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• New Years Day
• Christmas Day
• Christmas Eve
• 12/11/2011
• 12/04/2011

Pastor Jeff has signed on to become a “Still Speaking Voice,” which means that he has voluntarily chosen to be an ambassador of the GOD IS STILL SPEAKING (GISS) outreach and identity project, and of the United Church of Christ at large. His goal is to have at least 10% of our average Sunday worship attendance (12-13 people) also become Still Speaking voices. Please sign up at http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/. It is easy, important, and (best of all) you get free stuff!

We are going to take a break this issue from the ongoing series about the Christian Dominionist movement in our country to reflect upon happier things. As our so-called “leaders” in Washington continue to fail us, and as we are haunted by wars and rumors of wars, news of far off massacres, and a
continued weak economy, not to mention our own individual faith and relationship crises – it is time to step back and think about some things for which we can be
thankful.
This morning before I could even summon the chutzpah (that’s pronounced ‘hut-spa) to leave the house, I compiled this short list of things for which I am thankful:

1. God’s love – God’s love is never-ending. It never fails! Despite all appearances,
   God continues to brood over the world like a worried mother hen does her chicks.
2. Jesus Christ – Celebrating and lifting up God’s love as shown to us in the birth,
   life, death and resurrection of Jesus is what makes us Christian. To forget this by
   either lessening Jesus’ role or by worshipping things such as political power or
   material success is to become something other than Christian.
   
3. The Holy Spirit – God through Christ is made present to us as individuals and
   as gathered groups of believers in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us and on our
   behalf. Without the Holy Spirit we are unanchored from Jesus Christ and his
   cross.
   
4. The church – In this case CUCC in particular. We are neither as big as many,
   nor as small as most churches in our country, therefore we can neither fall prey
   to the temptation to be “all things to all people all of the time” nor be stuck in the
   ever-spiraling cycle of simply comforting one another and our congregation to
   death. Because we are exactly the perfect size to be the church, we can interact
   with one another as mature folks. United by the essentials of our faith and
   allowing for freedom of conscience in inessentials, we are allowed to be
   ourselves in Christ and to do God’s will in our community and the wider world
   based on a core commitment to the love God has shown us in Christ and to the
   guidance of the Holy Spirit.
   
5.  My family – I am happy that Sarah and I have raised our sons to have an openminded
   faith. Both of us – under separate circumstances – came to understand
   earlier in life that one’s faith must be one’s own, and cannot be forced upon a
   person either inside or outside of a family setting. I am appalled equally by those
   who would insist upon some form of “doctrinal purity” among their offspring and
   those, in contrast, who believe that their children will be able to arrive at faith
   commitments on their own without any parental guidance. Both approaches are
   wrong, and though ours may not be perfect it is still the best.
   
   
6.  My pets – There is something about dogs and cats and even other sorts of pets
   (hamsters, fish, horses) that help us in very essential ways to be more human (in
   the best sense of that phrase). In having a relationship with another creature of
   God so unlike, yet so similar to ourselves reminds us of our call to love our
   Creator and others.
   
7. Nature – “The whole earth is filled with God’s glory,” (Isa. 6:3) sing the
   heavenly creatures in the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the Divine throne room.
   Psalm 104 offers an extended reflection upon God as Creator and Sustainer of
   animals and plants alike. The creation itself gives God the glory that we largebrained
   and small souled humans often do not. As Mark Twain said: “Heaven
   goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”
   

Even with self-serving barbarians over-running our nation’s capitol taking time to be thankful helps to remind us that, despite all appearances to the contrary, “God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world” (Robert Browning). Take some time to be thankful today.


Gratefully Yours,

Pastor Jeff

    In the last couple of issues we have been discussing what it means to celebrate and appreciate our nation’s Christian heritage. We explored ways in which our nation was founded by Christians and looked at some of the ways in which our founders’ Christian commitments have sometimes been expressed and/or ignored. Now, we have reached a time when we can discuss the views of some Americans that have subtle and far-reaching influence over the way that many people think about our country’s Christian origins. It all begins with a 20th century Armenian-American theologian.

        Rousas John Rushdoony (April 25, 1916 – February 8, 2001) was a Calvinist historian and theologian and is widely credited as the father of “Christian Reconstructionism.” His prolific writings have exerted considerable influence on conservative Christian thinkers, writers, business leaders and politicians. He was born in New York City to Armenian parents who had fled the Ottoman Turkish genocide carried out against their people during the First World War. Rushdoony grew up in California, where he attended the Pacific School of religion and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1944. After spending a few years ministering to small groups of reservation-bound Native Americans, he quit the full-time ministry of word and sacrament and become a professional “culture warrior.”

        Moving to the L.A. area, he defended Home schoolers in court by way of being an expert witness. Later he founded the Chalcedon Foundation, which began publishing the “Reconstructionist” Chalcedon Report in October of 1965. By 1973, with the publication of his most famous and influential work, The Institutes of Biblical Law, he began to be regarded in ultraconservative, Reformed circles as an important thinker.

        Christian Reconstructionism – which is also sometimes called Christian Dominionism – is based upon the teachings of Rushdoony, but has also been
influenced by the writings and speeches of the evangelical theologian and sociologist Francis Schaeffer. But what is it that these folks believe about our nation’s Christian heritage and how that ought to effect our laws and practices? Well, among other things some Reconstructionists would suggest that:

• – People should be executed for adultery, blasphemy, heresy, homosexual
  behavior, idolatry, prostitution, and “sorcery,”among other things.
• – A church or congregation that does not accept the Old Testament Law in its whole form has another god before them, and is thus guilty of idolatry. This
  too would make its leaders and professing members subject to execution.
• – In Old Testament fashion a woman would initially be considered the property of her father; after marriage, she would be considered the
  property of her husband. 
• – The institution of slavery would be reintroduced, and regulated according to Biblical laws.

        Reconstructionists themselves can be split into groups of HARD and SOFT Dominionists. HARD Dominionists, influenced more by Rushdooney’s thoughts, hold that it is God’s rightful plan that Christians will rule over the political and economic spheres of THIS WORLD. They believe that Christian men (never women) with specific theological beliefs are ordained by God to run society. Christians and others who do not accept their theological beliefs would be second class citizens or slaves.

        SOFT Dominionists, in contrast are not quite as ready to cash in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Still, they speak often of their conviction that America's greatness as God's chosen land has been undermined by liberal secular humanists, feminists, homosexuals and non-doctrinal Christians such as we at CUCC are. 

        Next time we will discuss some current figures in politics, business and the media who are influenced by the streams of Christian Dominionist thinking.   In the mean time, Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing,

Pastor Jeff  

Last time we began exploring the issue – raised by many in our country – of the need to return to what they believe to be our nation’s Christian roots. We established that these roots do exist in a historical way, but that they vary in terms of their form and functioning. For instance, we discussed the regional differences in the way religious differences were expressed and tolerated in the colonial and early republican eras. Ultimately we established that you were better off being of a religious (even Christian) minority group if you lived in the middle colonies as opposed to either New England or the South.

        It ought not take any of us who live in or around Morton very much imagination to understand what it feels like to be a religious minority. Community UCC is (and has been throughout its long history) a faith community made up of refugees from other traditions. By its very nature, such a group cannot be a majority. In fact, majority groups in the area may look at us as being not-quite Christian (or not-quite Christian enough, perhaps). Yet the fact remains that for 180 years we have freely accepted all comers, sought to preach and live out the Gospel in season and in out, and chosen not to marry ourselves to particular theological or political ideologies.

