In these weeks before Christmas, we find ourselves hauling out our ornaments and decorations, which spend so much of the year stuffed away in boxes, now ready to transform our homes for the holiday season. We find city streets filled with holiday lights, wreaths and Christmas trees turning ordinary streetscapes into festive boulevards. Everyone puts out their finest spread because, after all, the Christmas story is extraordinary and we want to be prepared to receive it.
Greetings, All:
It's Thanksgiving Day in Copacabana, and we’re feeling reflective.
We send our thanks to all of you who have supported us and the communities we serve here, over all these years. This past year has been no exception.
Our week has been filled with expressing our gratitude; for our family, our friends, our faith. As we all are recovering from what was hopefully a blessed Thanksgiving Day, we begin to turn our thoughts to the season of Advent, which begins this Sunday. Advent is the season not only of preparing for Jesus' birth, but for the time when Christ will come again.
"On that day let us gather in sanctuaries dedicated to worship and in homes blessed by family affection to express our gratitude for the glorious gifts of God; and let us earnestly and humbly pray that He will continue to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice, and understanding among all men and nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist."
President John F. Kennedy, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, November 5, 1963
On Monday many of us made a point to peer into the sky at the "Supermoon," during those hours when the full moon, in its slightly elliptical orbit, would be at its closest point to the earth, closer to the earth than it had been since 1948, and closer than it would be for until 2034. Some of us had telescopes and studied the craters we could see more vividly than usual; some of us simply stood outside in the darkness, absorbing the visual gift.
Today is Veteran's Day, a day we remember the courage and sacrifices of the men and women who served in our nation's armed forces, with the deep hope that what they gave would help to defend and protect the freedoms and rights of people in our nation and others.
This Veteran's Day comes at the end of a Presidential Election week that has left our nation deeply aware of divisions of thought and goals, and deeply aware of mistrust between groups of people. As one pastor put it, "half of our nation is pleased; half is hurting."
One of the many joys we had this week was the pleasure of watching our preschool students parade through the office dressed in their finest Halloween costumes. It is always a "treat" to see the excitement in their eyes.
"Go Cubs Go!"
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure to walk alongside 90 of fellow DGFUMCers in the annual South DuPage CROP Hunger Walk. We were there to support hunger-fighting efforts around the world and in our own backyard and also, let's face it, to see John Smoke wear a Chicago Bears jersey. Worth every step!
The CROP Walk is just one of the many ministries that our church supports in ways both big and small. These ministries could not be done without the giving of your time and gifts.
"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:34)
What a wonderful week of music and hospitality it has been here at DGFUMC! On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending the Bridge Board's Encore! Concert. I continue to be awed by the talented musicians that are part of our church family. This benefit concert helps to support our Bridge families as they transition from homelessness to independence. This week also marked the first Tuesday of the season that we staffed our PADS site. Thank you to all the volunteers who help support these important ministries.
I didn't get to go to the "Encore!" concert at church last October, because I'd just had surgery and was still on my mandatory "R and R." But I sure am looking forward to attending this year's concert on Sunday afternoon! That's because last year I got to see an amazing Sunday afternoon transformation in Jim before and after he went to the concert.
This past week saw the start of our All Church Fall Book Study Fear Of The Other: No Fear In Love by William H. Willimon, which follows our fall theme Simple, but Not Easy - Loving God and Neighbor. In the book, Willimon invites readers to consider the gospel command to love (and not merely tolerate) those considered to be "Other" or outside mainstream Christian culture. The first chapter, Saved by the Other, reminds us that we were saved by the ultimate "Other," Jesus Christ, and, as Christians, how this should shape our perception and reception of "Others."