Pastor's E-Letter

Pastor's E-Letter

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Pastors E-Letter 11/27/20

It feels perfect and ironic, all at once. This years Advent/Christmas theme is “Come Home for Christmas.” We chose this theme last January. Little did we know then that home is where we would be spending the bulk of our time in 2020. Little did we know then, that for many of us, “celebrating the holidays” would mean “staying” home rather than “going” home in the traditional sense. By the time you read this, I will have spent my first Thanksgiving ever here in Melbourne, with just two of my family members. As I write this, I’m pondering the reality of how to cook for 4 people on Thanksgiving! How do you do that? With just a few exceptions, I’ve spent the last 12 Thanksgivings at my mother’s home in Georgia where we would gather with anywhere from 14 to 22 of my immediate and extended family. Then we would look forward to everyone gathering at my home here for Christmas.

For us, it’s not so much the place that calls us home for the holidays. I’ve lived in many different places for the last 36 years. For us it’s the relationships that beckon us “home” to celebrate the joys of the season together. This is true for many of us. So, in this season of COVID-19, where gathering to celebrate can be scary, our sense of “coming home” can be challenged and tested.

Then again, it is not the first time that “coming home” for Christmas has been complicated by circumstances beyond our control. Military families have long endured the pain of separation at Christmas. Work schedules, illness, and a myriad of other responsibilities can make “coming home” hard, if not impossible.

But of course, the idea of coming home for Christmas is about way more than coming home to a physical place. It’s even about more than coming home to spend time celebrating with our families. Because sometimes, no matter how much we long for that idyllic “family” celebration of the holidays, we know it’s just not always possible in the way we imagine it. Even the best of family relationships can leave us longing for something more.

Coming home for Christmas has a lot more to do with that seemingly universal, soul-deep longing that we all have for something deeper, something timeless: the universal human longing for an intimate relationship with God. We all long for a “home” where we are always welcome, where we truly belong, where we are always loved even when we are unlovable, where we are safe and secure in the chaos and storms of life. A pastor colleague of mine wrote, “The truth about everyone of us is that we are lost – homesick – runaway- children who long to come home to God.”
Advent: A Season of Waiting & Preparation
The promise of Advent and Christmas is that in the child, born in the manger in Bethlehem, we find our true home. In Christ we find a home not dependent on where we are, or who we are with. Christ brings us to our true home by making his home in us! God comes down to dwell in us – to make God’s home with us. And when we receive that gift, we begin to discover our real home in and through him.

That is the mystery that we will be exploring this Advent and Christmas; the miraculous gift of coming home to hope, mercy, joy, faith, and love through Christ. It is a miracle where we are invited to come home to our best selves, and God’s best hopes and dreams for us and for this world.

As we move through this season, we will reflect on what it means to truly come home even as we celebrate a very different kind of Christmas in the midst of a world still facing the challenges of a global pandemic. The good news is that Covid will not, cannot stop his coming! God will always find a way to reach us. Just as God came down to us in the babe born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, Christ will come and be born in us once again. Our job is to watch and wait, to keep hoping and believing and be ready for his coming.

So, this Sunday we will begin the Advent journey of coming home. And as you watch, wait and prepare for His coming, I invite you to spend some time with the British author and poet, C. K. Chesterton, and his classic poem, “The House of Christmas.” I’ll be referencing this poem throughout the season as he captures so powerfully this longing for home.

Don’t forget that this Sunday, we are adding back our traditional 9:30 am worship experience. This is to allow us to continue to maintain appropriate social distance at all our services. Please continue to register for worship so we can continue to monitor attendance and keep everyone safe.

I pray you have had a blessed Thanksgiving and I am so looking forward to celebrating this Advent/Christmas journey with you.

Grace and Peace,
Annette

Posted by Annette Stiles Pendergrass with

Pastors E-Letter 10/23/20

Back in August, during our “Launch into Extraordinary Love” series, we talked about the lifelong process of intentional spiritual growth that leads us to grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Now, for the last 3 weeks, we have again been talking about spiritual growth as we think about growing in our generosity as an expression of our gratitude. Our whole “Taking the Next Step in Gratitude” generosity campaign is aimed at encouraging all of us to see our earning, saving, spending, and giving through the eyes of God. The goal is to enable our hearts to become more and more centered on God, more focused on the things that really matter in life and more free to celebrate the amazing gifts of God by giving a significant, planned portion of those gifts back to God and to causes that enable God’s ongoing Kingdom work in the world.
 
A line from Adam Hamilton’s book, “Enough” has been stuck in my head ever since I read it. It is a subtitle in the 4th chapter of the book, and it reads, “Created to give, tempted to keep.” God created us in God’s own image which means that God created us with the willingness to give as a way of reflecting the extravagantly generous character of God. But the problem is that we struggle against that impulse. We are afraid if we give, there may not be enough left over for us. We also struggle with self-gratification, worrying that if we give, we might not have enough left over to enjoy all the “things” we want to enjoy in life.
 
Which is why growing in gratitude and generosity is such an important part of our spiritual growth. As we center ourselves in gratitude for all of God’s gifts, we realize that what matters most in our lives has very little to do with the stuff that we sometimes think we need. Likewise, as we center ourselves in gratitude, we discover peace and contentment with all that God has already given to us. Finally, as we center our hearts in gratitude, we want to say thank you to God and generosity follows. We want to express our gratitude to God and to reflect God’s generosity in our own generosity. We want to use God’s gifts in ways that make a lasting, eternal difference. In the process, we become more and more, the generous, open handed persons God intends for us to be. We become less anxious, more content, and finally more joyful. I guess you could say that the cycle of generosity begins in gratitude and ends in freedom and joy which is what Paul was saying when he said, “God loves a cheerful giver.”
 
This Sunday in worship, we will be celebrating our Take the Next Step in Gratitude Sunday. Our intention throughout this series has been to celebrate and give thanks for all that God has done and is doing in us as individuals and through Suntree UMC. In all the challenges we have faced over the last 8 months, we wanted to say, “Look at what God has done! And look at what God has done through your generosity!” We have so much to celebrate and so much over which to give thanks. The only questions that remain are, “How will we continue to thank God for all of God’s gifts and blessings? How will each of us honor and glorify God?” This Sunday is about answering those questions along with the one that we have invited you to pray daily, “God, where do you want me to be in my giving?” Your answer is between you and God. It is a deeply spiritual question with profound implications for each of our lives.
 
I hope between now and Sunday you will continue to pray over these questions and that you will join us in worship as we celebrate God’s amazing work among us and seek to answer those questions as we fill out our estimate of giving cards. Most of all, I pray we will each know the deep joy, freedom and contentment that flows from a grateful and generous heart.
 
Grace and Peace,
Annette
Posted by Annette Stiles Pendergrass with

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