        This is something of which I think we can be proud. Yet it leads to another set of concerns centered upon the issue of our nation’s returning to its “Christian roots.” Certainly, were we to return to some sort of situation akin to colonial New England, we, as Christians of the Congregational variety, would be in good stead. We could tax our Apostolic, Mennonite and evangelical neighbors and their congregations in order to carry out our own ministries. This, however, is not likely what people are thinking of when they pine away for a return to our country’s Christian roots.”

        Perhaps then, those who wish for a return to these roots are hoping to resuscitate the period of nativist “Know Nothingism” during which Catholics, Jews, German immigrants and the Irish could be freely disenfranchised and/or even beaten to a bloody pulp without danger of legal repercussions. Doubting that, perhaps I suggest that they wish to go back to the era of Native American genocide that began with King Phillip’s War in Massachusetts in 1675 and ended in the massacre of 150 Lakota Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota in December of 1890. Doubting even that, I might put forth that those who pine to return to our nation’s “Christian roots” wish to go back to the era of the pre-Civil War South where cotton was king and African American labor was free! Somehow, though, I doubt that even this is what those who reminisce romantically about our “Christian nation” intend.

        In the end, my hunch is that a majority of the people who jaw about such stuff do not fully understand what they are saying. Still, I suspect that there is a small, nefarious percentage of folks who yammer on about our nation and its “Christian founding” who intend something altogether more harmful than a silly historically inaccurate nostalgia trip. They intend, most of all, to seize power and subject our nation to what amounts to a Christian form of Islamic Shari’a law.

        Dear fellow Christians, please know that such people do exist. At their core lies a movement founded by a Reformed theologian, the son of Armenian refugees who survived the genocidal war of the Turks against them and fled to our own dear nation in the 1920s. More about him and the movement he helped to stir up in our next issue.

May the peace of Christ and presence of the Holy Spirit remain with you,

Pastor Jeff  

During the summer season and into the fall, our patriotic holidays call us to celebrate and reflect upon what it means to be an American. From Memorial Day at the end of May through Veterans day in November, we are given the opportunity to cheer our freedoms and our nation’s accomplishments while remembering the sacrifices of those who have gone before us. As Christian, these days of celebration ought also to call us to contemplate how to live out our joint citizenship in two realms – that of this world and of God’s Kingdom.

This coming weekend will offer many a three day break from work. Hopefully it will also give pause, amid the fireworks and cookouts and parties to remember what it means to be free – not only in the sense of enjoying the fruits of the independence the founding generations won for us from the British crown, but also “the freedom we have in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 2:4).

In carrying out his ministry among first century Christians – many of whom were non-Jewish converts – the Apostle Paul was constantly vexed by those who sought to in some way limit the functions of God’s grace to those who followed the old Jewish laws. I believe that there is a parallel to this battle brewing in our “civil body politick” (to borrow a phrase used by the pilgrims in the “Mayflower Compact” before they came ashore upon what would become Massachusetts).

For the better part of my lifetime there has been a call, among some in our nation, to return to our country’s supposed “Christian roots.” Setting aside the fact that not even all of the people on the Mayflower were professing Christians (The Pilgrims were only a part of the people brought to North America on the Mayflower in 1620); and ignoring data which shows that church attendance was far less as a percentage of the population in 1790 than it was in even 2010 – let us assume that our country and the various colonies in which it originated were intended throughout all of the colonial and early republican eras to be Christian. How was this played out in reality?

Well, in New England, where our Congregational forebears ruled, this meant cruel tyranny and persecution against any who dared be part of a dissenting group. Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, Anglicans, and Presbyterians alike were tried, beaten, shackled, tarred and feathered and sometimes hung for the offense of not being Congregational Christians. Finally, as the numbers of non-Congregationalists increased, dissenters were merely taxed to support the ministers and ministries of local congregational churches.

In the southern colonies, non-Anglicans received the short end of the stick, being run from towns, legislated against and also taxed to support local Church of England parishes. Even after the Revolution, Patrick Henry (that notable “patriot” of “Give me liberty, or give me death” fame) sought to make the newly formed American Episcopal communion the official religion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Thankfully he was stopped from doing so by the objections and machinations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Only in the moderate Middle colonies – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and to a lesser extent Maryland and Delaware, did religious freedom of any sort reign in colonial and early republican times. Not surprisingly, it was to such places that minority groups such as Jews and the Amish flocked.

So the question remains: If ours was really intended to be a Christian country, what sort of Christian country was it supposed to be?

I will allow you to reflect upon this as you enjoy your holiday celebrations, and will return to this in the next issue of the TIE.

God bless you and God bless America,

Pastor Jeff

The largest and most costly manhunt in history (counting both economic costs and costs in terms of lives lost) has ended. Osama bin Laden, the mastermind and main organizer and planner of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks which took the lives of over 3000 Americans and others is dead.

Although certainly we ought to feel relieved and pleased – especially for those who lost friends and loved ones or their own health or well being through the attacks or their aftermath – there is certainly no reason to celebrate.

Our God, the one we know most deeply and personally through the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, is not one to triumphantly celebrate the death of any human being originally made in the divine image. If we are to believe in the great themes of creation, fall, covenant and salvation that we see played out in scripture, then we too must face up to the fact that we too “ have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Ro. 3:23, NRSV).

Sure, none of us have sunk to the level of a bin Laden (or a McVeigh; a Hitler, Stalin or Manson, for that matter). Yet, as the brother of Jesus himself reminds us: “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10, NIV).

The First Letter of Peter reminds us that we are called to “be holy” (1:16) because God is Holy. Elsewhere in scripture we are reminded that God finds no pleasure in the death of even wicked people made in God’s image: “‘Do you think I enjoy seeing evil people die?’ asks the Sovereign Lord. ‘No, I would rather see them repent and live’” (Ezek. 18:23, Good News Bible).

Let us meditate upon these things as we together show our thanks to God for preventing further evil action upon our nation or the peoples of the world at the hands of Osama bin Laden.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jeff

   Earthquakes, tsunamis, revolutions. We live in an age of anxiety. The false prophets of prosperity are once again proven wrong. Chances are very good that our children and grandchildren WILL NOT have it better than us. Most of us 50 and under will still be working at 75. The ease in which fewer and fewer of us live will leave economic, ecological and social costs that cross over generations. 

       All the while the vast majority of us allow ourselves to be gamed by those who benefit from keeping us divided. We offer up pre-made labels, canned ideologies, and pat answers to the deepest of our challenges, all the while convincing ourselves that we are the masters of our own fate – that our rugged John Wayne individualism will offer us untold rewards. We too can be millionaires or billionaires, we tell ourselves, if we just work hard, innovate and play by the rules. 

       History is cluttered by the waste of cultures who were run to the ground by unwise and self-serving elites. Often these people had little or nothing to do with public governance. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, they manipulated from the shadows. Give people enough bread and enough diversionary entertainment and you can convince them to go along with almost anything. You can even lead them to their own destruction.

        Jesus lived in such a culture. Political and religious elites in Jerusalem had turned the Temple into their own private Ponzi scheme. Simple Jews from throughout the world came to this place built on the heights of the city of David seeking eternal meaning and value, but instead they got nickled and dimed to line the pockets of the scribes, pharisees and Herodians. God-fearing non-Jews were crowded out from the Court of the Gentiles by moneychangers (the banking industry of the day). True worship of God became impossible.

