Dear Friends,
The dawn of the new year always directs my thoughts towards time, but even more so this year. The build up to Christmas and having both the Christmas Day Holiday and the New Year’s Day Holiday fall on a Wednesday has me wondering even more about time and how I use it. While the calendar says that this is Friday, January 3, 2025, there is a part of me that feels like it is a Tuesday. I am finally taking this Friday to welcome the new year with a renewed perspective and hope for all the possibilities it holds.
I learned this week that the etymology of resolution is resolvere (Latin): loosen, release. Yes, that’s right. Instead of battening down the hatches to hit harder at our goals, we’re supposed to use the New Year as an opportunity to let go. We need to let things go to move forward into new beginnings. It is so much easier to find momentum to move forward if we lighten our load. This year, let’s embrace intentions that move us forward. If the Advent and Christmas seasons are about preparing room for Christ to be born in the stable of our hearts and Epiphany is seeing the light of Christ that allows us to move into new directions, I hope that we can live each day as a new beginning and a unique opportunity to encounter Emmanuel, the God with us. There is grace hidden in every moment. It is a gift, and it is up to us to see it. It is a meaningful and achievable resolution in the truest sense of the word. As we begin 2025, I invite you to join me to reflect on your inner life—not as a resolution to achieve, but as an act of love for yourself and the world around you.
This week we are thrilled to welcome David Stuart to the pulpit. Dave is a third-year student at Yale Divinity School. He recently retired as a partner at the New York City law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he spent most of his 28-year legal career. Upon his retirement from Cravath, he began serving as Special Pro Bono Counsel at the firm overseeing the Incarcerated Survivors’ Initiative – an award-winning program he founded to represent incarcerated survivors of domestic and/or sexual violence. Later this month, he will begin a new role as Pastor of Teaching and Preaching at Wilton Congregational Church. We are so lucky to have him with us.
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning.
Love,
Cheryl
Sunday, December 22, 2024
Dear Friends,
Every year, we tell this amazing story. It is full of mystery and magic. It contains a large cast of unlikely characters. We have a relatively poor young man, Joseph, and a remarkable young woman, Mary, who is reportedly a virgin. We also have shepherds, angels, and astronomers. The astronomers travel a great distance to bear witness.
The heart of the story is quite remarkable. It is intended to move God closer than God has ever been before. God is not stuck up in heaven. God is not only on the mountain top. God is not trapped in big, or small, temples (or churches). And to be very clear, God is not the possession of the rich and powerful. God has arrived through a peasant girl in a barn somewhere outside of Jerusalem.
What is the point of the message? For one, God shows up in the everyday circumstances of our lives. The good. The bad. The ugly. With God, nothing is off the map. Why does God show up in this manner? Well, humanity is in real need of a gift. There is an obvious problem on hand. Human beings keep trying to make sense out of things … to feel better about themselves … to try and justify their existence in terribly misplaced ways. Not to mention the corruption and violence that creeps into everything ….
So the gift arrives. It’s hard to get your head around it, and in some ways even harder to get your heart around it. Yet it’s an amazing story that threatens to give you more of what you need to have a better life or, at least, a life with more heart, more promise, more freedom. More God.
We hope you will come around this weekend. On Sunday, we celebrate our version of the Christmas Pageant, “The Inn Keeper”. Then on Christmas Eve, we will celebrate at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. Please come, and please let the story speak to you in some unexpected way.
Warmly,
Carter
Sunday, December 15, 2024
Dear Friends,
We are at halftime! Yes, halftime. For those of you counting, this Sunday will mark our half way point in Advent and point towards Christmas, just a little over two weeks away.
