others.