       Jesus, seeing this, entered the temple courts, drove out the bankers, and freed the animals of the gouging vendors. For this he was crucified. But God had the last laugh. Jesus rose again, and those who loved him were given solace and strength. But within a generation, the Temple was destroyed. And by the time another two generations has passed, the elites themselves had all been killed or forced to flee.

       One is forced to wonder just what would happen to Jesus today were he to drive the moneychangers out of the legislative halls, or were he to knock over the fine desks of unjust judges. Chances are the outcome would not be much different.  Yet in the end God would not allow him to be defeated. God will not allow him or those who love him to be defeated.

Pastor Jeff

     The other morning, I looked at myself in the mirror, and despite the middle-aged, out of shape, tired and haggard looking countenance that looked back at me, the old Sunday school song “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” popped into my head. I pondered this weird juxtaposition: the reminder that Jesus wants me to shine set against the all-too-real, un-shiny me looking out of the mirror.

    In a world torn by conflict in which the word of anyone beyond your own sphere of influence can seemingly never be fully trusted, how is one to shine every minute of every hour of every day?

    In many ways my Christian walk has been the ongoing process of answering this question. But the truth is, I still do not have the definitive secret to share with you all. I wish I did. Like everyone else, though, I live in the all-to-real here-and-now. Just as every follower of Christ before us has, we all live there. Yet the demand is the same and echoed throughout the scriptures: “You must be prefect – just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). 

    The fact is though, that every day provides abundant opportunities for perfection. Not only must we be open to these, but we must also be aware that absolute perfection, though a goal for which we must strive, is not reachable in this life. Far from being an excuse toward moral laxity, this last reminder helps us remember that each goal, task, choice, action, thought word and moment provide us with the chance to reflect the perfect light of God’s perfection through Christ in the best way that we are able.

    Many of us have ranked ourselves or others in relationship to work tasks on 3, 5, or 10 point scales. My interpretation of these scales has always been that one gets a high score if one is performing to the best of one’s ability at the time. After all, is there really only one ideal way to “maximize customer satisfaction through service,” for example? My belief is that there are probably any number of ways to do this and other tasks at work. And I believe that the same goes for our task of living in Christ. Ideally, our abilities ought to improve over time, so that what might warrant a high score one year, may only deserve a moderate score the next. Our perfection in Christ, our willingness and ability to “let our light” shine will improve as we put forth the efforts required.

    So remember, even on a cloudy day, when the light of God’s grace burns dimly under a thick cover of worries, cares and emotions, if we let our light shine the best that we are able, we have done our part.

Pastor Jeff 

Recently there has been a lot of talk about speech in our culture. This is appropriate, given that the spoken sound bytes and sloganeering of politicians, pundits, and other media figures are the common tongue that most influences our own speech, beliefs and values in our post-literate era. 

        Generations ago, the influence and respect that might have been accorded the words of the Bible, or Shakespeare, or our foundational American documents, or Abraham Lincoln are now accorded ever-campaigning politicians, partisan chatterboxes and babbling “reality” TV figures. This sad fact – all but ignored in recent debates about the importance of avoiding violent and threatening speech in our culture – shows the level to which our culture has sunk, and makes it ever less surprising that unimaginatively violent imagery comprises up most of the contemporary familiar metaphors in our spoken tongue. 

        Assessing my own language in light of recent news events, I was driven to search the scriptures. I recalled something that Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew:

[I]t is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what
comes out of the mouth that defiles. [W]hat comes out of the mouth
proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart
come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness,
slander. These are what defile a person. . . . (Matthew 15:11, 18-20).

        Jesus’ words remind us to remain mindful of our own speech at all times,because our speech provides a reading on the state of our soul.

         I have decided to commit myself to a more noble path, and to use my words more carefully (or not at all). Everyday I read a section of The Sermon on the Mount to help remind myself of the way in which our faith needs to be made real by how we choose to live in the world. I challenge you to find a way to remind and recommit yourself daily to the careful use of speech in your own life also. If all Christians choose to do this, perhaps we can have an impact upon the spoken discourse in our wider culture.

Pastor Jeff 

New Year’s always begin with excitement and a large degree of expectation. We are off with the old and in with the new. Our anticipation can both help us and hinder us as we enter the possibilities of the coming twelve months. Having just gone through a time of unusually heavy activity, responsibility and expectation, feelings of positive regard toward the coming year can help us calm and wind down in a healthy way. On the other hand, anticipation, coupled with the post-Christmas “blahs” and the dreary winter weather, can sometimes lead to anxiety, or feeling “down in the dumps.”

Sometimes I think that the best thing we can do at this time of year is pamper ourselves a bit. I do not mean we should become over-indulgent, rather  I am speaking of a sort of spiritual, emotional pampering, which – although it may have a physical component – actually provides rest for our souls.

As I have struggled with getting through this time of year with full peace of mind for many years now, I have discovered that some activities are helpful in surviving the winter doldrums. First of all, getting enough sleep helps. Americans suffer from a national sleep deficit (http: //www.webmd.com/sleepdisorders/guide/toll-of-sleep-loss-in-america). We work too much, rest too little and fill our lives with worries and cares. The best way to address this is sleep. The average adult needs between 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Even though each of us differs in our sleep needs, not getting enough is never a good thing.

Secondly, get moving. As I do every year, I start with a commitment to exercise more frequently. Although I normally lose my zeal over the first few months of the year, I undeniably feel better when I do get some exercise. (Which leads to the question: Why do I stop? We’ll have to leave that for another time, though). We can also help ourselves through these winter months by engaging our minds. Do puzzles; take classes; read a book (either in the traditional format, or on your new e-reader). Just put the old noodle to work. Don’t give yourself time to worry or fret unduly and you will find yourself doing so much less.

Finally we can engage our souls through scripture reading, time spent in prayer (alone and with others), fellowship, service and worship. There is no better place to start doing these things more regularly that with your friends at CUCC. Try to make Community Church a part of your New Year’s routine. If you do, my guess is that come spring you will find that your spiritual blessings have
been multiplied. 

Take care and see you in church,

Pastor Jeff 

 Christmas means many things to many people. For merchants it is a time to make money. For shrill culture warriors, it is an excuse to sell books and hawk divisive ideas. For many urban Jewish people it is a day to eat Chinese food and see a movie. For employees it is a day off. For economists and corporate comptrollers it is a day in which labor costs are low. For members of the armed forces deployed abroad in war zones it is another day on the job. For many of us it is a time to spend with family and friends. For those who are grieving it can be the most difficult of seasons. For children it can be magical.

      Yet, once we peel back the layers of consumerism, political haymaking, personal experiences, and schmaltzy sentimentality that surround it, Christmas still represents a profound truth for we who claim Christ as Savior. That is: The Creator, Lord God of heaven and earth came down to live among us. Rather wonderfully God initially appeared in the most vulnerably precious of forms – a human newborn.  Surprisingly, not only did God arrive to live among us as a human infant, but rather than being a child born into wealth and influence, Jesus was born in an out of the way corner of a world empire among an oppressed people living in an occupied land to a rather nondescript couple who having just survived the initial scandal of Mary’s special pregnancy, were forced by the government ruling their land to travel 75 miles near the end of her third trimester.

      It might have been expected that God would rather have chosen to be born into the house of Caesar (or that of a Persian Shah, a Hindu Brahman or a Chinese Emperor). Instead God chose to come into the lives of a simple carpenter and his betrothed, even going so far as to enter Mary’s womb -- by the power of the Holy Spirit -- and to emerge, helpless, grasping and suckling the same way that we all did. This is the real scandal and wonder of that first Christmas. 

