Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Dear Resurrection Family,
An early Happy Thanksgiving to you! My eNote is coming out today as the office is closed on Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. At the end of today’s eNote I’ll offer a couple of scriptures you might want to read on Thanksgiving Day with your family, and a couple of prayers if you are looking for a mealtime blessing to say before sharing your meal.
Yesterday each of you was prayed for by name during our Thanksgiving prayer vigil – all 20,000+ members of Resurrection! Thank you to all who came and spent time in prayer.
As you prepare for Thanksgiving, I thought you might like a bit of history of the holiday. Take a look at this website from the Plimoth Plantation (yes, this is how they spell it!). LaVon and I had the chance to visit the Plimoth Plantation several years ago. The website recounts a bit of the history of the holiday and includes Edward Winslow and William Bradford’s accounts of that first Thanksgiving.
Tomorrow Resurrection members will serve a Thanksgiving feast to elderly, homeless and low income people here in Kansas City. In multiple locations around the city, 1,100 people will have meals served by Resurrection volunteers. Another 1600+ (434 families) will share Thanksgiving dinner because of the meal bags you provided. Thanks to the more than 1,000 people who prepared food, collected it at our trucks and are heating and serving it!
This weekend we begin the season of Advent. This four-week season is aimed at preparing spiritually for the celebration of the birth of Christ and readying ourselves for his Second Coming. This year we’re focusing on the Promise of Christmas, or perhaps more accurately, the promises of Christmas. Each week we’ll look at a passage from the Hebrew prophets promising the coming of a messianic king and we’ll look at the stories surrounding the birth of Jesus in which Joseph, Mary, the Shepherds and the Magi were told of the Christ child and the promises concerning him – how he would change the world. Click here to see the one-minute video promo for the series.
This week’s sermon is focused on the hope we find in Christ. We’ll look at Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined” and John 1:3b-5, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” We all need hope and the light Christ gives.
Join us for worship as we light the Advent candles, hear the stories leading up to Christmas, sing the carols and Advent hymns and reflect upon the promises of Christmas! By the way, here are links [Advent-Royalty and Advent-Promises] to listen to the first two Christmas radio spots we’ll be sharing on radio stations 94.9 FM (KCMO) and 96.5 FM (KRBZ-The Buzz)
If you’ve yet to return your 2016 stewardship commitment card, would you consider doing so today? You can fill out your commitment card online by clicking here. I wanted you to know why this matters so much. Each year, we look at the current ministries, the new ministry opportunities and the dreams and visions our various ministries have for the coming year. We prioritize them and then we pray and wait for the stewardship campaign to see if we will simply maintain what we are doing, or have the opportunity to expand the church’s ministry for the coming year. Your commitment really makes a difference, regardless of the amount. I’ll be sending reminder notes out next for those we’ve not heard from, and thank you notes to those we have heard from. I’d rather send you a thank you note than a reminder note :-). Again, thank you for your generosity – you make the ministry of Resurrection possible.
Christmas at Resurrection has become a musical tradition, and you won’t want to miss this spectacular production. The first part of the show, which is new this year, will take you back to a Christmas in Victorian England. This is when many of our Christmas traditions actually began. The second part depicts the traditional Christmas story with music, dancing, actors and even some live animals! Performances are Wednesday – Sunday, Dec. 9 – 13 at 7:30 pm, with a matinee on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 1 pm. This is a great opportunity to invite a friend who might not come to worship. I hope you’ll join us for this great family holiday tradition. Tickets can be purchased online at this link.
As you know, we give our Christmas Eve offering away every year to benefit children in poverty. Half of it stays in Kansas City, half of it is designated for projects in places in the developing world. While we’re focused on buying gifts for our family, we invite you to consider giving an amount equal to what you spend on your own family in this offering and in the process touch the lives of thousands of people. Last year many gave more than what they spent on their family. Many gave what they spent on their family, and many gave a set amount per family member and shared with their family that part of their gift was a donation made in their honor through the Christmas offering.
Over the next four weeks I’ll be telling you about each of the recipients of this year’s Christmas Eve offering. Today and in worship this weekend I want you to know about the Ditshego School at Mooiplaas Settlement in South Africa.I visited this place earlier this year while in Africa. It is a settlement of 15,000+ people living at the base of Praetoria’s trash dump. There is no running water. No electricity. People live in shacks often built of the material found in the refuse. Yet in the midst of this community the Ditshego school is a beacon of light. You are going to help them expand this amazing ministry that is literally changing the world for these little children. Click here to see a couple of pics I took of the kids at Ditshego. I’ll tell you more this weekend.
I’ll end with a few Thanksgiving Day suggestions. First, before the chaos of Thanksgiving starts, begin your day on your knees next to your bed, or in a quiet place where you can pause to give thanks to God, listing all of your blessings. You might want to read aloud Psalm 95:1-7 or Psalm 103:1-6 and make it your prayer. Consider praying by name for each of the people you will be sharing your Thanksgiving meal with.
As you prepare to share your Thanksgiving meal, if you are the host you might gather everyone around the table, and share that you prayed that morning thanking God for each of them. Psalm 100 is a short Psalm of praise you could read. If you are leading a prayer, try giving 30 seconds of silence for people to quietly reflect upon what they are thankful for. Then offer a prayer of thanksgiving. Here are a couple of prayers of thanksgiving you might find helpful to use, or to think about as you prepare your own prayer of thanksgiving:
Come, Lord Jesus, our guest to be
And bless these gifts
Bestowed by Thee.
And bless our loved ones everywhere,
And keep them in Your loving care.[traditional Moravian blessing]
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
We give you thanks O Lord.[Ralph Waldo Emerson (last line added)]
Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we ask you, faithful stewards of your great bounty, to supply our needs and to relieve those who are in need, to the glory of your Name. Amen[Adapted from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer]
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
Adam
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Psalm 95:1 Come, let’s sing to Adonai!
Let’s shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let’s come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let’s shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
3 For Adonai is a great God,
a great king greater than all gods.
4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;
the mountain peaks too belong to him.
5 The sea is his — he made it —
and his hands shaped the dry land.
6 Come, let’s bow down and worship;
let’s kneel before Adonai who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people
in his pasture, the sheep in his care.
If only today you would listen to his voice:
Psalm 103:(0) By David:
(1) Bless Adonai, my soul!
Everything in me, bless his holy name!
2 Bless Adonai, my soul,
and forget none of his benefits!
3 He forgives all your offenses,
he heals all your diseases,
4 he redeems your life from the pit,
he surrounds you with grace and compassion,
5 he contents you with good as long as you live,
so that your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.
6 Adonai brings vindication and justice
to all who are oppressed.
Psalm 100:
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
(0) A psalm of thanksgiving:
(1) Shout for joy to Adonai, all the earth!
2 Serve Adonai with gladness.
Enter his presence with joyful songs.
3 Be aware that Adonai is God;
it is he who made us; and we are his,
his people, the flock in his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
enter his courtyards with praise;
give thanks to him, and bless his name.
5 For Adonai is good, his grace continues forever,
and his faithfulness lasts through all generations.
---------------------The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
913.897.0120
913.897.0120
www.cor.org
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