November 20, 2021
Dear Prairie Avenue Family,
It feels like we are hurtling towards the end of the year and straight into the holiday season this week as we gather for our annual thanksgiving fellowship dinner tomorrow at noon. Next Saturday we will be decorating our sanctuary in the seasonal way of anticipating Christmas. As the church year begins at Advent next Sunday, we encounter Jesus at trial in Pontius Pilate's headquarters this Sunday, the closest time where Easter and Christmas intersect on Christ the King Sunday.
You probably recognize the cross in this photograph of our sanctuary I recently took. Usually, the cross is placed in the baptistery, standing on the top during the Lent and Easter season. The black cloth of lent is changed for the white of resurrection during the Easter season. At Pentecost, we generally put the cross "in storage"; either it is moved to sit out of sight in the baptistery, or upstairs in the balcony.
This year, I did something different. I kept it out, placing it where our Christmon tree usually sits during Advent & Christmas. And the more I considered it, the more appropriate this place became for me. The cross should not be shoved out of sight or off the stage, but a constant reminder of love demonstrated in the same place where the evergreen, the eternal life, is also seen. The Christmas tree of everlasting life comes from the death and resurrection of the cross. New life and old life are comingling in this embrace. The cross is in the evergreen. The evergreen is the cross. Both celebrate the victory of Jesus for our sake.
We will put this cross away next Saturday. But it is still present, beneath the various symbols and elements of our Christmon tree that will soon be placed again in this space. When Christmas ends (January 6), this cross will return to take its place here. Reminding us of new life, new birth, and new hope.
Worship This Sunday:
More Than Enough: Enough to Live
It may seem a little awkward to encounter this scene in Pilate's headquarters, just to the north of the Temple district, where we encounter Jesus declaring he came to declare the truth. Our reading from the gospel of John shows his emphasis on the political accusation that Jesus' opponents submit: kingship, in opposition to the Roman empire and its emperor.
Pilate is searching for a different kind of truth: the evidence of sedition, and Jesus' leadership of it. Jesus reveals the truth: transform the world through mutual abiding in love, not of rule by might, by armies, by oppression and exploitation.
We often close ourselves off to the whole truth, as unpleasant or simply unwanted. We do not want complex answers. Simple answers bring less stress and less reflection, it ignores nuance and common inconsistencies of human existence. Truth that convinces, not corrects; affirms, not challenges. Truth in our own image, not in the image of God.
How we might live differently as citizens of the kingdom where Christ reigns, or work within current political systems to promote justice. Jesus seems less interested in current politics and revealing God's reign. Perhaps we should be too. It is better to have God approve than the world to applaud.
The Cost of Discipleship Study Group
Sundays following 9:30 am Worship
We have had an interesting conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship, his classic work on the Sermon on the Mount and the meaning of discipleship. This Sunday we will discuss the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount and its implications on discipleship.
Church Thanksgiving Dinner
Sunday, November 21, 2021, Noon
Fellowship Hall
I hope to see many of you at our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner, after last year's hiatus. As our finances continue to be uncertain, we will not present an annual budget for 2022. Rather we will continue to pass quarterly budgets that can be presented and approved at board meetings. Our current quarterly budget runs through the end of the year.
Sanctuary Advent/Christmas Decorating
Saturday, November 27, 9 am
It is that time of year again! Gather in the Sanctuary next Saturday to prepare for the Advent/ Christmas season. All are welcome to help.
The Heart That Grew Three Sizes Worship Series
Sunday, November 28 - December 19
8 am & 9:30 am
I want to encourage you to invite others to join us as we explore faith lessons revealed through the much-beloved story How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Our new worship series promises to be an interesting experience of pop culture intersecting with faith.