      This scandal and wonder continue to echo in our lives and in our world. Even at a time when any young, expectant Palestinian couple (even a Christian one) would never be able to make the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem without the proper work and visitor permits and passage through dozens of permanent and mobile Israeli checkpoints, the birth of the Christ Child is a miracle of hope. Even in December 2010, when 30 wars and regional conflicts rage, Christmas offers us the possibility of peace. Even as our own nation’s political and economic moods continue to stagnate and decline, the birth of Jesus is a time for joy. Even as hatred and divisiveness are broadcast and blogged daily by those
who keep their power (and make their money) by keeping us divided and fearful, the coming of our Savior is a time for love.

      I sincerely wish for you (and for our world) all the hope, joy, peace and love that can possibly be this Christmas Season; and I pray that we will all do our part to make Christ come more fully into our lives and the life of the church so that indeed God’s sovereignty might reign more fully in our hearts and in our world. 

In the Name of the Prince of Peace,

Pastor Jeff 

Thanksgiving, decorating for Christmas, Christmas program practice, extra social events: What a busy season in the church’s (and our own lives) we are again entering. I hope you will make CUCC a priority in your holiday (HOLY DAY) season plans. Only our worship, service, prayers, scripture, and fellowship allow us to differentiate our celebrations from those of the wider culture. 

Personally, I have always looked suspiciously upon claims that there is some shadowy “they” out there who seek to take the Christ out of Christmas. For one thing, I think that we have all allowed our consumer-based culture to pretty much do that already. What has happened to Thanksgiving in the tall shadow of our materialistic version of Christmas is instructive here. 

Thanksgivings have been celebrated in North America for a long time. Evidence points toward the indigenous peoples of the continent celebrating harvest festivals and other special times long before the arrival of Europeans. The Pilgrims (who never celebrated Christmas, by the way) marked their first Thanksgiving here on these shores after a long year of loss, labor and luck during which the native refugee Squanto helped them plant native crops and hunt local game. This day was a far cry from their usual somber, religious fasts in that they whooped it up – shooting off guns and firing cannon – and attracting the attention of area natives who came and partook of the food and festivities along with them. 

During the War of Independence, and the Civil War, national authorities proclaimed days of Thanksgiving as more somber affairs – akin to the Pilgrims more usual religious holidays. By the early twentieth century Thanksgiving became an official U.S. holiday marked always on the fourth Thursday of November. 

Sometime during my life (post-1966), Thanksgiving started to be crowded out by Christmas. It’s not that we forgot about it altogether. Perhaps we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade before gorging ourselves and falling asleep to a football game. But it wasn’t the same. Gradually, as consumer interests grew, it became a sort of Black Friday Eve – Black Friday being the day when Americans traditionally go to retail outlets to have fistfights over the hot new toy or electronic gadget, and retailers start making a profit for the year. 

Now Christmas begins the day after Halloween (now sadly Americans second most popular holiday). At least all the decorations and trappings of the season that appear on November 1 would have us think so. In a way, I guess Christmas IS under siege. It is important, however, for us to remember that it is not the dreaded “THEY” (or “secular humanists,” or “liberal ninnies”) that have put it under siege. IT IS US! 

So let’s all do Christmas and ourselves a favor this year. First of all, let’s really celebrate Thanksgiving by being THANKFUL. Take turns around the table at your Thanksgiving gathering letting each person say something for which they are thankful. Do it BEFORE you pray. Do it BEFORE food starts being dished out. 

Secondly, let’s remember that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” is more than a cleaver marketing slogan for t-shirt and bumper sticker manufacturers. It is true. And since it is, let’s act like it. If we do choose to overdo it with gifts for the kiddies, let’s at least balance out the lessons in consumerist materialism we are giving them with more important lessons about love, and grace and generosity. Have the little ones and youth in your family sponsor a needy child. Sponsor one yourself. Buy a goat for a far off village through the Heifer Project. Throw all of your change into Salvation Army buckets (and TAPS doghouses – God made the animals too!). Live it up on behalf of others, because God came down to live and die for you. 

Yours in gratitude and grace, 

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Relationships: in the end, they are all that we have. No matter how much our net worth, fame or notoriety, only the impact we have upon others has any truly meaningful effect.  Recently, with the release of the film Social Network, the website Facebook and its co-founder and CEO, Mark Zukerberg have received a lot of extra attention – some of it probably unwanted. Setting aside the film’s well-earned critical acclaim, and remaining aware of the fact that the events it dramatizes are not based upon the recollections of certain key people, but rather on court documents and third party interviews with others – we can still see a core human storyline play out in the way in which screenwriter Aaron Sorkin handles a story as old as time.

Friends come up with an idea. Their idea develops into something relatively substantial. Friends lose their relationship over the details of doing business. Ironically the story of Facebook is one about young men with a vision of helping people connect and relate to one another more easily. But that is beside the point, for such tales also play themselves out in both human history and in the stories of our religious traditions. It was jealousy that caused Cain to kill Abel and that caused Joseph’s brothers to fake his death and sell him to slave traders. It was a desire for standing and recognition that caused Jacob to trick his fraternal twin Esau out of his birthright. It was the quest to control history outside of God’s will that caused nearly all the poor decisions made by the rulers of God’s people in the Old Testament era; and it was the same quest that tempted Judas to betray Jesus to his enemies.

Whenever we human beings begin to think that something is more important that our relationships with God and with one another, we tend to make the sorts of decisions that inevitably lead to a loss of these relationships. It is easy to look on the tale of Mark Zukerberg and begin to moralize – especially in light of the way his college friend and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin was treated in a series of early business decisions that began to make the social networking site the cultural touchstone it has become. However, when we do so, we tend to forget the ways in which we ourselves are so frequently guilty of harming our relationships with God and one another. Anytime we attempt to adjudge the motives of other people instead of just simply disagreeing with their actions or beliefs; every time we place our own selfish interests and self-centered beliefs above reproach while denigrating those of others; on any occasion when we let our ideas or our profits, or our property become more important to us than other people, we are guilty of harming our relationships with God and with one another. Human beings have been doing these sorts of things for a long time. Neither Mark Zukerberg nor any of us will be the first or the last to engage in this kind of activity.

Thankfully, however, we have a great and gracious God who values relating to us above anything else. In fact, God values us so much that he gave his only son to save the world and its inhabitants. You, me, Mark Zukerberg, everyone on Facebook and not on Facebook: we are all part of God’s eternal plan. Hopefully that is something that you can really relate to, and that you wish through loving patience and joy, to relate to others in word and especially in deed.

Yours in relationship to our fellow Savior,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Summer’s over. Well not, astronomically speaking. That doesn’t happen until September 23 at 11:09 PM. But for all intents and purposes the season beloved of so many sun worshipers, boaters, water skiers, beachcombers, and gardeners is over and done with. Now it is time to get back to business. Time to get busy again doing what it is we do, which in the case of our congregation is loving God andour neighbors with Jesus leading our service, worship, and relationships. Not that we exactly stopped doing this over the summer. People have been loved and cared for in times of joy and heartache over the summer. We have praised and worshiped God. Children have been shown the love of God through Bible stories and activities at VBS. People of all ages have prayed together and gathered in fellowship, and around God’s written word.

