Lenten Reflection for Ash Wednesday, February 26 from Pastor Lauren

“From ashes you were created and to ashes you will return.”

The first Ash Wednesday service I ever went to was in Juarez, Mexico. My dad and I were building houses with a local organization in Juarez and they invited us to church after a long day in the sun. The service was in Spanish, a language I do not speak with any fluency, so I really didn’t understand what was being said. Before long, we went up to the priest and had ashes put on our foreheads, specs of ash falling onto the tip of my nose and lips. Someone translated the words of the priest for me and my dad “from ashes you were created and to ashes you will return.”

As the service continued, I sat there listening to the organ play, smelling the incense as it filled my lungs, and hung on these words. I thought about the ashes that collect at a campfire and in the devastating remnants of a house fire. I thought about the certainty of death that all living creation faces--the ways we are bound together with a common destination. I thought about the fleeting nature of life and the short time we really all have on earth, in this body, in this place, with these people. I was struck by the sacredness of Ash Wednesday: a day to remember our mortality, our fragility, our connectedness to all of creation.

In your personal time of reflection today, I invite you to think about the connection you inherently have with all of creation. The very fibers of your being are made up from the cells of other beings no longer living. Your body’s final destination is the same as every other living thing. While our uniqueness is something to celebrate, our commonality is something to behold. How does the notion, “From ashes you were created and to ashes you will return” inform your daily life?

A Deeper Lent

Engage with a Powerful Lenten Spiritual Journey

Our lives are often busy as we run from one thing to another and are bombarded with news all around us. This Lent, we invite you to slow down, reflect, and breathe with us.

In preparation for “A Deeper Lent,” we encourage you to sign up or make plans now for the main components of this year's Lenten journey in which we will explore spiritual practices related to big topics like prayer, food, worship, service, and more.

First, be sure to put Ash Wednesday, February 23rd on your calendar. We will hold a joint service with MCC, Carondelet UCC, and Peace UCC at 7pm in MCC's sanctuary.

Secondly, we strongly encourage everyone to sign-up for our weekly Lenten study groups together with CUCC and Peace UCC members, drawing on topics discussed in worship. In class, we will watch a video and discuss a spiritual practice. Throughout the week, we will be invited to think more deeply through guided journaling prompts between sessions. Groups will be held on Monday and Wednesday nights at our church building, and there will also be an offering on Monday night at Rumors on Ice in Jefferson County. Throughout Lent, you can attend any of these groups and do not need to commit to any one group.

Finally, join us for short Lenten devotionals for the weekdays during Lent. Sign-up for these daily emails if you would like to have some specific ideas for your daily devotional time. These devotions will be written by Pastors Wes and Lauren from MCC and Pastor Brad from CUCC/Peace UCC.

Moms Demand Action Advocacy Day

Working to End Gun Violence

In the book of James, we learn that "faith without works is dead." James, the brother of Jesus, urges us to ensure that we live out the teachings of Jesus in the way we interact with those around us.

In the coming weeks, we have two opportunities to engage the matter of the increasing gun violence in our city and world. These are excellent ways for each of us to put our faith into action.

The first opportunity is to join Moms Demand Action for Advocacy Day in Jefferson City on Tuesday, February 18th. We'll be meeting with legislators to show them that Missourians want them to act to save lives. If you would like to join us for the day, register with with us (and we will ensure you are registered with Moms Demand Action). We will then help coordinate rides for our volunteers.

The second opportunity is to simply stay after church on Sunday, February 23rd to hear from some of the leaders of Moms Demand Action. They will share what they are currently working on and offer some ways you can lift your voice to help reduce (and one day bring an end to) gun violence.

Our church has such a rich history of social justice work on behalf of our community, and for that and so many more reasons, we are proud to serve you as your pastors.

