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WEEK OF DECEMBER 9-15, 2018             MESSAGE FROM THE PASTOR

12/12/2018

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SCRIPTURES for SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16
Third Sunday in Advent
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

[Paul writes, ] 
Do not worry about anything,
   but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
      let your requests be made known to God. 
And the peace of God,
   which surpasses all understanding,
      will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
   
                                          
- Philippians 4:6-7
 
This past Sunday, which was the second Sunday in Advent, the theme was Peace.  I wanted to say more about the Peace of God.
On the first Thursday of each month, I enjoy meeting with the Harrisonburg- Rockingham Inter-Faith Association.  In the IFA, I get to mingle with neighbors who represent various Christian churches, as well as Jews and Muslims, and even one or two men who call themselves “Humanists.”  We practice peace.  “We covenant together to embody in our community God’s peace through our faith traditions.”  The IFA gave rise to the Faith In Action organization, which operates the Open Doors thermal shelter program for people experiencing homelessness,
Over the years, you may have heard how Jews, Muslims, atheists and others often pick up extra shifts in workplaces at Christmas time, so Christians can take off work.  Our Faith In Action membership has its own wonderful story of friendly cooperation at Christmas time: that week, the Islamic Association of the Shenandoah Valley hosts the Open Doors shelter, and the Congregation Beth El Synagogue provides and serves the meals there for them.  Merry Christmas !
When things are already peaceful, it’s not such a big deal to cooperate and be friendly with neighbors.  Very often, though, tension and fear, if not outright warfare, make it hard for people coming from different positions to face one another and get along.  That’s why Jesus lays a special blessing on peace makers (Matthew 5:9), and teaches us to love our enemies and do good to them (Luke 6:27-36 and elsewhere).
This past Thursday at the InterFaith Association meeting, we heard from Lisa Schirch, who teaches at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU.  Lisa is a Mennonite Christian— her parents were present at the meeting, to vouch for that ! — and she is married to Bill Goldberg, a  practicing Jew, who was also present at the IFA meeting to support his wife. 
Lisa is a long-time peace activist.  Her specialty is in bringing Christians, Muslims, and Jews together to find common ground in Israel-Palestine.  Lisa has studied deeply in the histories of Jews, Christians, and Muslims and how they have arrived in and lived in Israel-Palestine.  She works to get people from different roots to listen deeply to one another and understand one another.  She is convinced that Israel-Palestine can be a place of safety for both Israelis and Palestinians. 
An organization Lisa is involved with, called Friends Of Roots, puts it this way: “At Roots we envision a social and political reality that is founded on dignity, trust, and a mutual recognition and respect for both peoples’ historic belonging to the entire Land.”          www.friendsofroots.net

If you have paid attention to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the years, you have seen the violence and hate that usually leads the news about it.  Addressing that, Lisa calls on each person to take responsibility for their own actions and learn their own history.  For example, she shared with us her research on historic Mennonite prejudice against Jews, from Europe to North America.  She illustrated ways that progressive Christians in North America often listen to Palestinian views but refuse to seek understanding of historic Jewish experiences of leaving hostile places, going to Palestine, and participating in the Zionist project and the State of Israel.  And she noted how outside Christians fail to listen to Arab/ Palestinian Christians whose roots are in the Holy Land.
Lisa stresses the importance of supporting people on both sides of conflict to be safe and free.  This requires that we listen deeply to people on both sides, we face the complexity of situations, and we examine the double-standards we may hold.
As I listened to Lisa’s presentation, I reflected, how fear and violence drive us to regard the other person with hatred.  What a joy-destroyer !
 
And the angel said unto them,
“Fear not:
   for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
      which shall be to all people.”
   
                                              - Luke 2:10
 
With joy you will draw water
   from the wells of salvation.
                          
                                              
- Isaiah 12:3
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WEEK OF DECEMBER 2-8, 2018               MESSAGE FROM THE PASTOR

12/5/2018

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SCRIPTURES for SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9
Second Sunday in Advent
Baruch 5:1-9
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 1:68-79;  3:1-6

 
If your Bible does not include the book of Baruch, try copying and pasting this link:  
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Baruch+5&version=NRSV

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
 
    - from T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets: East Coker III
(written in September, 1940, during the air-raids in London)

For the past few years at Bethel, we have been journeying through Advent seasons according to a scheme of themes for each of the four Sundays: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love.  
If you’re curious, ask me why.
 
This past Sunday, we sang songs of hope for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth and of Jesus Christ in final victory.  I preached on the intersection between our hopes and our (two-way) prayers: if we find ourselves hoping— and fearing/ worrying, that ought to turn us to praying about our hopes— and worries/ fears.  Our prayers will help us, in God’s good time, to hope God’s hopes and do God’s will, laying aside our fears and worries.  There’s so much to be said about our fears and worries of the present day: no way could I touch on their full scope.  But I somewhat regret not mentioning this topic: the current epidemic of hopelessness and suicide in our nation.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last week released its annual report on life expectancy.  CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D., stated, “The latest CDC data show that the U.S. life expectancy has declined over the past few years.  Tragically, this troubling trend is largely driven by deaths from drug overdose and suicide.  Life expectancy gives us a snapshot of the Nation’s overall health and these sobering statistics are a wakeup call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable.  CDC is committed to putting science into action to protect U.S. health, but we must all work together to reverse this trend and help ensure that all Americans live longer and healthier lives.”

I’m all for it.  Science is information.  Such information has a great place in our love for our neighbor: it can inform us about what we may do to help people, and what hurtful things we ought NOT do to one another.  Witness the many life-saving and quality-of-life enhancing medical developments that bless our lives and those of our loved ones.
But we require a deeper, spiritual ground for our hope: in our prayers and our other thoughts and conversations, we hold in front of God the situations that so many of our neighbors find hopeless.  What is the true, spiritual nature of the problems we/ they face ?  What can we really do ?
 
Here’s some information that we followers of Jesus can pray about and act upon, from the CDC:
  12 suicide warning signs:
          Feeling like a burden
          Being isolated
          Increased anxiety
          Feeling trapped or in unbearable pain
          Increased substance use
          Looking for a way to access lethal means
          Increased anger or rage
          Extreme mood swings
          Expressing hopelessness
          Sleeping too little or too much
          Talking or posting about wanting to die
          Making plans for suicide
 
5 Steps to help someone at risk
          Ask.       
          Keep them safe.       
          Be there. 
          Help them connect.       
          Follow up.
​
For many neighbors, including folks in the churches, this season is a blue time despite the tinsel and green and red decorations.
As the days darken toward the Winter solstice, we may be bearers of this good news, brought to us by the priest Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer:
“By the tender mercy of our God,
    the dawn from on high will break upon us,
    to give light to those who sit
      in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

                                              Luke 1:78-79
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    Contact info

    Rev. Dan Bassett
    Bethel United Church of Christ
    2451 Bethel Church Rd
    Elkton, Virginia 22827
    540-298-1197

    betheluccelktonva@outlook.com

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