But now is the time that the rubber really hits the road. Sunday School began for children and youth on Rally Day (Sept. 12), and will begin for adults on Sept. 19. Our second worship service starts again on the 19th at 11 AM. Prayer groups, youth and adult fellowship groups, chances to reach out to others with the love of God through mission and membership care possibilities, Bible study, and in the coming months Confirmation once again – all these activities which are designed to empower us to be Christ’s church, abound.

And in the midst of all this swirling activity we have the opportunity to focus on the One, True and Eternal God, our Maker, Deliverer, and Sustainer. I pray that you will show your appreciation to our gracious God by the sharing of your time, energy and resources with Community UCC. Both our Annual Stewardship Drive and the Pave the Way to Enlightenment Capital Campaign offer us all plenty of opportunities to make a faith commitment to the present and future of our congregation.
I have always said that Community UCC is a smallish, medium-sized congregation with the activity and commitment level of a much larger
congregation. Allowing God to guide us through His Son our Savior, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us keep up the good work of loving God and others with our whole hearts by seeking God’s will for ourselves and for our church, not only this fall, but through every season of our lives.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Well, the moment has passed. I (and about ten other people) threw ceremonial first pitches before the Peoria Chiefs Sunday, August 8 game with the Quad City River Bandits. Putting aside the fact that a number of little leaguers threw much better pitches than I did, I am glad it is over. For some reason, I allowed this simple little thing to cause me no end of anxiety for a number of days before the event.

When I agreed to do this earlier in the summer, I had every intention to put in some practice. My good intentions, however, never turned into good actions. So by the big day, I had not even tried tossing a ball 60 feet from the height of a major league mound.
Thankfully though, even though my pitch hit the dirt around the front side of the batter’s box, it was down the middle, so the catcher needed only to lower his glove to snag it. So often in life, our good intentions do not drive us to action. If these intentions
involve throwing a ceremonial pitch at a minor league baseball game, this lack of action might result in embarrassment (“But those kids have been playing all summer,” I tell myself). However, if our good intentions do not provoke us to action on more important topics, there may be more negative results than a red face and a sheepish feeling.

Jesus, the author of our faith and our salvation distilled the essence of true faith into two simple commandments: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself'”
(Matt. 22: 37-39). Oftentimes we may have every intention of doing both. However, if we fail to practice doing so, we may find that we are unable to when the need arises. So how do we “practice” our faith so that we can keep Jesus’ commandments? Well,
for one thing, we can be active participants in the life of our congregation. For it is here that we ground our life of action in the worship and praise of our heavenly Creator and the study of God’s written word. Being thus grounded, we can engage in any number of personal spiritual disciplines in our day to day lives. Private prayer, scripture reading and study, meditation, chastity, simplicity and fasting, for instance. The church also provides us a “life lab” in which we can practice the communal
disciplines that have enlivened and emboldened the church from the beginning. In addition to worship, praise and group study, these include fellowship, celebration and service.

As we prepare to enter another school/program year here at CUCC, let’s all endeavor to practice our faith more fully and abundantly, not just with our intentions, but with our words and deeds!

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

James, Jesus’ brother, wrote in the letter that bears his name: “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19, NRSV). It is advice most of us can’t be reminded of enough. I know I need to hear it periodically! 

This summer two important sports figures who had massive influence upon the worlds of college basketball and professional baseball, respectively, passed away. Early this summer, John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach, died at the age of 99. Coach Wooden, whom I am proud to say, was a native Hoosier, coached the Bruins to a record 12 national titles, and was a mentor and life coach to hundreds of players over his career, including Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton. Many of his former players have stated that even more than basketball skills, they learned life lessons from Coach Wooden. 

John Wooden was a man of strong character and principles, who was, at the same time, filled with wisdom and empathy for those around him. He was a soft-spoken man who viewed shouting and profanity as signs of weakness in both himself and others. Yet even without the bluster and wrath so often shown by many college basketball coaches these days, he was able to help good players become great, and make great ones into legends. 

A few weeks ago another major figure in the world of sports passed away, George Steinbrenner, the son and heir of an Ohio shipbuilding family purchased the New York Yankees franchise in 1973 for around $10 million. By the time of his death, the Yankees value is purported to be in the neighborhood of $1.6 billion. Other than two league sanctioned banishments, the last of which ended in the early 1990s, Steinbrenner managed the day to day affairs of the Yankees until handing them over to one of his sons in 2005. Since the Steinbrenner family’s involvement the Yankees have won 11 American League East Division Titles ,10 American League Championships, and 7 World Series. 

Yet for all the victories, there was the constant fighting with managers, notably Billy Martin, whom he hired and fired three times in the 1970s-80s; the conflicts with players (including Dave Winfield, whom he derogatorily dubbed “Mr. May” in ironic contrast to clutch playoff hitter Reggie Jackson’s nickname, “Mr. October”); and the specter of two suspensions (1974-1976, 1990-1993). Steinbrenner was remembered by friend and one-time enemies alike to be a profane, angry and abrasive boss and adversary. At best, Mr. Steinbrenner’s death had people in baseball responding with grudging respect, and an admission, that for better or worse, he had changed the game in his business management of the Yankees.  

Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger – habits John Wooden was known for, and which George Steinbrenner seldom (if ever) exhibited. One will be remembered as a great man who just happened to coach basketball. The other will only ever be known as a baseball owner who brought championships to his city at any cost. Which one would you rather have known? Which one would you rather have been? 

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) Did you know that Jesus spoke about money more than any topic EXCEPT the Kingdom of God. Eleven of his thirty-nine parables address issues of money or wealth. Jesus did not shy away from talking about material wealth or possessions. The question is: Why do we speak so little about something that Jesus cared about so much? I think that the answer to this is much more complex than this space will allow. However, broadly speaking, I believe that our hesitance to speak of financial issues in the church comes down to three things. First of all we are idolaters – all of us, myself included. We idolize money and possessions, and idolize the system by which we produce these things. Ultimately, we place these things above God. Free Market economists like Milt Friedman and Alan Greenspan have had a massive influence over our thinking on this topic for the past sixty years. Many of them have gone so far as to claim “faith” in the free market system to adjust itself and continually produce well-being for many. Such faith, however, is a form of idolatry that goes against the first two of the Ten Commandments: [Y]ou shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. . .. (Exodus 3:3-5). Such idolatrous faith, however, has been shown to be misplaced. Although the capitalistic free-market system is, as Winston Churchill once reminded us, “the best, worst way” for us to allot wealth, goods and services, it is still massively flawed by the one thing that those who idolize wealth forget: human sin. Not everything we human beings is within the will of our Living God. Wealth, money and our possessions are not bad in and of themselves. Unfortunately, it is what we sometimes make of them that can be bad. If, for example, we are motivated to buy something just to show someone else up, our system of capitalism becomes sin-tainted. If we use our wealth to destroy the lives and well-being of others, we have acted evilly, and stained our system again with sin. Not accepting that there is such a thing as sin has been the cause of most economically-based sin. Finally, there is the old standby shame. We do not talk about money because we are ashamed about either how much or how little we have. In the past the church has had a history of wielding shame as a weapon in order to gain power. People with too much were made to feel guilty if they did not give more. People with too little were made to feel guilty that they did not have enough to give. This was a complete warping of Jesus’ teachings on material wealth. One episode that captures for me our Savior’s approach to money and possessions is the story of the Widow’s Offering (Luke 21:1-4), He watches as wellto- do people place large offerings in the Temple’s offering box, then seeing a poor widow place two small coins in, he says: “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on” (vv.3-4). In the end, we all give from our poverty. Compared to the Author of Life, after all, we are all destitute. Therefore we learn that it is the attitude, not the amount of the gift that counts. I think we all need to be reminded of these things sometimes.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

As April turns to May and spring reaches full-bloom, perhaps it is time to reflect thankfully on the bounteous blessings of God’s creation, and upon the empowering gifts of the Holy Spirit that equip Christ’s church to do ministry in his holy and blessed name. In my opinion, few days are brighter and filled with more promise than these mid-Spring days. The flowers are fully bloomed, the trees are in leaf, farmers have completed (or nearly so) their planting. Time awaits God’s action in bringing forth fruit. In our human arena, we too await God’s grace-filled action in our own lives and the lives of others. But like the farmer who plants, or the orchard owner who carefully prunes and grafts, so too are we required to act on behalf of God in order that human fruits of salvation may be borne into the world via the miraculous power of God. 