A Prayer for a New Year Adapted from W. Nicolas Abraham

Holy and Immortal One,

• As I begin this new year, I ask that I may become more attentive to your ways and not those of fear and shame:

• Release me from the chains of past betrayals and create within me a new heart--a heart that is once again vulnerable to hurt and rejection, yet mighty and invincible;

• Cleanse me from the temporary fragrance of material fortune that I may savor the timeless gifts of your spirit;

• Ease my burdens and worries, relaxing my every bone and muscle with your peace;

• Stabilize my sense of self that I may avoid all quest for approval;

• Rid me of all self-righteousness and self-made purity codes that I may accept my flaws and imperfections without condoning behaviors that endanger the dignity of others;

• Be merciful to me when I speak words that disrespect both myself and others but embolden me to challenge the selfish spirit that can so easily take possession of one’s soul;

• Take me wherever someone is in need of love and salvation from despair;

• With each sunrise, help me renew my pledge to fulfill my calling as a witness to your love;

• With each sunset help me detach and release all that was and has been into the arms of night;

• All this I pray in Your Name, Amen.

A Christmas Eve Blessing

Throughout the season of Advent, we have been sitting with the titles Jesus would come to subvert: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus will grow to be a fulfillment of these titles in an unpredictable way as a man who listens attentively to all people, whose strength comes from compassion rather than force, who loves like a parent, and who encourages all people to live generously.

As we prepare the way for Jesus to enter into the world tonight, let us sit with Mary through her labor pains. Let us breathe beside her and encourage her as she births a son who makes way for us all to engage in the hard, thoughtful, and rewarding work of peace, reconciliation, and love.

May this Christmas season be one of joy and inspiration as you dream of ways the world will be better as Christ is birthed anew in your life. We give thanks for you this day and for all that will come to be after this birth!

Resources for Advent Week 4

The four-week Advent journey to the manger in Bethlehem is almost over. We offer you this daily devotional guide, sent weekly, to bless your personal devotional and prayer time. May your Advent be richly blessed.

Monday Devotional Meditation

From The Journey by Adam Hamilton, which is our 2019 Advent Book Study.

In the fall of 2010, I [Adam Hamilton] retraced the journey of Mary and Joseph by following the most direct route from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Along the way I was struck by how difficult the journey must have been for Mary, and how disappointing.

Like Mary, all of us find ourselves forced to take journeys we do not wish to make. These journeys are not prescribed by God, but by life's circumstances, or the will of others. In the midst of them, we may be disappointed; wonder if we've been abandoned by God; or simply feel confused as to why we've had to travel such roads. Perhaps Mary felt some of these same emotions on the journey to Bethlehem.

But here's what we find in Scripture and what is echoed in our own lives: God does not abandon us while we're on these journeys. Somehow, in ways we never anticipated, God even works through them. We look back years later and can see how God took adversity, disappointment, and pain and used these very things to accomplish Divine purposes.

Ann was five months pregnant when she sensed that something was not right. After an amniocentesis, doctors diagnosed her unborn baby with a genetic condition called "Chromosome 22 ring." At the time, very few cases were known. The doctors told Ann and her husband Jerry that their child would likely be stillborn. When she asked about delivering the child early so doctors might have a chance to perform a surgery that might save his life, the doctors came back and said, "Ann, this will not be a life worth saving." Ann and Jerry would remember those words many times over the years.

Matthew was born in January 1984. Ann and Jerry chose the name Matthew because it means "gift from the Lord." Matthew was born with several serious birth defects, but he lived. This was not a journey Ann and Jerry had anticipated or would have desired to make, but it was the journey life had dealt them, and they were grateful for their son.

I first met Matthew when he was eight. His mom and dad visited our church, and out of that visit, our church started a ministry for Matthew and children like him, a special-needs ministry that we named after him: Matthew's Ministry. Later, when Matthew needed surgery, knowing he would need blood, his surgery prompted us to start an annual blood drive.

Matthew died at the age of 21. His life shaped Ann and Jerry into two of the most remarkable people I know. And Matthew changed thousands of other lives. Today over 140 special-needs children and adults are part of Matthew's Ministry. Annually in our blood drives we collect over fifteen hundred pints of blood for people in the Kansas City area. Our church and community were changed as a result of this child whose life "wasn't worth saving."

God's greatest work often arises out of the journeys we don't want to take. God has a way of wringing good from disappointment, suffering, and pain. This is what Ann and Jerry found. It is what Joseph and Mary came to see again and again. Look back over your life. Can you see how God brought good from adversity? If you are on such a journey right now, trust God to walk with you and to bring good from it.

