"Running to Church"

This morning at 10:30am the childen and youth of Centerville UMC will present their Christmas musical "Christmas Letters" in the church sanctuary. The kids have worked very hard and I expect that it will go well with an occasional miscue here and there.

The children have been practicing on Tuesdays after school. They come in with smiles, tons of energy, hungry, talkative, and lots of school paraphenalia. This Tuesday, a couple of the kids showed up a little early, breathless and laughing. I looked at them and said, "Did you run all the way here from school?" (their school is about 5 or 6 blocks from Centerville UMC) They looked up at me and said, "Of course! We always run from school to practice!" It was obvious from their expressions that "running to church" gave them great pleasure and that this was the place they really wanted to be on Tuesday afternoons. When I mentioned to a few of them that Sunday was their program at church and that this would be the last Tuesday afternoon practice, they looked crestfallen and disappointed. One child actually said, "Can we come to church next Tuesday anyway?"

Running to church........with enthusiasm and joy! I love it!  As a pastor, I pray that all of the folks who come to Centerville UMC for worship and/or the numerous activities at the church throughout the week are "running with joy" to get there simply because they are excited to be in the place of worship, fellowship, learning, joy, and most of all meeting Jesus Christ in His church. And I pray that we continue to welcome them, encourage them, and thank God for their presence.

Are your "running to church" this morning? Or sometime this week? Or sometime during this Advent and Christmas season? I encourage you to get out there and make your way to church. You might just find the same kind of enthusiasm and joy that our children and youth have been finding these past 8 weeks or so. And certainly, Christ will find joy in your being in His house of worship.

See you in church!

Psalm 100
^1-2 On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.

³ Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

⁴ Enter with the password: "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.

⁵ For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.

The children and youth of Centerville UMC will be gathering at the church after school today to delve into their second to the last rehearsal before the big Children's Christmas program slated to enhance our worship experience on Sunday. Somehow I got elected to do the music portion of the program and have enjoyed learning along with the kids some of the kind of funky, but fun music that goes along with the play they are performing. The musical numbers are sprinkled throughout the program and take about 18 minutes altogether, so the kids and youth will be singing a lot. Thankfully the children and youth enjoy singing (at least they look like they do) so having a lot of music in the program is a joy.

Most people do love to sing - especially this time of year as we haul out our Christmas mp3's and take a break from the hustle and bustle by kicking back and listening to those old and new Christmas favorites. I particularly love Handel's Messiah.....and have some sad feelings about not being able to sing it this year. I think I've sung at least some portion of the Messiah at Christmas for the last 20 years? at Christmas starting in my home church, Clay United Methodist Church in South Bend. Clay is a large United Methodist Church in South Bend with a marvelous music ministry lead by my friend Bob Ham; director of music at Bethel College. Each year, since about 1990 or so, the choir and soloists at Clay Church sing the Christmas portion of the Messiah at their 9:00pm Christmas Eve service. I've also sung The Messiah with Huntington University orchestra, chorus and soloists, Vesper Chorale (a semi-professional chamber chorus in South Bend that I was a member of for 4 years while in South Bend) accompanied by a chamber orchestra made up of members of the South Bend Symphony and these past few years with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra. This year brings a different experience to my plate - a year that I will not participate in a production of the Messiah.  Don't get me wrong - I love being in Centerville and serving at Centerville UMC. What a great church with a great love for Jesus Christ! But, there is almost always some kind of loss involved in the changes that life brings and I miss singing the Messiah this year.

What is different in your life this year as you prepare for the coming of Jesus? Are there places of grief still resounding in your heart? Maybe your grief doesn't involve singing, maybe your grief is more about people and relationships - people that have moved on; whether because of life circumstance, broken relationships, or even death? Where are you grieving this season? We feel loss more intensely this time of year, perhaps because of those expectations that tell us everything should be wonderful at Christmas. 

Please know that God cares. God cared so much that He would send His Son to earth so that God would know what it fells like to be human and be able to enter into those times of grief and loss in our lives with understanding, love, peace, and hope for a better tomorrow. When the Christmas cheer scene seems to much for you this season, let God in and let God help.

And, it wouldn't hurt to come and see a bunch of kids and youth singing to God's glory this Sunday, so join us at 10:30am at Centerville UMC!

Advent 2

Today begins the second week in Advent. Advent is the time of year when we prepare for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as a baby in the manger and as the King of Kings, Lord of Lords who will come again to judge the quick and the dead. Are you preparing yourself, your household, your church for Christ's coming?

This morning in worship at Centerville UMC we will be studying the gospel of Mark Chapter 1, take a look at the Advent hymn, People Look East and see how scripture and hymnody intersect with John the Baptist's call for repentance and baptism.  Most importantly, it is my prayer that we all experience the presence of God in our worship time together.

Rev. Michael Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg Church in Ginghamsburg, Ohio, posted a remark on Facebook that reminds me of the importance of celebrating a Holy Advent in the midst of a culture that wants to jump immediately to the commercial aspect of Christmas. "Getting ready for Christmas and getting ready for Jesus are two different things." How are you preparing spiritually for the coming of Jesus?

If you are sick of Christmas by the December 25th, you haven't done Advent right.......

 People Look East! Kathy