Message to Trinity -- Christmas Cantata, Christmas Eve Worship, Christmas Day and New Year's Day Worship

Greetings Trinity Family,

I hope this email finds everyone doing well. We have many up-coming activities at Trinity…please check out what we have going on.

OUR CHRISTMAS CANTATA

Everyone is welcome to join us on Sunday for our annual Christmas Cantata. Come hear the Christmas story “sung” to us. Bring your family, bring your friends.

If you are ill, though, and have any illness symptoms, please stay at home and enjoy the cantata on our Trinity facebook page. We have had an up-swing of people who are testing positive for the flu and Covid.

BLUE CHRISTMAS SERVICE

We will gather for our annual Blue Christmas service on Thursday, the 22^nd of December. This is a service for those who are struggling with the Christmas season – those who are grieving, those who are sad, and those who are lonely. We will gather to pray, to mourn, and to battle the forces of darkness…together.

CHRISTMAS EVE WORSHIP

We will gather at 7 pm on Christmas Eve, December 24, for our annual Candlelight and Communion worship service.

CHRISTMAS DAY WORSHIP

On Sunday, December 25, we will gather at 10:15 for a service of lessons and carols. Everyone is invited to wear your pajamas. This will be a family-friendly worship time – there will not be nursery care or Sunday School.

NEW YEAR’S DAY WORSHIP

Come to church on Sunday, January 1, 2023 to start the year out with God. We will gather for another opportunity to hear the Christmas story and sing our favorite carols. This will be a family-friendly worship time – there will not be nursery care or Sunday School.

CHOIR REHEARSALS

Everyone in 7^th grade and up is welcome to join Trinity’s choir. We will rehearse every Wednesday at 7 pm. Ralien and our Worship Committee are excited about all of the upcoming music we will sing as we worship God together. We will not have Choir rehearsal on Wednesday, December 21.

CHURCH CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS TEAM

If anyone is interested in joining a team to review the church’s Constitution and By-laws, please see either Bill Vogl or Pastor Amelie.

DAILY BREAD COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY

We continue to collect food and toiletry items for the Daily Bread Food Pantry.  They can be left at the doors of the church or in the baskets next to the sanctuary doors.

The Daily Bread's Current needs change every few weeks. This is their latest list of needs:

Personal Care (which cannot be purchased with food stamps):

Laundry soap, children's toothbrushes/ toothpaste, tissues, dish soap, DEORDORANT, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, paper towels

Food:

            Stuffing, canned peas, baked beans, canned pasta, pancake mix & syrup, canned tomatoes, cream soups

Baby Care:

Diapers

Pet Care:

Dry cat food, Litter, canned dog food

WORSHIP SERVICES

On Sunday mornings, you are invited to join us in-person and on Facebook:

Join us for our Sunday morning hymn sing at 9:45 am and our 10:15 Worship. 

If you are watching from home, you can find us at our "Trinity Christian UCC Skippack" facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/TrinityUCCSkippack

SUNDAY BIBLE  STUDY – Now AT 8:30

We have a Sunday morning Bible Study in-person and on ZOOM at 8:30. Here is the link to log in:

Amelie Sell is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Trinity's Wired Word Discussion Group
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/76933813590?pwd=Nzc0MkthZFBkdmVNTGYycjVtRXkwUT09

Meeting ID: 769 3381 3590
Password: 7qLSWw

LUNCH BUNCH MEETS WEEKLY!

Lunch Bunch is our Tuesday afternoon Bible Study.  Everyone is invited to join us on Tuesdays at 12 pm.  Please bring your own lunch. (In the past, we had a potluck lunch, but for now each person will bring their own food.)  Lunch Bunch typically studies the portion of the Bible that will be the focus of our worship service on the upcoming Sunday. 

TRINITY BLOG

Trinity now has a blog where I am posting notes to the congregation and the text of my sermons.  If you would like to read these notes and messages, you can find them at: www.trinityskippack.blogspot.com

I will see you in worship on Sunday!

Many blessings!!

Pastor Amelie

God With Us -- A Message for December 11, 2022

 

    Over the past few weeks, we have been working our way through the events that led to the birth of Jesus our Savior. On the first Sunday of Advent, we focused on the Angel Gabriel’s visit to Zechariah to tell him that Elizabeth was pregnant with the miracle baby who would become John the Baptist. Last week, Gabriel returned to earth and visited Mary and announced to her that she was pregnant with the Messiah. This morning, another angel visits the earth, this time in a dream that was dreamed by Joseph, Mary’s betrothed. Hear about his dream and his response as we read Matthew, Chapter one, verses 18 through 25:

Proclamation of the Scripture            Matthew 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 

Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 

But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.  