God, thank you for the way you bring good from suffering. Please help me to remember that you promised to never leave me nor forsake me. Bring good from the adversity in my life, and grant me your peace when I take those journeys I don't want to take. Amen.

Tuesday (Christmas Eve) Questions for Reflection

Watch this very powerful final Advent message from Pastor Wes, and then consider these reflection questions.

12-22-2019 Prince of Peace

1. As we anticipate the arrival of Jesus once again, what wars inside you must be brought to an end?

2. Where do you need to offer forgiveness and lay down the sword of being right or of being hurt?

3. Where do you need to generously offer your time and transform your calendar from a weapon to a blessing?

4. Rather than the spear of personal success, how can you use a spade to tend to someone else?

5. How will you leave the command and control of the 'military of must-ing?'

Wednesday (Christmas Day) Blessing

Jan Richardson, The Advent Door

How the Light Comes

A Blessing for Christmas Day

I cannot tell you

how the light comes.

What I know

is that it is more ancient

than imagining.

That it travels

across an astounding expanse

to reach us.

That it loves

searching out

what is hidden

what is lost

what is forgotten

or in peril

or in pain.

That it has a fondness

for the body

for finding its way

toward flesh

for tracing the edges

of form

for shining forth

through the eye,

the hand,

the heart.

I cannot tell you

how the light comes,

but that it does.

That it will.

That it works its way

into the deepest dark

that enfolds you,

though it may seem

long ages in coming

or arrive in a shape

you did not foresee.

And so

may we this day

turn ourselves toward it.

May we lift our faces

to let it find us.

May we bend our bodies

to follow the arc it makes.

May we open

and open more

and open still

to the blessed light

that comes.

Resources for Advent Week 3

Monday Devotional Meditation

Taken from The Journey by Adam Hamilton, which is our 2019 Advent Book Study.

For nine or ten days Mary had carried in her heart the most astounding secret: She was pregnant, and the child was to be the long-awaited Messiah, Israel’s deliverer. Yet she had been afraid to share the news, for if the wrong person heard, Herod could have had her killed; or, if her loved ones didn’t believe her, the religious leaders might have condemned her and had her put to death. Perhaps she herself was afraid to trust that it was true.

But when Elizabeth prophesied over Mary and announced that she was blessed, Mary finally was able to trust that God really was at work. She believed that, despite the inherent danger in carrying the Messiah; despite the reality that her hopes and dreams had been turned upside down; and despite the fact that she didn’t fully understand, God would work through her and her child. In her acceptance of this amazing truth, Mary finally shouted out her song of joy. Can you hear the tone of her song in its opening words? “My soul magnifies the Lord! My spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”

Joy, unlike happiness, can come to us independent of our circumstances. It comes not from changing our circumstances but from viewing them through the eyes of faith. The apostles, after being beaten by the Council, rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Paul penned his well-known “epistle of joy”—the letter to the Philippians—even as he sat in a Roman prison awaiting news as to whether he would be executed for his faith. In the letter he wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica, who themselves had been persecuted for their faith, “Rejoice always,” and then told them how this was possible when he continued, “Pray without ceasing” and “give thanks in all circumstances.”

Last year I was in Malawi, Africa, visiting rural villages to explore partnerships with local congregations to build wells, schools, and churches. In one of the villages, the people, who earn about fifty-five cents per person per day, took us to the stream of green, brackish water that they used for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. They asked us to consider helping them build a well so their children might not get sick from the water anymore.

After we had toured their village, they invited us to their church. We stepped inside the mud-brick building. It was just a large room with open holes where windows might go, and daylight shining through gaps in the thatched roof. And then they began to worship. They sang songs of joy because they trusted God, and they believed that God had brought us to Malawi to help them have safe drinking water (something we ourselves believed). Would that Christians in the United States sang with such exuberance and joy!

Mary, despite dangers, fears, risks, and upended dreams, “magnified the Lord and rejoiced in God.” She did this with the help of Elizabeth and with her own willingness to trust that God was working in and through her to accomplish Divine purposes.

