Dear Messiah Congregation,
Each Sunday morning in worship, we are hearing beautiful music that touches my heart. The Christmas Choir Concert last Sunday afternoon was a wonderful musical expression of Christ’s birth. I enjoy Christmas music. I enjoy hearing it everywhere I go. Even the mall is playing this music. I suppose I could listen to it all year long, but there is something about listening now that opens my heart to the gospel message. And that’s what I appreciate most – an open heart to experience anew what God wants to do in me. If, like me, you are tuned to the music, join me in this prayer:

Dear God, there is so much wonderful Christmas music. Plant your song in my heart this season, and then help me keep it alive. Help me to sing your praise as honestly and joyfully in February and June and August as I do during the Christmas season. Amen

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
I like to follow the daily GPS that we include in each week’s bulletin. It is also available on our website at the end of the text version of each week’s sermon. This week’s GPS was written by Pastor Carrie. The entire week has been a study of Isaiah 12, one of the songs that prepares us for Christmas. Isaiah offers these words: “I will praise you, LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” The harmful results of anger make the news on a daily basis. All of us have been on the giving and receiving end of anger. In case we have not recognized the harmful effects of anger, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:22 that hanging on to anger is tantamount to murder. It has that kind of harmful impact. Jesus’ words always get my attention. Isaiah announces that God has let go of anger. We call that forgiveness. What a wonderful gift to give and receive this Christmas. I’m sometimes asked, “Who should take the first step to mend a relationship?” Whoever wants to live in peace with God. Whenever we lack peace with each other, our relationship with God also suffers.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
Last evening, we celebrated the life of Dave Jenkins. Dave and Mary have been members of our congregation since their marriage in June 2000. Dave was an extraordinary man. He was a professional musician and later held executive positions, but as a result of a critical onset of MS he was paralyzed. He spent the past twenty years in a wheelchair. It was important to him that a new sanctuary include a means for someone in a wheelchair to reach the Chancel area. I am particularly thankful that this happened for him in September when he read scripture in worship. Dave had a deep faith that sustained him through life circumstances beyond his control. He shared that faith with those who got to know him and as a result I am a better person, and this is a better congregation for his presence and witness. Many of you may have only known him as the man in the wheelchair, but he was one of the angels who move among us.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
This morning, I listened to the news report of the shootings at Fort Hood. My morning prayer focused on the killed and wounded and their families. This was a tragedy beyond imagination. Yet, every day men and women who have stepped forward to serve this country are in harm’s way, and every day, if we are listening, men and women have given their lives or have been wounded in a way that will change their lives forever. Those of you who are veterans understand the toll on persons in the armed forces and their families. Next Wednesday is Veteran’s Day. Some of you remember it as Armistice Day – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month when World War I ended. How God must long for the day when peace will come to all people.

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Dear Messiah congregation,
“If worship could lighten your load, would you come?” A friend of mine posed this question yesterday. I like the question, because it is what I long for every time I worship. Is there anyone today who doesn’t need their load in life to be lightened? In our congregation as in the world around us, I see and hear people who carry stress and responsibilities and too often it reaches a breaking point. I hear anger and discord in our world that feels unsettling to me and cannot be what brings God pleasure. There is brokenness all around us. Life is not working as we hoped. Hope…

On Sunday, October 4 at 6:30, we are offering a Concert of Hope. God works in and through music to move us. A few months ago, as we looked forward to a new sanctuary, we envisioned a time when we would open our doors to the community and offer a message of hope. If this Concert of Hope could lighten your load, would you come? Do you know someone whose load in life needs to be lightened? What could God do if you invited that person to come with you? Sunday, October 4 at 6:30 p.m. Don’t miss what God will do when we make ourselves available.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
Last Sunday was truly an extraordinary day of worship. We celebrated what all it has taken for this church to be where it is. More importantly, we looked forward. That’s what was happening when in the midst of worship several people walked forward and placed “stones of hope” in the baptismal font. This represents a beginning. Just as the living water of God’s grace washes over the stones of hope, we acknowledge that God can use us. As I reflect on last Sunday, I am most grateful that God continues to work through us – not because we have a new sanctuary. Rather, I hope that we are making ourselves available to God with a renewed spirit while eagerly extending the invitation to others to come and worship. God can do amazing things when we make ourselves available.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
Just typing the date at the top of this note gives me reason to pause and remember where I was and what was happening eight years ago. I will never forget how that evening the sanctuary was filled. We were frightened, angry, grieving, and searching for something to hang on to. As we worshipped, it was clear that God had not abandoned us, and in our collective prayers and hymns we felt the assurance of faith and the hope of a community grounded in Jesus Christ. In my devotion time this morning, I turned to a prayer that our Pastor Emeritus, Don Woodward wrote for our use in 2003. (You will find a copy of that prayer on the inside cover of the Hymnals in the sanctuary.) Here are a few lines from that prayer:

Let peace for the world rise like a song, and fall like snow.
Carry us beyond the major danger in our time to a world of concord, justice, and peace.
…so may we look to you to show us the way in these days.

Today is a day of remembrance and service. Eight years ago, the tragic loss of life brought us together. We needed each other. We still do. Let today be a day to reach out to God and to each other.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
I hope you have had an opportunity this summer for less doing and more being. Amanda and I returned on Monday night from a week on Ocracoke Island, one of the barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. Amanda grew up in North Carolina and in one of our annual trips to see her parents we discovered Ocracoke Island. It became a vacation spot for our family that we would visit every few years. Our last visit was five years ago. The island has a small village of 500 people. To get there, we take a two and a half hour ferry ride. While on the ferry, we physically, mentally and spiritually move to a new place – a place of renewal. This trip was our first without our children. One day as I was riding a bike along the harbor, I thought of the many experiences we had through the years with our children. The image that came to mind was sand trickling through the hourglass. But rather than focusing on how the sand keeps falling, ever diminishing its reserve – what happened was that I was flooded with gratitude for all the experiences we have had together. What is accumulating in the hourglass is a vast treasure. I was so overwhelmed in that moment that I stopped along the road, walked to the shore, and experienced the words of the hymn “then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; how great thou art; how great thou art.” Thank you for allowing me to take this time to get away and be renewed by God.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
Okay, I’m excited! I tried to be rather matter of fact about the sanctuary. (We worshipped last Sunday. And, we will worship this Sunday. Blessed be the name of the Lord.) But this morning, standing in the middle of the sanctuary here’s what I saw: dozens of people who have helped build the pews and the chairs, filling the sanctuary with seats; a crew cleaning every inch of the floor, windows and walls; persons filling the hymnal racks with books; someone cleaning the candleholders and preparing the Holy Table for worship; persons testing the sound and the video equipment; musicians that gathered on Wednesday evening and will gather tomorrow afternoon in preparation.

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Dear Messiah Congregation,
Happy 4th of July! Last night, the city of Plymouth held its annual Music in Plymouth. The best part for me is always the fireworks at the end. Just hearing the fireworks, my thoughts immediately go to the phrase from the National Anthem – “bombs bursting in air.” This morning, I re-read the Declaration of Independence (http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/). I don’t think I had read the entire document since I was in school. July 4th was the day the declaration was officially approved by Congress. The War of Independence had actually begun a year before, and the Congress had formally voted for independence from Great Britain on July 2nd. This document was not adopted by Congress until the 4th. The version we know of was actually printed and signed on August 2nd. It would be good to offer a prayer for our nation at your mealtime on Saturday. You might use this one written by Thomas Jefferson:

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