Prayer of Illumination

Pastor: Immanuel, as we wait for your return, help us see your glory and love through the reading and preaching of your Word. We pray in your name. Amen   

            What do Nancy Regan, Jeff Bezos, Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, and Gerald Ford and Jesus have in common? Power? Wealth? Influence?

            Yes, and they are all people who were adopted by their stepfathers.

            Joseph went about things a little differently than the other stepfathers mentioned. The betrothal process was different in the 1^st Century, in Israel, than what we do. There was no arranging a surprise gathering of family and friends, kneeling down on one knee, offering a diamond ring, and asking Mary to marry him. Instead, Joseph and Mary grew up in a community where families lived alongside of each other for centuries. They were possibly 2^nd or 3^rd cousins. The fathers of the couple probably met and decided it would benefit both families to formalize their connections by arranging a marriage of their children. This would have been the betrothal….Joseph may have had a say in the matter, but the parents and grandparents and the Matriarch’s of each family had a bigger say.

            In this time period, the betrothal probably took place when Mary was so young that she was before her child-bearing years. So, she would have stayed at home with her parents until she was mature enough to get married.  And, in the middle of that waiting period, probably just before it would have been time for Mary to do the final wedding ritual and join Joseph’s family household, Joseph found out Mary was pregnant. And, he knew she was not pregnant with his child.

            Joseph was an up-right, stand-up, man. His plan was to divorce Mary quietly, so that she wasn’t publically disgraced.

            But, then he had a dream….

            During Joseph’s dream, an angel visited him. Our first two angel appearances, to Zechariah and Mary, were in-person. But, God chose to send Joseph a message in a dream. And, in the dream, an angel appeared to Joseph and explained Mary was in disloyal to him, and was not a fallen woman, but was pregnant with the child of God, the Messiah. The angel told Joseph to name the baby Jesus, just like the angel had told Zechariah to name Elizabeth’s baby John.

            After the dream, Joseph knew what he needed to do. He accepted the call of God. He welcomed Mary into his home, completing the official steps of “marriage.” But, it says in the scripture that Joseph waited to consummate the marriage until after she had given birth to the baby. So, they were technically married, but not physically married until after the marriage.

            Joseph and Mary were young people. They were given a tremendous responsibility. I suspect they had no idea what they were accepting – how would a child of God act when he was a baby? Would he come out knowing how to talk and dispensing advice to his parents? We know strange things occurred after these angel annunciations…. it sounds like the birth was pretty odd, with another round of angel visitors. Then some wise men came and the family had to flee to Egypt. Trials occurred again and again.

 But, Joseph agreed to the challenge. He agreed to accept the responsibly.

God knew what God was doing….God knew Mary…God knew Joseph. God knew their hearts. God knew what God was doing and knew that Joseph and Mary would be excellent parents.

Joseph could have said “No-way.” He could have done what he planned on doing – dismiss Mary quietly. Joseph could have gotten married to another person, been a normal carpenter, had a normal life. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of step-children.  They want to raise kids who look like them, who act like them, who think like them. Joseph could have walked away from all of these strange occurrences, these angelic visits, these weird pregnancies, and said, “No thank you.” But, he didn’t. He did what God asked him to do. He rose to the challenge of raising Jesus. He taught him his trade of carpentry. He taught him to read the Torah. He taught him how to be a good Jewish boy.

When we are young people, teenagers, we often have a sense of “my life after this.” People plan for their professions – they go to school, they learn a trade. They dream about their weddings and marriages and lives with their own families. Sometimes, we make timelines and spreadsheets and map out what we expect to happen.

Joseph probably had a plan for his life that included what he expected to happen. But, when a major curveball in life was thrown his way, he still hit it out of the field. He accepted that his plans were different than God’s plans. And, Joseph showed us that when God tells you a different plan, you can embrace it. You can embrace God’s plan for your life and it will work out. Maybe not the way you thought it would, but Joseph rose to the occasion. He raised Jesus. He took care of Mary. He shepherd his little family through their trials, their journey to safety, their exile as refugees, and their return to the Motherland. Joseph went with the flow and accepted that ultimately, he wasn’t in-charge; God was in charge. And Joseph trusted God and God’s plan.

Because of his resilience, his steadfastness, his loyalty, and his trust in God, we are all blessed by the sacrifices Joseph made. May we all strive to be like Joseph, to trust in God and to live generously for the good of other people, including those we love.

Amen. 

My Soul Glorifies the Lord -- A Message for December 4, 2022

 

            Today, we celebrate the second Sunday of Advent. Last week, we heard the story of the angel Gabriel visiting Zechariah and telling him to expect the birth of the baby who would become John the Baptist. We are uncertain how Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, was related to Mary, Jesus’ mom, but we know they were relatives. After Elizabeth was getting on in her pregnancy, the angel Gabriel made a second visit to Israel to announce another miracle pregnancy. Hear the story where it picks up in Luke, chapter one, verses twenty-six through forty-five:

Proclamation of the Scripture            Luke 1:26-45

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 

to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 

But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 

and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 

Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 

For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 

where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 

In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 

But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God: Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayer of Illumination

Pastor: O God, our beginning and end, by whose command time runs its course: bless our impatience, perfect our faith, and, while we await the fulfillment of your promises, grant us hop in your Word. Amen.                           