The lectionary (the list of Bible texts that many preachers – this one included – use to choose the scriptures from which they will preach) turns toward the Book of Acts every year at this time. On the Sundays following Easter, as we await the Day of Pentecost – when we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the church – the lectionary takes us on a quick tour of the Book of Acts. This book, written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke, reminds us exactly what it means for us to engage in Spirit-filled and God-inspired action on behalf of Jesus Christ and the Eternal Kingdom that he came to inaugurate.
Acts offers us quick stories of Peter, called by God to put aside some of his strict Jewish, dietary laws in order that he might preach salvation to non-Jews open to the working of God in the world; stories of Paul and his co-workers taking the Gospel to Europe for the first time; stories of triumph and persecution in which, despite strong opposition, God’s servants bring the Good News and hope to those who previously lived without hope. Even today, some two millennia later, the call of the church remains the same: empowered by the gifts bestowed upon us in the Holy Spirit, we are to go forth, leaving our comfort zones and our comfortable pews to share God’s love and the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. 

In the coming months, stretching into the autumn, we will, as a congregation be offered many opportunities to stretch our spirits and exercise the gifts of wisdom 99as we encounter calls to move forward in various areas of our church’s life. In all of our decision making and activities, let us all, together, seek to serve God and God only. One place to start with this would be to judge each of our decisions against our congregational mission statement: “The focus of our life together is to love God and our neighbors, with Jesus leading our service, worship, and relationships.”
Every decision we make should highlight our commitments to love God and our neighbors, and ought to be done with an openness to Jesus’ guidance through
the power of the Holy Spirit. If we do these things we will witness Luke’s account of the early church re-lived in our lives and the life of our congregation.

Faithfully Yours, 

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

May is a month that is bookended by special days during which we show our thanks to individuals who have had a positive effect upon our lives and our communal histories. On Sunday May 9 we, of course, honored our mothers, grandmothers and those other women in our lives who have been important to us. On Monday, May 31, Memorial Day, we honor those people – men and women alike – who have sacrificed their livelihoods, relationships, well-being and lives to protect the causes of freedom and self-determination in many places throughout the history of our nation. In thinking about these days, and others like them throughout the year (Fathers’ Day, Veteran’s Day), I pondered how great it might be if, in addition to keeping these special days, we would all spend as much of everyday as possible in seeking to give honor and respect to all people. Each of us human beings are, after all, made in God’s image. Being in God’s image, we are all equally worthy of love, respect, caring and consideration. Unfortunately we often fail to fully share these things with others. Using politics, race, culture, religious, physical, emotional and class differences, we sometimes do everything in our power not to share with others the love and respect that they are due. Having been as guilty of this at times, as others, I will confess that this is a difficult set of sins to overcome. Nonetheless, we are left with the command of Jesus that we must “be perfect - just as [o]ur Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:18). So what is a person to do, then? Since it is so impossible to live up to these expectations on our own; since it is impossible to live up to the ideal of the Good Samaritan – who knew that all people were his neighbor, and therefore to be loved – it seems that we might only try and fail. Yet, we are left with the Good News – in fact the Best of All Possible News – that in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have received grace upon grace, and can call upon him to save us from our sins. Over the course of the next few weeks, I challenge each of us seek ways in which we can more fully honor one another and others in our lives by sharing freely the love, caring, mercy, compassion and peace, that God has shared with us in Jesus Christ. At the end of that period, I’ll just bet that we’ll have all gotten to a place where we find being a kind and loving person easier that we did before. As we take part in this experiment in holy living , let’s share with one another how things are going, for as we encourage one another, we grow stronger in faith together. Looking forward to hearing from you, Pastor Jeff As April turns to May and spring reaches full-bloom, perhaps it is time to reflect thankfully on the bounteous blessings of God’s creation, and upon the empowering gifts of the Holy Spirit that equip Christ’s church to do ministry in his holy and blessed name. In my opinion, few days are brighter and filled with more promise than these mid-Spring days. The flowers are fully bloomed, the trees are in leaf, farmers have completed (or nearly so) their planting. Time awaits God’s action in bringing forth fruit. In our human arena, we too await God’s grace-filled action in our own lives and the lives of others. But like the farmer who plants, or the orchard owner who carefully prunes and grafts, so too are we required to act on behalf of God in order that human fruits of salvation may be borne into the world via the miraculous power of God. The lectionary (the list of Bible texts that many preachers – this one included – use to choose the scriptures from which they will preach) turns toward the Book of Acts every year at this time. On the Sundays following Easter, as we await the Day of Pentecost – when we celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit to the church – the lectionary takes us on a quick tour of the Book of Acts. This book, written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke, reminds us exactly what it means for us to engage in Spirit-filled and God-inspired action on behalf of Jesus Christ and the Eternal Kingdom that he came to inaugurate. Acts offers us quick stories of Peter, called by God to put aside some of his strict Jewish, dietary laws in order that he might preach salvation to non-Jews open to the working of God in the world; stories of Paul and his co-workers taking the Gospel to Europe for the first time; stories of triumph and persecution in which, despite strong opposition, God’s servants bring the Good News and hope to those who previously lived without hope. Even today, some two millennia later, the call of the church remains the same: empowered by the gifts bestowed upon us in the Holy Spirit, we are to go forth, leaving our comfort zones and our comfortable pews to share God’s love and the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. In the coming months, stretching into the autumn, we will, as a congregation be offered many opportunities to stretch our spirits and exercise the gifts of wisdom as we encounter calls to move forward in various areas of our church’s life. In all of our decision making and activities, let us all, together, seek to serve God and God only. One place to start with this would be to judge each of our decisions against our congregational mission statement: “The focus of our life together is to love God and our neighbors, with Jesus leading our service, worship, and relationships.” Every decision we make should highlight our commitments to love God and our neighbors, and ought to be done with an openness to Jesus’ guidance through the power of the Holy Spirit. If we do these things we will witness Luke’s account of the early church re-lived in our lives and the life of our congregation. 

Expectantly Yours, 

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

(Now, this line ain't needed but it helps with rhyme and meter) 

So they set and talked a minute or two, or maybe it was three. Nobody was keepin' score -- in Heaven time is free. 
 "I've always heard," Jake said to Pete, "that God will answer prayer, But the time I asked for help, well, he just plain wasn't there."

