Christmas Blessings!

Caroling at Monument Square

Yesterday we had a great time caroling at Monument Square and handing out free hot chocolate and coffee. We also handed out lots of cards inviting people to our outdoor Christmas Eve "Under the Night Sky" worship celebration at Post Office Park. It was a great afternoon, and we even got an interview and several minutes of footage on the Channel 8 news at 6:00 and 11:00! Best of all, they promoted our Christmas Eve celebration.

Tonight should be awesome!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

If you're trapped inside on this Third Sunday of Advent due to the snowstorm, like we are, take a few minutes to enjoy this video.

In Search of Our Kneeling Places

In each heart lies a Bethlehem,
an inn where we must ultimately answer
whether there is room or not.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
we experience our own advent in his.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
we can no longer look the other way
conveniently not seeing stars
not hearing angel voices.
We can no longer excuse ourselves by busily
tending our sheep or our kingdoms.

This Advent let’s go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us.
In the midst of shopping sprees
let’s ponder in our hearts the Gift of Gifts.
Through the tinsel
let’s look for the gold of the Christmas Star.
In the excitement and confusion, in the merry chaos,
let’s listen for the brush of angels’ wings.
This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem
and find our kneeling places.

— Ann Weems, from Kneeling in Bethlehem
(Philadelpha: The Westminster Press, 1980)

Our Logo has arrived!

After weeks of working with a designer, the logo for our new community of faith has arrived! What do you think?

We're so excited about the way this community is developing. We meet weekly on Thursday evenings at our house for dinner, conversation, prayer, and sharing, with about a dozen adults and a couple of kids. There's lots of excitement as we begin this journey together! We have a few exciting things planned for the days leading up to Christmas: an afternoon of Christmas caroling and a reading of the Christmas Story at Monument Square, in the heart of the city of Portland, next Sunday afternoon; and an outdoor "Under the Night Sky" Christmas Eve worship celebration at 5:30 pm at Post Office Park, a beautiful spot in the Old Port with lots and lots of lighted trees, a gathering area with park benches, street lamps, and brick walkways.

Check out our New Light blog to read more about what we're doing, and to read our daily Advent devotional reflections, too.

We're supposed to have a Christmas Open House here at our home tomorrow afternoon, for both the New Light and Chestnut UMC congregations. Our house is all decorated, the tree is twinkling in the corner, and the Christmas cookies are waiting, but the weather isn't cooperating very well. Looks like there's a doozy of a storm heading this way that's going to dump 8 inches of snow, mixing with sleet and freezing rain on Sunday afternoon. We may have to postpone the Open House, which would be a major bummer...

"Attract" Young Clergy?

In a post called “Attract” young clergy? Andrew Conard of Thoughts of Resurrection responds to this article on attracting young clergy for The United Methodist Church.

What do you think?

To Guarantee, or Not to Guarantee?

In a new blog called Third and Goal, Dan Elmore asks the question, "To guarantee, or not to guarantee?" Check it out. Guaranteed appointments... What do you think?

Jesus and the World

Check out this excellent blog post, Jesus & The World, on the implications of the Incarnation for our walk with Christ, by Presbyterian pastor Jan Edmiston of A Church for Starving Artists.

The Stuff of Ministry

We had a good time at the District Clergy Christmas Gathering in Exeter, NH today. The gathering began with worship and Communion, continued with a time of sharing and a Yankee Swap gift exchange, and concluded with a nice chili & soup lunch catered by the folks of the Exeter church. We really appreciated the childcare provided for this event, which makes it so much easier for those of us who are clergy couples who are parenting small children to participate. I came home with a Matthew Fox book on prayer, and Sara with a peppermint scented candle -- typical Yankee swap gifts! It's always good to share fellowship with colleagues: to break bread together, to hear stories, to know that we are connected through the covenant that we share as United Methodist pastors.

Plans are coming along for our Christmas Eve celebrations... more on that once all the final details are in place... but it's very exciting!

Tomorrow our District Superintent, Mike Davis, is meeting with our Staff-Parish Relations Committee, and then he'll come over to our house to meet with us following. We're looking forward to sharing with him some of the progress we're making toward establishing this new community of faith, New Light! We're having lunch with a young couple -- both in seminary, newly married -- who are feeling called to church planting and co-pastoring. It'll be great to share experiences and ideas!

Ministry in this season and this setting is filling me with such joy!

What Would Jesus Buy?

This evening, our plans changed unexpectedly, and we didn't end up needing to go where we thought we had to go. Since our friend Erica had agreed to stay with Rachel for a while, Sara and I took the opportunity to go to a movie we've been wanting to see.