Joy is a choice we make when we look at our present circumstances through the eyes of faith, trusting that God is at work and will never leave us nor abandon us. And it is often found with the help of another person who can reassure us that God is with us.

Tuesday Questions for Reflection

Adapted from The Journey by Adam Hamilton

1. How would you define "joy?"

2. How is joy different from happiness?

3. Can you remember and experience when you experienced joy at the same time you felt unhappy? Have you ever felt happy but not joyful? What do these experiences teach you about happiness and joy?

4. Think about Mary's statement, "My soul magnifies the Lord." What does it mean? How do we magnify the Lord?

Wednesday Prayer

Adapted from the UMC Social Creed and Sunday's Advent Candle Liturgy

Strong Mother, Everlasting Father, Gracious Parent,

We pause. We breathe. We reflect.

We thank you for this season where we anticipate the Unexpected Messiah.

We remind ourselves that while we continue to grow and

age, you will always be for us our eternal and loving Parent.

We hear the prophet who speaks to us saying:

God embraces all the many hues of humanity,

delights in diversity and difference,

and stands in the strength of solidarity

that transforms strangers into friends.

And so shall we.

God laughs as kittens and puppies play with uncoordinated abandon,

finds glee in the children who come full of energy,

overflows with joy when observing the cooperation of creation.

And so shall we.

This week, may we find joy in simply standing, sitting, and being

in your presence and participating in the gift of life.

May your joy now fill our souls, once again.

Sung: O come thou Dayspring come and cheer,

Our spirits by thine advent here,

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s deep shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

Thursday Questions for Reflection

This week's questions are focused on the Magnificat, a modern interpretation has been included for you below. You may also choose to watch Pastor Lauren's sermon from Sunday (which will be uploaded on Tuesday), which discusses more on this topic.

A modern interpretation of Mary's Magnificat

(Luke 1:47-55) from enfleshed:

My soul is alive with thoughts of God.

What a wonder, Their liberating works.

Though the world has been harsh to me,

God has shown me kindness,

seen my worth,

and called me to courage.

Surely, those who come after me will call me blessed.

Even when my heart weighs heavy with grief,

still, so does hope abide with me.

Holy is the One who makes it so.

From generation to generation,

Love’s Mercy is freely handed out;

None are beyond the borders of

God’s transforming compassion.

The power of God is revealed

among those who labor for justice.

They humble the arrogant.

They turn unjust thrones into dust.

Their Wisdom is revealed in

the lives and truths of those on the margins.

God is a feast for the hungry.

God is the great re-distributor of wealth and resources.

God is the ceasing of excessive and destructive production

that all the earth might rest.

Through exiles and enslavement,

famines and wars,

hurricanes and gun violence,

God is a companion in loss,

a deliverer from evil,

a lover whose touch restores.

This is the promise They made

to my ancestors, to me,

to all the creatures and creations,

now and yet coming,

and in this promise,

I find my strength.

Come, Great Healer,

and be with us.

Mary prepared room for Christ in her very womb. In what ways are preparing room for Christ in our hearts? In our lives? In our finances? In our families? In our community?

As children of Christ who get to continue his legacy of love, how are we telling of the glory of our Everlasting Father? The one who loves us like a parent with accountability, grace, and love; who throws a party at our return to community; who celebrates us even when we make mistakes? How are we reflecting on the stories of our lives and seeing how Christ is present in our midst?

How are we shouting a new story? A story that disrupts the frantic consumerism and worry, characteristic of a typical American lifestyle, to one of thoughtfulness, love, and compassion?

In what ways are we living so that heaven and nature can sing in harmony? How are we being good stewards of the land, sea, and air? How are we creating an earth more like heaven where everyone has enough, wars cease, and all creation can live in harmony?

Friday Prayer

Adapted from Walter Brueggemann

In the midst of a tired and fearful world,

we have heard your everlasting promise to be faithful

to us in times of need, worry, and distress.

We call upon you to bring us a fresh vision for the future.

We ask you to help us to see our part in restoring

our world to be more like that of your dreams...

where all find their place in your story of hope

and are filled with good things.

Be with us as we long for your presence and help us

to be ready for your coming. Amen.