Does God answer prayers of some, and ignore the prayers of others? 
That don't seem exactly square -- I know all men are brothers."
"Or does he randomly reply, without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it's the time of day, the weather or the season."
"Now I ain't trying to act smart, it's just the way I feel.
And I was wondering', could you tell me -- what the heck's the deal?!"
Peter listened very patiently and when Jake was done.
There were smiles of recognition, and he said, "So, you're the one!!"
"That day your truck, it wouldn't start, and you sent your prayer a flying,
You gave us all a real bad time, with hundreds of us trying."
"A thousand angels rushed, to check the status of your file, but you know, Jake, we hadn't heard from you in quite a long while."
"And though all prayers are answered, and God ain't got no quota, He didn't recognize your voice, and started a truck in North Dakota."

The moral of the story is, of course, that it pays to keep in touch with God. Charles Allen, who pastored some of the largest mainline churches in the southern U.S. in the middle of the last century said, “The first purpose of prayer is to know God.” Seek to know God more fully by praying more frequently and with more sense of purpose.

And I pray you’ll also come to praise and worship God with your friends at CUCC weekly.

Another year has passed. What have we learned? That may sound like an odd question. Usually at the end of a year, or a decade of life or some other culturally familiar time-marker, we would be more apt to ask ourselves what we have earned, accomplished or otherwise accrued that has tangible, material reality. And yet, in some ways, it is what we have learned through our experiences of the world and God’s grace that make all of our accomplishments – material, social, and spiritual – a possibility.

The late educator and philosopher Mortimer Adler said: “The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live.” I might add that the concept of mind used by Adler would be equivalent to mind AND soul. For it is true that our souls and minds, inasmuch as they are intertwined and hard to differentiate one from another, both learn and develop over the course of our lifetimes if we allow them to do so.

The dawn of a New Year is a good time to reflect upon what we have learned over the past twelve months – morally, spiritually, socially, and intellectually. So ask yourself in a moment of quiet that you might be able to find between the joy of Christmas and the celebrations of New Year’s: What have I learned.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, which we find among the Wisdom Books of the Hebrew Scriptures can be a remarkably good reflective guide for us this time of year. In it, the writer, known only as “The Teacher” or “The Preacher” mulls over the meaning of life through twelve chapters, finally concluding with this thought: “After this there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for” (Eccl. 12:13).

Indeed loving God and obeying the command to love one another is what we were created to do. Perhaps, God willing, 2010 will be the year that we all learn to do this more fully. But we can only do so if we remain committed to seek God in the quietness of our hearts, through an active life of prayer and scripture reading, and in the worship, service and fellowship offered us through the life of our community of faith.

Make Community UCC an important part of your learning in the coming year.

You will not be disappointed. Hope to see you soon,

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Advent (from Latin, adventus, meaning "coming towards") is a four-week season of preparation for Christmas. The First Sunday of Advent (November 29) marks the beginning of the church's year. Advent and Christmas focus both on the past--the coming of Jesus as an infant born into poverty in Bethlehem, and the future--the coming of Christ in glory to fulfill God's loving purposes for humanity. This past and future orientation is reflected in the readings appointed in the church for each Sunday of Advent. Advent is more than just four weeks of Christmas carols and gift exchanges. It is a season of preparation for our hearts, as we are made ready again to celebrate the coming of God’s eternal salvation into the world. 

Advent this year (as always) comes at a time of anxiety and hope. Many of us are struggling and are afraid for our future. It's not easy to hope when times are bad. Mary, as she waited for the birth of her child into an uncertain world, knew how to live with hope--to believe the promises of God. So Advent is a time when we wait, with Mary, for the birth of new life into a world living in the shadows of death. And we do so with the communion of saints, celebrating together, the hope that we have found in Jesus the Christ. 

At CUCC we will have many opportunities to share in worship, service and fellowship during the Holy Season of Advent. Check out the worship planner and calendar elsewhere in this issue of the TIE, and pay attention to weekly bulletins and announcements to hear about opportunities for you to gather with your brothers and sisters in Christ to help our congregation prepare for the miraculous Good News of Christmas. 

Yours in hopeful preparation,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

As we enter the final part of the year of our Lord 2009 we can celebrate many accomplishments that our gracious God has allowed us here at Community UCC. We have been blessed to restart a regular second service at 10:45 AM on Sundays. Additionally our worship life has been enriched by the rebirth of the Unison Choir, and the addition of monthly “pulpit dramas” to our second service. 

We are also experiencing the exciting and hope-filled rebirth of our Jr. and Sr. High youth groups and their re-commitment to local and regional service and mission work. Also on the Fellowship front we have the formation of a women’s prayer and study group to celebrate. Also, Semper Fidelis, our longest-lived, continuous fellowship group is experiencing a renaissance as they celebrate their 100th year.

In terms of Christian Education we can feel blessed that the addition of the second service has allowed for the formation of an adult Sunday School option. Careful planning and dedication on the part of the Christian Education Board and among teachers has also allowed for a resurgence in interest in Sunday School among our Jr. and Sr. High Youth. As we renew our worship and fellowship, and continually redouble our Christian Education efforts, we are enjoying a congregation-wide rebirth of interest in our local and regional mission commitments. Connected to this rebirth is a revival in our commitment to the community around us. To top all of this off, we have cut our budgetary deficit by at least 75%, and increased our focus on fiscal stewardship among the congregation’s friends and members.  

Other signs of renewal on the horizon include looking forward toward future part-time staffing options involving youth, children and Christian Education; a focus on capital expenses related to the 1952 part of our facilities, the sanctuary’s sound system and the parking lot; and the possible inclusion of more frequent use of different types of music and instrumentation in worship including brass, jazz, and other styles and instrumentation.

All in all we have much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving season at CUCC. Let us then continue to be steadfast in thanking God through Jesus Christ, and in following the Holy Spirit’s lead in seeking to serve others while giving God the glory.

Yours in Christ,

Throughout Community UCC’s history, our congregation has been a place where people of different views and beliefs who share a common commitment to faith in Jesus Christ and to the mission of the church universal in the world can gather to worship, praise, learn, fellowship, and empower one another to engage the world with the saving message of the gospel through service and evangelism. As your pastor, I am proud on your behalf that this cycle of commitment, mission, fellowship and evangelism continues today. 

Some of the things that make our own particular congregational blend of differing beliefs and values and common mission possible include openness, tolerance, and mutual respect of differing views and beliefs. Evidence in the New Testament suggests that the various churches of the earliest Christian era were no less diverse than our own in terms of their members’ beliefs, values, and practices. Although as we can read in Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, for example, the beliefs and practices of particular Christians in certain fellowships might occasionally overreach the boundaries of our Christian faith, in general the New Testament offers us a picture of a geographically and culturally diverse church in which many different forms of mission, worship, and fellowship were being formed. 

The formation of such models of mission, worship, and fellowship required apostles, local church leaders and rank-and-file friends and members of the various churches spread throughout the Roman Empire to be open and flexible in their approaches to one another and others. Two thousand years later we still find that such openness and flexibility are necessary to the life of any vital and active congregation. The moment we stop listening to one another, or become unwilling to share our views of a particular issue, mission activity, or fellowship event with others in our congregation is the moment that the Holy Spirit can no longer work through us to form our hearts in increasing levels of Christ likeness and to share the Good News with others in more effective ways. When we stubbornly insist on our own way, when we refuse to share what God has put on our hearts with others, we stop the growth of God’s Kingdom by ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit in our own hearts and lives and in the hearts and lives of others. 

As long as we remain committed, however, to a vision of our congregation that is grounded in the eternal truths of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and do not begin to get our own peculiar views and approaches mixed up with the things that are of eternal value, our congregation will continue to be a vital and active outpost of God’s Kingdom here on earth. Let’s all remain committed to being just that. 