It's this interesting movie that someone told us about, playing right now at the little alternative theater in the Old Port, called "What Would Jesus Buy?" The movie tells the story of Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

Odd: I guess that's the best way to describe the flim. And it was even odder for us, because after the first half hour of the 90-minute movie, all of a sudden the picture was upside down and backward on the screen, and the voices were all speaking backward. Sara and I looked at each other with puzzled expressions, but the movie was odd enough that we initially thought this was just part of the oddity. Soon it became apparent to everyone, though, that something was very wrong. Then the lights came on, and someone stepped out of the projection room to state the obvious: one of the reels of the movie was backward. It would require some work to splice the reels together correctly, but that couldn't happen until the movie was ended. We had two choices: we could wait it out (15 minutes, he estimated) until that reel was finished, and then the rest of the movie would be okay, but we'd miss that 20 minutes or so... or they'd give us a free pass to come back another time. We decided to opt for the latter.

So we only saw the first third of the movie, and I'm not sure I'd rank it as a must-see, but there were some take-aways:

• For the first time since the Depression, the average household savings rate in the United States is below zero. In other words, not savings at all, but debt.
• 15 million Americans are clinically addicted to shopping.
• This year, Americans will spend a half trillion dollars on Christmas and we'll generate five million tons of waste.

I really appreciate the film's message about the dangers of consumerism -- it's a message I think our society needs to hear, and for that I applaud Rev. Billy and his "congregation," if that's what you can call them. But honestly, this guy is just so outrageous -- the stereotypical televangelist of the worst kind, complete with bleached blonde preacher's hair, the soapbox hell-and-damnation preaching style, and the theatrical "Stop Shopping Gospel Choir" -- that I don't know how anyone can take his message seriously.

It's too bad, because I think the movie's title asks an important question: What would Jesus buy? And why do we celebrate his birthday -- the birthday of one who said, "Take only one tunic for the road," and "Drop your nets and follow me" -- the one who was homeless but who offers the gift of abundant life -- with such excessive spending and overconsumption?

For me, though, the movie (at least the part we got to see) failed because it highlighted the sensational personality of a crazy nut with an important mission and a style that was more off-putting than convicting.

Have you seen this film? Am I missing something? Please tell me... I'm hoping the final 2/3 of the movie, right side up and forward, might have been a little less outrageous and a little more compelling...

Advent Devo

Today's Advent devotional reflection on our New Light blog features a really cool video from a worship media production house called The Work of the People. Check it out.

Incarnation

Today's Advent devotional reflection, written by my wife, Sara, on our New Light blog...

Keep It Simple

I recently came across this great list -- 10 Tips for a Simpler, More Meaningful Christmas -- from a nonprofit organization called Alternatives for Simple Living. Good stuff!

Advent Begins

As part of her Advent spiritual practice, my wife, Sara, is posting an Advent devotional reflection on our New Light blog each day during this season.

Here's today's reflection...

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Here in Maine we're getting hit with a full day of snow, and there's nothing better, in my mind, to usher us into the Christmas spirit! I love a good snow storm, especially for its power to stop us in our tracks and force us to enjoy a change of pace.

We're using the day to finish decorating our house for Christmas, including putting up our Christmas tree... and when that's done, we're going to tackle our home office, which is in desperate need of a good overhaul!

But first, it's time to start shoveling!

Kicking Off the Season

We had a great time at Portland's annual Tree Lighting last night at Monument Square. The fun started at 5:30, with performances by the Maine State Ballet, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Rick Charette & the Bubblegum Band. It was cold -- in the 20's -- and the crowd was thick, so it was hard to see the stage, and the music was a bit muffled by our winter hats... but we still had a great time.

Santa Claus made a guest appearance, arriving by firetruck, and then after a countdown from 10, the tree was lit, officially marking the beginning of this holiday season. It's no small tree: a 50-foot blue spruce, according to the article in this morning's Portland Press Herald.

Afterward, we ducked into Subway with our friend Erica and her sister Amanda, for a bite to eat, and especially to warm up a bit!

We're really looking forward to our first Christmas season in Portland!

Feeding the Birds

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Searsport, Maine at my parents' house. It was great to be with family!

On Thanksgiving afternoon, my parents had an unusual visitor at their birdfeeder just outside the kitchen window.

I guess this one got pardoned! The one on our Thanksgiving table was a little plumper than this poor scrawny fellow.

An Affirmation of Faith: Stewardship

We believe in God,
Creator of the universe,
Giver of every good gift,
Author of life itself.

We believe in Jesus Christ,
who reminded us of the coming of God’s kingdom,
who commanded us to care for those in need,
who taught us to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth,
and who gave us the example of self-giving love.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
who inspires us to faithful stewardship of God’s gifts,
in whom we live and move and have our being,
by whom all things are possible.

We believe that God has given us gifts to be shared freely and generously,
in a spirit of love and joy.
We acknowledge that we are merely stewards of all that is God’s,
caretakers of God’s home.
We believe that faithful stewardship is an act of worship,
a means of praising God who has blessed us so abundantly.
We believe that God has great things in store for us,
for it is in giving that we receive.

(Allen & Sara Ewing-Merrill, 2004)

A Few Random Thoughts...

