Christmas Day Blessing

As we leave today,

May the Joy of Christmas Day 

Follow you

And

Be renewed

Whenever you remember

That God is Love. 

Amen.

Communion Statement Christmas Day 2016

On this Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth of a baby in the lowliest circumstances.  Born away from home in a stable, our Savior makes clear that material wealth is not his starting point.  Love is, a mother's love, a step-father's love.  Grown, Jesus' message is simple.  Love God and love people.On this Christmas Day, we need only obey Jesus command to love.

I was a Deist for many years, but today I believe in Jesus, God Incarnate, God in the flesh.  I started out on a Christian path to belief.  I was baptized as a baby in the Presbyterian Church thanks to the beliefs of my Presbyterian-Christian Scientist grandmother.  Later, I was dunked in a Baptist Church thanks to my Southern Baptist mother.  Unfortunately, that church destroyed my blossoming faith.  I walked away from Christianity as a teenager firmly believing that no intelligent person could be a Christian.

I was an adult holding a doctorate in chemistry before I found God in Jesus and intellectual challenge in Christianity.  I joined a liberal Baptist church that promptly split. With a dozen or so others, we started a new church.  The first Sunday, there were 60 people present.  Now it is a congregation of six thousand.  Over time, I found I was no longer in tune with the beliefs of that very vibrant, but theologically conservative, church.

I left and spent a year never going to church, but studying and contemplating my faith.  Eventually, I realized I needed a church home. God's grace led me to Central Christian.  Here I am accepted, just as any of you searching for a church home would be accepted.

My church is a Christian Church (Disciples of  Christ). We are part of a denomination that started in the United States in the early 1800's.  Our founders were Scottish immigrants who wished to break down denominational barriers.  Our church welcomes all who accept Jesus the Christ as their Savior, a Savior who as a child was refugee fleeing with his parents into Egypt. 

We are here on this Christmas Day to take Communion.  Disciples celebrate Communion every time we worship.  Everyone is invited to the Table because it is not our Table, it is the Lord's Table.  Jesus opens his arms to everyone to come and be one with him. 

God and people meet at the Table and something happens.  At the Table, we touch eternity. At the table, God gives love, forgiveness, acceptance and we receive.  In prayer we go to God.  In Communion, God comes to us.  We are not learning something, or remembering something, but doing something–we are meeting God.

(The last paragraph is adapted from A Communion Meditation by Myron J. Taylor.)

Offertory Invitation July 3

Giving to the church is a very private exercise, especially nowadays when we can give electronically.  Yet, we perform a very public act of worship every Sunday when we collect offerings.  Some churches invite persons who make their gifts electronically – weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually – to participate in The Offertory by simply dropping a one-dollar bill into the plate each week.   It is a celebratory practice in those churches, in one called the Hallelujah Dollar.  In this way, the church benefits from electronic giving, yet encourages a meaningful way to make giving an act of worship.   I have resolved to be a participant in The Offertory every Sunday by putting a dollar in the plate.  I urge you to do the same.  With that dollar, I will be part of this worship experience, this offering.  The deacons will now collect the offering.

Offertory Prayer July 3, 2016

Dear God, eternity's proprietor,  
Today's offering is yours 
Before it is given 
Because all creation is yours. 
Teach us how to first think of you

When we think for ourselves,
Let us understand that being able to give monetarily,  
No matter the amount, 
Is a gift of your grace. 
With our offerings we pay homage to you, 
Creator, Word and Love.

Amen.

Memorial Day Communion Prayer

Dear God,

Creator, Word, Love,

We give thanks and praise

For your goodness and mercy,

So undeserved.

We thank you for all those

Who, in all times,

Have been brave and true,

For those 

Who gave their lives

In their country's service.

Help us to be worthy

Of their supreme sacrifice.

We thank you, Jesus,

For your sacrifice.

May our faith stay strong,

That your kingdom come

And your will be done.

Amen.

Communion Statement on Memorial Day

How fitting on Memorial Day we come to the Memorial Table. When it is my opportunity to give the Communion Statement,I prefer to share something positive, something uplifting. I cannot today because on Memorial Day I remember my generations war,a war that claimed over 58,000 lives.  I remember Vietnam.  I remember a young man, just out of high school,wwho chose to volunteer instead of going to college or waiting for the draft.  He died on patrol one week after being deployed in Vietnam.\

On Memorial Day, we remember service men and women, who like my high school friend, gave their lives to secure and protect the freedom we have in this country.  As we come to the Lord's Table, we remember Christ gave his life for us. In remembrance, let us live to be his hands in this world today.

Communion Meditation March 13, 2016

Communion does something. That sounds strange to me. I understand how I do something, take the bread and eat it and the cup and drink it, but I don't see how God does anything. You see, I first met God  intellectually, only later personally.  But I do not come to the table to learn something with  my mind: I come to meet God. God and people meet at the table and something happens. At the table, we touch eternity. At the table, God gives love, forgiveness, acceptance and we receive. In prayer we go to God. In Communion, God comes to us. We are not learning something, or remembering something, but doing something–we are meeting God.

Communion Prayer for January 10, 2016.

Join me now in prayer.

Creator, the center of all existence,

Holy Spirit, our Companion while we live,
I treasure your love.

But the man in the upper room
Sharing bread and wine with his friends,

Chose to live as we do.

To pour as much of himself as he could
Into a human vessel.

Fully God, Fully human.

He gave himself to us

In the simplest necessities of life:

Food and drink,
So that we would remember him.

Jesus, Savior.

We remember you now.

Amen.

Invitation to Communion January 10, 2016

 I invite you to join us in Communion
Or as I knew it a a child, the Lord's Supper.

We will take the bread and wine
(it's grape juice really),

And remember the man
Who first broke the bread and drank the wine.

The same man whose baptism is observed today:

Jesus the Christ.

I was lucky enough to have
A Presbyterian/Christian Scientist grandmother

and a Southern Baptist mother.

One saw to it that I was sprinkled as a baby

and the other that I was dunked at age ten.

So as far as baptism is concerned,
Been there, done that.

Communion is different.  

Only as an adult
Did I understand
The significance of the bread and wine.

Now, I treasure each time
I take the Lord's Supper.

As I hope you will.