Starting January 8, 2012, Pastor Amber will be starting a series “10 Things Jesus Never Said and Why you Should STOP believing Them” Be sure to hear these great sermons, starting at 10:15am with EXALT & PRAISE followed by Worship at 10:30am
12/18 Sunday, 10:30am
Choir Cantata – “Love Came Down”
12/21, Wednesday, 7:00pm
Blue Christmas: A quiet prayer service for those who are experiencing loss and sadness this holiday season. Nursery available.
12/24, Saturday, 7:00pm
Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion service. Nursery available.
12/25, Sunday, 11:00am
Christmas Day! A casual service of Lessons & Carols. Including a “Birthday Party for Jesus” for the kids. Come as you are! Nursery available
1/1/2012, Sunday 10:15
New Year’s Day! Starting at 10:15 with EXALT. Communion with prayers for healing in the New Year.
Our annual BBQ & Country Fair on November 5th, 2011 from 8AM- 5PM. Fresh, hot from the oven, cinnamon rolls in the morning. Indoor craft display and homemade baked goods. Many vendor booths and free rides for the kids. Our wonderful 1/4 grilled chicken dinner with baked beans, corn on the cob and a soda of your choice for only $5.00. Dinners will be served from 11am – 4pm. See you there!!
Sunday October 30 4-6PM
Cutler Ridge UMC, Fellowship Center
Don’t miss this faith-filled, family-friendly event!!!
This holiday fun night is ideal for small children and will be a fun, safe alternative for Halloween.
Dear Friends,
When scripture and the message get you thinking after worship is over, you know God’s word has rung true. I hope that’s the case for you as we’ve been exploring the Parable of the Lost Sons (Luke 15). For the most part, Jesus befriends the younger, rebel son; remember the Pharisees are always criticizing Jesus for hanging out with sinners. However, he preaches these parables—teaching lessons—to the religious insiders of his day who resembles the moralistic elder son. On Sunday, I left you with the simple question: Which son are you? Our personal faith journeys are certainly influenced by the answer to that question. Has your journey been one of rebellion and wandering? Or have you lived your faith by the letter of the law and expecting others (including God) to do so, too?
This parable reminds me of a wonderful movie called Chocolat…ever seen it? The story is about a village of “elder son” types who exclude the wandering river people and eccentric loners, including a flamboyant single mother who sells homemade chocolate during Lent. The town mayor is the chief of all “elder brothers,” who leads the charge to condemn immorality. He finally comprehends the grace of God when he succumbs to his own weaknesses and is caught red-handed. (If you’ve ever had an insatiable midnight craving for chocolate, then you’ll appreciate his downfall.) We cannot fully appreciate the grace of God given to others until we acknowledge and depend on it completely for ourselves. What’s also obvious in the movie is communal and individual lack of joy among the town’s folks. By the end, they truly know how to celebrate Easter—and enjoy a good party—because they have welcomed all.
This is Jesus’ commandment: Love one another, and in doing so our joy will be complete (John 15.) Or as Mike Slaughter put it in his book Unlearning Church, “Jesus’ preoccupation is with people that are in need. He is not concerned about our claims to love and serve him, but our willingness to demonstrate that love through caring for those who are still on the outside and not yet experiencing God’s party. ‘If you love,’ Jesus is saying, ‘you will be my connection to those who are not here.’” We’re not done yet with this Parable. We’ve got one more person to talk about…see you on Sunday!
Peace,
Pastor Amber
As you probably heard, Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO of Apple Inc, passed away this weekend from cancer at the age of 56. An inspiring leader, he created one of the most successful companies of the modern era and pioneered computer & communication technology as we know it today. Pictures flooded the news of people around the world lifting their iPhones in tribute to him.
I can’t help think of the Parable of the Lost Sons which we are exploring in worship for the next few weeks. I’m not so much reminded about Steve Jobs, but many of the 90 million people who bought his products with the attitude, “I can’t live without this.” In Jesus’ story, the youngest son put material gain and pleasures over all else until he realized its emptiness and returned to his father. I was struck by what our Bishop, Timothy Whitaker, said in his most recent blog regarding our society and how people are motivated by and re-order their lives for materialistic wants. Like a young dad I talked with recently who left work early to get his truck rims fixed and was trying to decide if he should go to a party that weekend where most people would be drinking heavily. Here is an excerpt from the Bishop’s blog:
Steve Jobs rarely appeared in public. The main occasions were his inspirational speeches with video presentations to the shareholders of Apple. With his black turtle-necks and jeans and his close-cropped hair and beard, Jobs looked like the senior pastor of a mega-church. Surely it is mere coincidence that he looked like a modern evangelical preacher. However, he did seem to be a kind of preacher proclaiming a secular gospel. One of the few speeches he gave outside of Apple was his commencement address at Stanford University. To the graduating class he said:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your time is limited, ‘so don’t waste living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
In a very perceptive article on Saturday, October 8, 2011 in The Wall Street Journal, “The Secular Prophet,” Andy Crouch says that Jobs succeeded in articulating a secular form of hope. “This is the gospel of a secular age. Crouch added, “Upon close inspection, this gospel offers no hope that you cannot generate yourself and only the comfort of having been true to yourself. In the face of tragedy and evil–the kind of tragedy that cuts off lives not just at 56 years old but at 5 or 6, the kind of evil bent on eradicating whole tribes and nations from the earth–it is strangely inert.”
It is not only the realities of tragedy and evil which stand as an affront to this middle class American secular gospel of hope, but it is also life itself. Is the joy of life nothing more than marvelous toys which inform and entertain? Is technology all we need to live an abundant life? Apparently, there are many Americans whose vision of life does not transcend the promises of a secular gospel.
There is another gospel–the original one. It does not offer a comfortable way. It offers the way of the cross, which involves learning to overcome selfishness, suffering to make way for justice, and living in community with others who are different from us. Its joys are not to be found on a screen, but under the open sky and in the human heart. It faces death with its own kind of courage, not the courage of a modern day Stoic, but the courage of hope that there is more beyond this finite life.■
In the words of St. Paul, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, lord, for who sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.” –Phil 3:8. Abundant life is gaining Christ and a relationship with the Father. I don’t judge los sons & daughters (or Steve Jobs), it’s just that I want to see them come home to my Father’s house. Have you invited someone to church or a relationship with Jesus Christ lately?
Peace,
Pastor Amber
Announcements:
Youth Group begins this Sunday (10/16) at 5pm in the youth room (208). Middle & High school students are invited to grow in faith weekly through this ministry lead by Betty Cesar.
Open house-As a way for the youth to say “Thank You” for the congregations support and generosity, they will be holding an open house after worship this Sunday (10/16) in the youth room (208). Refreshments will be served. Come check out the new improvements to the youth room.
Halloween Fun Night (Sun. 10/30) will start collecting candy this Sunday. Please bring individualy wraped candy. See Leila Toledo or Gem Rhodd to help.
Fall Softball League for Adults is about to begin. If you are interested in playing, please see Mark Frye ASAP. $50 registration, plus the cost of a team t-shirt. Friends & family of CRUMC can join the fun!