• The warehouse visit went remarkably well. In four hours, a good sized crew of people weeded through all five tons of stuff, sold some things to an appraiser, gave other things away, and selected some things that will be useful in our new space, wherever that happens to be. We consolidated seven large vaults down into two that we'll keep, one that's being delivered to someone's basement for further sorting, and three that are full now but will be empty as soon as we can find a home for the stuff. That's progress! And while it was hard for some folks to let go of the things that have such sentimental attachment, all in all it went smoothly, and we left the warehouse friends. God is good.
  
  
• I spent part of Saturday and part of Sunday raking leaves. I've never lived in a neighborhood with so many leaves! There are giant, tall maple trees lining both sides of the road, and they create a wonderful canopy over this quiet street that's so beautiful... but this time of year, they are shedding like crazy! I find such satisfaction in raking leaves, though. Yes, it's a lot of work, but when it's done I feel such a sense of accomplishment -- and my accomplishment is easy to see and measure, unlike so much of what I do.
  
  
• Today a parishioner, whose playful spirit I enjoy so much, said, "I am just so excited about this adventure we're on... I'm all a-twitter!" That was music to my ears. And I'm excited, too.
  
  
• I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family in Searsport. I love turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. Not a big fan of turnip, though... What are your favorite Thanksgiving foods?
  
  
• I'm looking forward to meeting Rev. Mair Honan, who will be our guest preacher this coming Sunday, as well. Read about Grace Street Ministry, her ministry with those who are homeless in Portland, here.
  
  
• A shout out to my friend and fellow blogger, Rick McKinley, who jumped through a final hoop this past weekend, when he received the thumbs-up from the Board of Ordained Ministry to be ordained as an elder in the New England Conference of The United Methodist Church next spring. Woo-hoooooo!

Storing Up Treasures (and Trash)

Tomorrow morning, a group of people from the church we serve (the established "mother" church, that is -- some of you know we're pastoring this congregation as well as planting a new church) will be meeting at the warehouse where we have five tons -- yes, 10,000 pounds -- of things in storage.

The congregation sold its building about two years ago. It was a mammoth facility on the National Register of Historic Places: 44 rooms, a sanctuary with balconies on three sides and seating for 800, a full-sized gymnasium, and an office complex... all this in the center of the city, right next to City Hall, with a much coveted parking lot to boot. The problem was, like so many urban churches, the congregation had dwindled, over several decades, until there were only 25 or 30 people left. Yes, that's right: more rooms than people.

So they made the agonizing decision to sell their facility and re-envision themselves. For churches, and probably for most groups, identity and physical space are so intimately interconnected... This has forced the congregation to reimagine itself, to consider its identity apart from the facility that was its home for generations. We continue to work through the grief even as we anticipate a new future. Through all of this, we're discovering the incredible power of nostalgia to paralyze, and also the freedom and the opportunities that emerge when the albatross around the neck can be discarded. Now we're free to make decisions about the future based on visions for ministry rather than the never-ending maintenance needs of an enormous, historic facility. Oh, it's so tempting to see the scarcity, but there's also abundance in this -- like life, it's a complicated mix of both.

So tomorrow we'll visit the warehouse to make some deferred decisions. What to keep? What to discard? As they tell the story, they describe how, when they were preparing to sell the building two years ago, they filled the gymasium, literally, with furniture and filing cabinets and artwork, pews and dishes and boxes and boxes of records, much of which they sold or gave away to other churches and interested individuals. Some things they sold to an appraiser. Physically and emotionally, it was an overwhelming process. What was left, they loaded into moving vans and transported to a warehouse, where it's been stored all this time in four big vaults, in case we might need it someday. It's a bit fuzzy what's actually in there, and by all accounts, they've survived for two years without needing any of it, so tomorrow we'll open those vaults and decide what -- if anything -- we might want for our future ministry.

No criticisms here. Isn't letting go always a process? How many of us have closets and attics and basements and garages and storage units bulging with the "things" we've accumulated, much of which we're storing for the day when it might be useful? I'll confess when Sara and I moved here in July, we loaded our moving van with way too many things. Much of it still lies in unopened boxes that we'll someday need to sort through. How tempting it is to hold onto things, and how powerful is the force of nostalgia! Even more, how easy it is to be held captive to our things, most of which we know, in our heart of hearts, that we do not need.

Didn't Jesus caution us about this when he said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal"? And then these words, that represent a scandalous truth: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Five tons sounds like a lot. I'm curious to see what's in there, and a bit anxious about how it will go tomorrow as we gather with competing ideas about what's really important. But those words keep coming back to me: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I have a feeling God has a spiritual message for us in here somewhere -- perhaps a message about the spiritual consequences of holding on and the freedom of letting go. I hope we're open to receive it.

And who knows? Maybe when it's all said and done, it will be time to tackle some of those unopened boxes in our basement...