Message                              My Soul Glorifies the Lord

            Today we recall the immense responsibility God placed on a young woman, a young woman who was just maturing to adulthood. A young woman given the responsibility to become the mother of Jesus, the messiah.

            I look at the young people in this room, our 12 and 13 and 14 year olds, and see in them the vulnerability and strength required to take on this responsibility. We raise our children and young adults to be resilient. We raise them to tackle challenges, to fight for what is right, to be strong and patient and tough.

            Mary was like our young people. Although she had questions, just as they have questions, she rose to the occasion. I don’t blame her for her question – how will this be, since I am a virgin? There was the problem of reality.  Most babies are not born to virgins.  It is not every day you find yourself experiencing a miracle, a miracle happening in your own body, no less.

            Mary must have been afraid. Having an angel appear in her presence alone would have caused her to recoil in fear. And, then the angel told her she would become a mother, a very young, inexperience, mother. When we talked about this at Lunch Bunch this week, one of our members suggested that perhaps only a 13 or 14 year old would be optimistic enough to take on the challenge. Perhaps Mary was not old enough to be gripped by fear and consider all of the things that could possibly go wrong…..When I was pregnant with Lucia, I was 32 years old…I was old enough to be aware of everything that could go wrong and lay in bed at night obsessing over the possibilities. But, Mary was brave and tough and maybe just naïve enough to not totally become paralyzed by anxiety about the task ahead of her.

            Mary was resourceful. The angel told Mary that Elizabeth was also pregnant. So, Mary figured out a way to travel from Nazareth in Galilee to the hill country of Judah. This was a 90 mile journey. There is no explanation in our scriptures about how Mary travelled those 90 miles – it just says Mary hurried from Nazareth to the home of Elizabeth. But, only a resourceful person would have figured out how to make that journey quickly, especially in a day and age when most people travelled on foot….scholars think people could have roughly travelled 20 miles a day through that region.  Mary hurried to Elizabeth on a 5 or 6 day journey. Mary was resourceful.

            Mary was also resourceful because she turned to Elizabeth for help. If anyone could have understood the weird, strange pregnancy journey Mary was on, it would have been Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a trusted, nurturing relative for Mary. I pray that all of our children, the ones in this room, the kids who are part of this congregation, the kids who are part of our wider community…I pray that all of our children have safe and trusted adults they can turn to, especially when they are in crises. Mary was grappling with the reality that she was pregnant with the Messiah – I count that as a crisis. Fortunately, she had Elizabeth to turn to for support. In verse 56 of Luke chapter one, it says: Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.  Mary was able to stay with her nurturing relatives Elizabeth and Zechariah for 3 months. Then she returned home to prepare for the birth of her baby.  She would have left Elizabeth just before the birth of John – Elizabeth was going to become too busy with mothering to care for an increasingly pregnant Mary.

            This year, as I reflect on the story of Mary’s unusual pregnancy, and notice how brave and resilient she was, I am also very impressed with Elizabeth’s grace and love. Despite her own unusual pregnancy, Elizabeth took care of Mary. Often, we hear stories of kids and teenagers who have tough relationships with their parents – we don’t know anything about Mary’s parents – they are never mentioned in the Bible or the story of our faith. But, when Mary’s situation became dire and hard, she turned to Elizabeth.  For whatever reason, her parents were not her first choice. I pray that as the followers of Christ who make up the church, we will all be adults like Elizabeth and Zechariah – ready to nurture and love teenagers who are not our biological children, ready to support and care for kids who find themselves in a mess – kids who struggle with school – kids who are the victims of bullies – kids whose families reject them because they stop believing in the faith of their fathers or they realize they are LBGTQIA in families who are not open and affirming – kids who find themselves struggling with addiction – kids who figure out they are pregnant when they don’t  expect to be – kids like Mary who find themselves dealing with a reality  they could have never planned for or prepared for.

            There are so many lessons to learn from the behavior of the people in our Bible, the people who are our ancestors in the faith. As we prepare for Christmas, and prepare our hearts to welcome Jesus, let us admire and work to imitate the nurturing parents who are part of the Nativity of our Lord – people who became parents when they least expected to become parents – too old, too young, adoptive, and “chosen” – Elizabeth and Zechariah were the kind of “chosen” parents we hope to be – people who nurture other people’s children and help them through the hard times in their lives.

            May we do so in love. Amen.