There is more to sports and spirituality than meets the eye. Think for a moment about what halftime is for sports fans: Whether your team is winning or losing, there is enough of a game left for the outcome to go either way. It is also a scheduled time to take a break from the intense watching and grab a snack and a conversation with a friend. Even if you aren’t a superfan and you went to the game out of duty and/or curiosity, halftime is the place where you don’t have to feign interest in the game. Moreover, if you are a player, halftime is the chance to recharge, reconnect with your team and review the strategy for the second half of the game. The third Sunday of Advent is that kind of halftime for our spiritual lives. We turn away from the challenging introspective reflection of the first two Sundays of Advent and we concentrate on seeing the joy that is always there. We even light the pink candle to show that this week in Advent is just a bit different. This halftime break is an important time to remember that even in the darkest, most inward journey, there is always a place for joy. It’s God’s gift to us.
Whether you are at Halftime at a sporting event, or halftime in Advent, joy causes us to forget about ourselves for a while. It allows us to bask in God’s great love and then return that love by sharing our joy with others. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday to dwell in this joy and send some of it back out into a world that needs it.
Love,
Cheryl
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Dear Friends,
The second week of Advent highlights the character of John the Baptist. In almost any frame, he looks like an eccentric. His diet and dress are outside of the mainstream. His message is far removed from comfortable assumptions about religious or spiritual practice. He declares, “Repent for the forgiveness of sins.”
This is an interesting message. It doesn’t say that all is well. It doesn’t say that you are a pretty good person and might be too hard on yourself. It says that human beings are flawed … that we get twisted in ways we see and fail to see … that we don’t know how to take care of ourselves and, often, hurt the people around us. The purpose of this message is obviously not to shame already fragile people. The purpose of the message is to offer an accurate description of the human experience.
So what does it mean to repent? Through the years, many books have been written on the topic. The Greek word means quite simply “to take a turn”. Turn away from self-righteousness. Turn away from victimhood. Turn away from addictive impulsivity. Turn away from defensiveness. Turn away from emotional withholding. Turn away from resentment. Turn away from being ungrateful. The list goes on.
The message goes on to say “for the forgiveness of sins”. That is also provocative. What does this turn of phrase suggest? Here is my interpretation. I have never met a person who didn’t need to be forgiven for something. Many of us need to be forgiven for a wide range of things on a regular basis. Yet how often do we ask for someone’s forgiveness? Do we think we are never at fault? Do we lack the wherewithal or courage to ask? These are worthy questions in this season of spiritual reflection.
My hope for this Advent is quite simple. I want to be willing to turn away from everything that does not serve me … everything that does not build love in my heart … everything that detracts from the flow of joy and gratitude in my life. I want to repent for the forgiveness of sins.
See you Sunday,
Carter
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Dear Friends,
We return from the Thanksgiving holiday to begin the liturgical year with Advent, a time of joyful anticipation of Christ's coming at Christmas. Look for themes that connect endings with new beginnings, the movement from darkness to light, an inward turn distinct from the frenzy of the secular season. It is a wonderful time to look deep inside ourselves and see where we can make more room for God in our lives with these themes in mind.
Advent is one of the most exciting and hopeful times at Talmadge Hill with plentiful opportunities to deepen your spirit and connect to the season through Mission, Music and Contemplation. Tomorrow we will have one of our Breakfast Runs to New York City, Sunday will find our Angel Tree in all of its glory in the sanctuary, and there is so much more to come. Hearing our fabulous choir fill the sanctuary last week pointed toward the amazing music offerings on the horizon. Next Saturday, December 7, will be our annual Christmas Candlelight Concert, an event that is not to be missed and one that will surely make your spirits bright at this dark time of the year. The Innkeeperwill be on Sunday, December 22 and will open our hearts in new ways to the Christmas Story and what it means to welcome God into our lives and into the world.
Every week there will be many wonderful ways to connect to Advent at Talmadge Hill in a way that is meaningful for you. Listen for the announcements, read Happenings and check your emails for the many exciting things to come each week.
We look forward to embracing this season with you and celebrating Christ’s coming into the world on Christmas Eve.
Love, Cheryl