St. Philip's UCC

Light Shining in the Darkness

Lights in the Darkness Tony Robinson December 13, 2020 First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? - 2 Peter 3:3-4 (NRSV)... Advent is a season but also a way of life. As a season, it is the weeks before Christmas, busy with holiday preparation. As a way of life, Advent means more. It means trusting that God is faithful and coming even when the evidence of God’s presence and power may seem in short supply. One of the most memorable characters in Trevor Noah’s wonderful autobiography, Born a Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood, is his mother. Of his mother, Noah wrote, She was as stubborn as she was religious. Noah’s mother was the opposite of the scoffers that Peter said you can count on coming when times are tough, those would taunt the faithful, asking where is this God they believe in. Trevor’s mother had a quick response to that. That’s the devil talking. I can easily imagine Peter’s further words on the lips of Noah’s mother. Remember, with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promises as some think of slowness, but is patient with you that all may come to repentance (2 Peter 3:8-9). Trevor Noah was fortunate to have a woman of such indomitable faith in his corner. My own maternal grandmother played a somewhat similar role in my life. What about you? If we think about it, I’ll bet most all of us have had such a person in our life somewhere along the way. Scoffing is easy and plentiful. Those of solid and enduring faith help us to keep Advent all year ‘round. And who knows? Maybe you are that person for another. Prayer At this darkest time of the year, grant us grace to recall those shining lights of wise and steady faith who have lightened our darkness. Amen. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tony Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher, and writer. His newest book, Useful Wisdom: Letter to Young (and Not So Young) Ministers is available from Wipf and Stock. You can read and sign up for his blog at www.anthonybrobinson.com. United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115, United States Copyright 2020 UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

And All the Merry-Hearted Sigh Mary Luti December 12, 2020 The earth dries up and withers... The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have broken the everlasting covenant. Thereforethe wine dries up, the vine languishes, and all the merry-hearted sigh. - Isaiah 24:4-7 (NRSV)... Not everyone can drink safely. Alcohol is deadly for some people. So not everyone responds well to the use of wine as an image of earthly well-being. Still, for as long as humans have cultivated grapes and drunk wine, imagination has made the metaphorical link: fat grapes heavy on the vine, free-flowing wine in ample supply, merry-hearted people singing all’s right with the world. So when a poet speaks instead of withering vines, shriveling grapes, and wine in short supply, we stop in our tracks. When erstwhile-flushed consumers sigh, when all they do is sigh, our blood runs cold. The trouble is moral before it is ecological: breathtaking human fecklessness has sickened everything. Our arrogance, greed, and violence have us in a death spiral. All creation is swept into the vortex with us. There is no wine. In Advent, we kneel in this devastated wasteland of our own making and thirst and thirst for want of wine until we finally feel how much we need a savior; until our hoarse sighs turn heaven towards us with the gift of a joy-maker who knows we have no wine and comes earthward anyway. He will soon be arriving to our sagging feast. When he appears, he will take immense jars of countless bitter tears and turn them into song. He will draw out wondrous drink and re-start the wedding. It will be safe for all, and he will consume it with us, merry-hearted. He will make us well, the earth well, and all manner of thing, well. Prayer Marantha! Come, Lord Jesus! ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mary Luti is a long time seminary educator and pastor, author of Teresa of Avila’s Way and numerous articles, and founding member of The Daughters of Abraham, a national network of interfaith women’s book groups. United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115, United States Copyright 2020 UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Devotional Word Power Phiwa Langeni December 11, 2020... Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation. - Matthew 12:36b-37 (MSG) Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me! Generations of children inherited this chant as though its utterance would cast a spell of protection over us. I can hear it in my head in the cadence and style it was taught to me as a young one. This blatant falsehood that was meant to thicken our skin inadvertently deepened the invisible wounds caused by careless words. We carried these unhealed hurts into adulthood, comfortably hidden in the crevices of our being until they unintentionally spill out of us, recycling the very harm we absorbed as children. Oh, how I wish Matthew’s wisdom could’ve been more readily available to us, as children and even now as adults. If we truly grasped how very powerful words are to our very existence so powerful they can literally preserve or eliminate lives we would have to reconsider almost everything we know. In place of political correctness, we can respect people and the language they use to refer to themselves (instead of language that erodes respect). Instead of tweets, status updates, and word-slinging in the comments section, we can rehumanize the digital distance between our keyboards and people’s screens on the other end. As we continue to prepare in this time of Advent, let’s choose a truthier chant to share with the Christ-child and children of every age: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can save or kill. Prayer Give us the wisdom to choose words that more powerfully reflect Love and Life. Amen. ABOUT THE AUTHOR The Rev. Phiwa Langeni is the Founder/Director of Salus Center (the first LGBTQ Resource & Community Center in Lansing, MI) and Pastor of Salus Center UCC & First Congregational UCC - Ypsilanti. They are a parent, speaker, writer, transitional coach, designer, and low-key fashion head. FacebookSubscribe United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115, United States Copyright 2020 UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Glow-in-the-Dark What? John Edgerton December 10, 2020 The poor and needy search for water,... but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it. - Isaiah 41:17-20 (NIV) God will restore creation, we shall not all perish in climate catastrophe. God will do this out of love for the poor and needy who are being ground into the dust by climate change. But having faith in God’s promises doesn’t let us off the hook. Instead, faith frees us from paralyzing fear and despair. Faith frees us to take courageous action. The Lord shall do it, but as Christians we must align our lives with what God is doing. We must find ways to live in the world as it is and also co-create the world that is to come. Do not lose heart! You are not alone! In the race to redeem the earth from climate catastrophe, there are many people working for solutions. Grid-level battery storage, graphene-based filters to desalinate water on a nano level without heat or electricity. There’s even a guy making houseplants glow in the dark in order to replace electric streetlights with (and I cannot emphasize this enough) huge glow-in-the-dark ferns. God works in mysterious ways, holy wonders to perform. That is to say, when God says something is going to get done, it’s going to get done. It just might not look the way we thought it would. Prayer Almighty God, restorer of creation, help me be part of your holy work. ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Edgerton is Lead Pastor at First United Church of Oak Park, Illinois. United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115, United States Copyright 2020 UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST