Christmas at Talmadge Hill Church

Dear Friends,

It is a real joy to wish all of you a heartfelt Merry Christmas. 

Christmas means very different things to each one of us.  For some, it evokes warm and positive memories and feelings.  For others, it may be a painful reminder of some grief that lives inside of us.  For the more religious or spiritual inclined in our midst, the intense commercialization of the holiday may be a source of frustration. 

The occasion of Christmas is more emotionally loaded than most holidays, and the emotion covers the gamut.  But here is the essence of the Christmas message from my perspective.   Human beings get caught up in every imaginable thing.  Human beings get distracted easily, and taken over by their thoughts and feelings.  Human beings have a way of worshipping the wrong things, and losing sight of the deeper and truer things.  In almost every place worldwide, people are still lonely, and hurting, and hungry. 

Into this beautiful mess, God births a child.  He is not just any child.  He will remind us, show us and lead us.  He will beckon us to pay attention to our dreams, to our families, and to every chance at compassion.   He will invite forgiveness, and repentance, and a kind of peace that the world does not know but desperately needs. 

So I say, “Come Wonderful Counselor.  Come Prince of Peace.   Come child.”  Again this year, we need you. 

See you on Sunday:

9:30 a.m.               Worship with Communion

5:00 p.m.              Christmas Eve Worship with Choir

10:00 p.m.           Christmas Eve Worship with Choir

Warmly,

Carter

Week of December 3, 2017

Dear Friends,

Earlier this week, I landed in Adelaide, Australia.   I went to see my daughter, Rebecca.  She was finishing a semester abroad.  When she was born more than 21 years ago, God came closer to me.   You may know what I mean -- the Word made flesh. 

On my first morning in Australia, I met up with a dear friend from my days at Princeton Seminary, Ian Coats.  Ian is Australian – a serious theologian, a social worker, a talented composer and musician.  We went to his home, and I met his wife and daughter.  We cooked breakfast.  God came close.  It had been more than 30 years since we shared the proximity of time and space.  Time collapsed as if no time had passed.    

After breakfast, he invited me to come into this recording studio.  He played me one of his songs entitled “Friends”.   The refrain goes like this:  There is something about our loving that only belongs to you.  I cried. 

The season of Advent and Christmas are all about God coming close.  Like breath.  Like food.  Like music.  Like children.  Like old friends.  The Word becomes flesh.  By grace, it does.

I invite you to draw close in this season of longing, and feeling, and giving.  As God fulfills a promise to come closer, our choices take on new meaning.  Here are a few suggestions:

-  Come on this Sunday December 3rd at 6:00 p.m. to the Annual Christmas Candlelight Concert.  The music is always beautiful.  Beauty is a pregnant and powerful thing. 

-  Come on Sunday morning December 17th for the Christmas pageant.  Our own Rob Silvan will be the Inn Keeper for the first time in history.  He and the rest of the cast will bring us the message of letting cynicism give way to joy and hope. 

-  Last but not least, please consider turning in your pledges for 2018.  This may or may not sound like a Christmas invitation.  It is.  As I poured over our THCC Missions Giving and counted the lives impacted by our gifts, I lost count.  Hundreds in Bridgeport.  Hundreds in Nicaragua.  Hundreds in Honduras.  A thousand in Kenya.  Thousands in Nepal and Puerto Rico.

The Word becomes flesh, and our flesh becomes the Word. 

Blessings,

Carter                     

 

 

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Week of November 19, 2017

Dear Friends,

The dark mornings are both hard and a gift.  I want to snuggle under the covers a bit longer, but the dogs must be walked.  I put flashers on them, a light on myself and bundle up and head out.  Somewhere along the way the sun starts coming up.  When I am in a place of grace, I pay attention.  Each morning is a gift of dawning.   I might prefer to dwell in the rights and wrongs the blacks and whites, the goods and evils.  But morning is a perennial reminder that what is between is most lively, rich, beautiful and fleeting.  

May it be so for you.

Peace, 

Susan

Week of November 12, 2017

Dear Friends,

This weekend, we will celebrate Commitment Sunday.  It may sound like a bummer.  It’s not. 

Commitment has a certain ring about it. It sounds kind of onerous.  But let’s not fall prey to a cold interpretation of the word.  In our faith tradition, God carries a reliable and beautiful commitment to us.  No matter what transpires, God continues to be present as a choice, a possibility, an orientation, a promise. 

I like what Douglas John Hall says about the commitment of God.

God is of course the Creator, the One who put the universe together in motion.  That is awe inspiring.  But even more sublime, God is the perpetual and omnipresent teacher.  As long as we breathe, the Teacher offers meaning and the threat of redemption in every living moment.  For those who believe, you cannot escape this commitment.

The Teacher is always teaching.  The Teacher is always on the side of a redeemed future.  Those gifts come to us whether or not they feel like gifts.  My old friend, Russ Kohl, told me a story last weekend.  (He and his wife, Beth, are about to join THCC!!).  Russ was in a terrible accident a few months back.  He had multiple serious injuries, and spent a number of months recovering.  It was grueling and painful.  But then as he tells the story, he tells of the Good Samaritan who stopped and pulled him out of his burning car.  He talks about the weaving of second chances into life.  He talks about God, and his heart’s desire to recommit to God. 

Life is intense.  It is chalked full of endings - happy and sad.  It is chalked full of beginnings too.  For some, the journey seems unbearably hard.  For others, the journey seems a little easier.  Who knows why or how the cards were dealt??  Some questions float, unanswerable, on the waves.  Yet the reliable and beautiful commitment of God is real.  It is Teacher, and companion, and promise. 

Our church acknowledges, celebrates, and invites the beautiful commitment of God into our lives.  It is music.  It is bible study and book studies.  It is bedside presence in hospitals and nursing homes.  It is meals, medicine and scholarships.  It is the gift that keeps on giving. 

Please bring your pledge cards on Sunday, and more importantly your heart’s desire to recommit to God. 

Warmly,

Carter    

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Week of October 29, 2017

Dear Friends, 

This is what my mother taught me that from a young age:  Want to know what people value? Look at where they spend their money.  Talk all we want to, our values are laid bare in where we spend our money.  It's a lesson I learned over and over again from Mom, and one I take to heart at least once a year when I look long and hard at our spending and am once again laid to shame at the degree to which I fall far short of valuing with my money what I say I value with my lips. 

Which is one of the reasons why I actually like the end of the year.  It's the time I look at our income, make a calculation on what percentage we gave away the previous year and then try to match or best it.  Then I look at the organizations I value and figure out how to give away the money to those things that I treasure. 

I am not the only one who gets a boost from giving money away.  We all know there is a link between money and happiness, but it’s not the link image.  Studies show that income is not as tightly connected to happiness as our patterns of spending. Buying material goods gives only a short burst of pleasure, and soon the item is old and we find little joy in it.  In contrast, life experiences tend to give us much more lasting joy, and we value them even more highly than the material things we amass.  And across all income brackets and cultures as well, we become happier and feel wealthier by giving it away.[i]

So while we are talking stewardship-taking care of the things that matter most-just think of this as a triple win:  It's time to be generous, you’ll be happier doing so, and you’ll be taking care of the church when you make a pledge.  And Talmadge Hill Community Church is clearly something that brings joy!

Warmly,

 Susan

[i] http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-money-buy-happiness-heres-what-science-has-to-say-1415569538