Yours in Christ, 

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Some of you might be aware that the whole catalog of the Beatles’ original albums was recently released. For those, like me, who are Beatle’s fans this has been an exciting time, because now all the original albums (from 1963's Please, Please Me to 1970's Let It Be) have been digitally remastered and brought up to the sound standards of the 21st century. This means that now you can hear the piano that may have been hidden in the mix of a guitar driven song, and the layers acoustic and electric guitars that were even hiding in the mix of some of the very early tracks.

All of this may not make some of you very excited. However, I was thinking about the process of remastering through which these original recording have now gone. First they were laid down track by track by the band itself. For most of the band’s albums they worked on four track recorders. So guitars, bass and drums would be on one track, vocals and acoustic guitars on another, extra percussion and more vocals on a third, and other instruments on the last, for example. Then this would all be mixed down to a master by the band’s producer, George Martin. For twenty years these were the tracks the public heard.

In 1987 Martin (with the help of three living Beatles) remixed and remastered the tapes for release in CD format. For the last 22 years, these have been the recordings available to the public. Now, in 2009, a new set of remasters has been released.

Thinking about this process brought to mind the complex ways in which our lives are knit together. Our genetics, our upbringing, our other experiences and sometimes seemingly random circumstances come together to form the fabric of our existence. Those of us with faith in God through Jesus Christ, however, know that there is more to all this than meets the eye. This is why I think we all might remember to allow Christ to REMASTER our lives periodically. If we do not, our lives begin to decay under the strain of normal events, and we begin to lose the beautiful melodies and sub-melodies composed by God in the mix of our day-to-day lives.

Think about allowing God to REMASTER your life today. It is never too late to “Get back to where you once belonged.”

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

“From Jesus’ fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (John 1:16)

God’s gifts to us are infinite, and beyond full comprehension. Our Reformed forefather, John Calvin, though not always known for having warm and comforting views of the world and God’s goodness to it once said: “However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts”

For the next few weeks of this beautiful autumn, I ask you to take a deep look at your life and the blessing of God that bloom in it even during this season of changing weather and colors. Allow the steadfast nature of God’s love shown you and your loved ones through Christ to be your guide as you receive your Stewardship pledge cards. 

2010 will be a great year in the life of our congregation. The bonds of fellowship will deepen, our love of God will grow and the ways in which we can together be a blessing to others in our community, our region and the world will increase. The multiplication of these blessings will begin with your commitment to the ministries of Community United Church of Christ. So think not just about monetary pledges as you -- with generosity in your heart -- fill out your pledge card; think also of the gifts of time and talents with which you have been blessed. God gave all for our sake through Christ and only asks for our commitment to His Kingdom in return.

 Yours in Christ’s Service,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

The strengths of Community United Church of Christ (CUCC) are easily identified: They are its people. CUCC is a broadly generous congregation with friends and members of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds. Although we are unapologetically Christian, we do not claim to hold a corner on the truth market in our area's rich religious tapestry. Rather we seek to walk the way of Christ together in order to help ourselves and others more fully experience the Kingdom of God that Christ came to proclaim and inaugurate. This means that we seek to love God and to love one another and others in edifying and tangible ways.

We are neither a big church, nor a small church. We could be called a medium-sized church. Despite this, however, through the grace of God and the commitment of our friends and members we maintain an activity level more akin to that of a much larger congregation. On the other hand one cannot easily get lost in the shuffle as is sometimes common in larger churches. You might say that we are a smaller-sized church with a MEGA-sized heart.

We would love to meet you, and welcome you to come worship God with us on Sunday mornings. We worship every week at 9 AM and 10:45.

Hope to see you soon,


Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Some of you might be aware that the whole catalog of the Beatles’ original albums was recently released. For those, like me, who are Beatle’s fans this has been an exciting time, because now all the original albums (from 1963's Please, Please Me to 1970's Let It Be) have been digitally remastered and brought up to the sound standards of the 21st century. This means that now you can hear the piano that may have been hidden in the mix of a guitar driven song, and the layers acoustic and electric guitars that were even hiding in the mix of some of the very early tracks.

All of this may not make some of you very excited. However, I was thinking about the process of remastering through which these original recording have now gone. First they were laid down track by track by the band itself. For most of the band’s albums they worked on four track recorders. So guitars, bass and drums would be on one track, vocals and acoustic guitars on another, extra percussion and more vocals on a third, and other instruments on the last, for example. Then this would all be mixed down to a master by the band’s producer, George Martin. For twenty years these were the tracks the public heard.

In 1987 Martin (with the help of three living Beatles) remixed and remastered the tapes for release in CD format. For the last 22 years, these have been the recordings available to the public. Now, in 2009, a new set of remasters has been released.

Thinking about this process brought to mind the complex ways in which our lives are knit together. Our genetics, our upbringing, our other experiences and sometimes seemingly random circumstances come together to form the fabric of our existence. Those of us with faith in God through Jesus Christ, however, know that there is more to all this than meets the eye. This is why I think we all might remember to allow Christ to REMASTER our lives periodically. If we do not, our lives begin to decay under the strain of normal events, and we begin to lose the beautiful melodies and sub-melodies composed by God in the mix of our day-to-day lives.

Think about allowing God to REMASTER your life today. It is never too late to “Get back to where you once belonged.”

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

“From Jesus’ fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (John 1:16)

God’s gifts to us are infinite, and beyond full comprehension. Our Reformed forefather, John Calvin, though not always known for having warm and comforting views of the world and God’s goodness to it once said: “However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts”

For the next few weeks of this beautiful autumn, I ask you to take a deep look at your life and the blessing of God that bloom in it even during this season of changing weather and colors. Allow the steadfast nature of God’s love shown you and your loved ones through Christ to be your guide as you receive your Stewardship pledge cards. 

2010 will be a great year in the life of our congregation. The bonds of fellowship will deepen, our love of God will grow and the ways in which we can together be a blessing to others in our community, our region and the world will increase. The multiplication of these blessings will begin with your commitment to the ministries of Community United Church of Christ. So think not just about monetary pledges as you -- with generosity in your heart -- fill out your pledge card; think also of the gifts of time and talents with which you have been blessed. God gave all for our sake through Christ and only asks for our commitment to His Kingdom in return.

 Yours in Christ’s Service,

Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

The strengths of Community United Church of Christ (CUCC) are easily identified: They are its people. CUCC is a broadly generous congregation with friends and members of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds. Although we are unapologetically Christian, we do not claim to hold a corner on the truth market in our area's rich religious tapestry. Rather we seek to walk the way of Christ together in order to help ourselves and others more fully experience the Kingdom of God that Christ came to proclaim and inaugurate. This means that we seek to love God and to love one another and others in edifying and tangible ways.

We are neither a big church, nor a small church. We could be called a medium-sized church. Despite this, however, through the grace of God and the commitment of our friends and members we maintain an activity level more akin to that of a much larger congregation. On the other hand one cannot easily get lost in the shuffle as is sometimes common in larger churches. You might say that we are a smaller-sized church with a MEGA-sized heart.

We would love to meet you, and welcome you to come worship God with us on Sunday mornings. We worship every week at 9 AM and 10:45.

Hope to see you soon,


Pastor Jeff 
Rev. Jeff Johnston
Pastor

Bible Verse Selection and more

UCC Website

Church World Service  

If you are a member of the congregation and have comments, suggestions, additions, or pictures for the website, please contact Julie Fanta, at 266-7263 or cucc@mtco.com