Sermons – MPC Family: Recent Episodes
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I wrote this article as a letter to the editor of our local paper, The Gilroy Dispatch, where it was published in February. Our MPC pastors have helped raise awareness of the continued mistreatment of our Native American siblings, and our Presbytery is challenging us to be active in making our voices heard.
I’m from Tyler, Texas, and I attended Robert E. Lee High School, home of the Rebel football team. I was a proud Rebelette on our drill team. We had the largest Confederate flag west of the Mississippi. We had a Rebel Guard that dressed in Confederate uniforms and shot the cannon every time our Rebels scored a touchdown.
I was steeped in Southern pride and loved our traditions and our heritage.
I was a junior in high school when our schools began integrating, and I remember the first African American girl who attended our school. What must she have thought about all our Southern pride? How could she claim this school as her home and her safe haven?
It was during this time that the first inkling of another way of thinking and being in the world began to take hold. It was a long process for me to go from embracing all things southern (even at the expense of those things that caused pain to others) to understanding that it is a much better choice to celebrate the things that draw us together rather than the things that divide us and that represent the pain we have caused others.
Fifty years ago we changed the name of our football team to the Red Raiders, and just last year the high school was renamed Tyler Legacy High. It was not without great controversy that these changes were made.
So it is with this background that I share my sadness that Gilroy has installed an El Camino Mission Bell in downtown Gilroy. As cities and states all over the country are recognizing the pain caused by these reminders of oppression and domination and are moving toward a kinder and more inclusive representation of the citizens who are our neighbors and friends, my hope is that Gilroy will also recognize this. I hope our city will become one that focuses on how we welcome and embrace our citizens rather than place monuments that remind us all of the pain we have caused.
As other California cities are removing their mission bells or making the decision not to install them, Gilroy has moved ahead with installing this symbol of great pain to our Native American friends. I hope at some point, we will reconsider and remove this symbol of oppression.
I ask this in honor of that young African American woman who was forced to attend Robert E. Lee High School and who had to endure signs and symbols of the painful past of her heritage. I regret that we caused her pain, and I want to do my part to ensure that we don’t continue this practice.
Lynn Viale
The post FROM THIS MONTH’S GUEST WRITER, LYNN VIALE appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim will offer a prelude, “Til Foråret” (To Spring), by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907 * Ben will welcome us to Celebration. * Mary Ellen McKey will lead us in the Call to Celebration * The opening song is, “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”. * Next, Mary Ellen will lead us in a Prayer of Confession (by Thea L. Racelis), * Children will be dismissed to Godly Play, * There will be time for invitations. * The MPC Choir will offer “Ave Verum Corpus”, by Mozart, then * Mary Ellen will lead us in a scripture lesson from John 12:1-8. * Talitha will preach a sermon titled, “No Backsies”. * Next is the hymn of response, “We Lift Our Voices”. * Next, Talitha will lead us in a Pastoral Prayer, then * New Session members will be ordained and installed, followed by * A Minute for Mission from Pat Schwinn, then * Offering plates will be passed, * The closing hymn will be, “How Great Thou Art”, then * Mary Ellen will lead us in the Charge, * Talitha will offer a benediction, * and Marcia will offer a postlude, “O Store Gud”, a Swedish folk melody, arranged by Wilbur Held.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, March 27th appeared first on MPC Family.
Friends,
Because Sunday was Mister Rogers Day in the Presbyterian Church (USA), I spent a lot of time over the weekend thinking about the importance of kindness and of gentleness and wondering about how I might be a better neighbor to people close to home and far off.
A lot of my “Rogersesque” musing started when I watched two films about Fred Rogers–a documentary called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, and a biopic called “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”. I watched both movies on Saturday night and I did this because I wanted to make sure I got at least a few details right when I pretended to be Mr. Rogers before the start of my sermon on Sunday. I certainly picked up a few tricks (tossing my penny loafer from one hand to the other, for example), but better than that, I was reminded of how important kindness, gentleness and neighborliness are.
After church on Sunday afternoon, I went for a walk so that I could look at the spring flowers blooming in the neighborhood, and I while I was walking, I felt a great deal of happiness welling up inside of me. It’s possible I felt happy because I was looking at beautiful flowers, and the happiness may have come as a result of having had a gratifyingly- solid post-church nap, but I also suspect that my contemplation of kindness, gentleness, and neighborliness played a role in the joy I experienced after church on Sunday.
Thinking about Mr. Rogers helped me to remember that ugliness and violence and meanness don’t have to define me or anyone else. By focusing on kindness, gentleness, and neighborliness, I was able to remind myself that decency, respect, and love are powerfully transformative. This brought me a measure of hope.
It is possible that I am the only one made happy by thinking about kindness, gentleness, and neighborliness, but I doubt it. I suspect that while results may vary, all of us can enjoy the benefits of thinking about kindness, gentleness and being a good neighbor.
God’s Peace,
Ben
The post FROM THE PASTOR’S PEN appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim will offer a prelude, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”, by Fred Rogers * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Debbie Fallehy will lead us in the Call to Celebration (PC(USA) resources for Mr. Rogers Sunday). * The opening song is, “Be Still and Know That I Am God”. * Next, Debbie will lead us in a Prayer of Confession (PC(USA) resources for Mr. Rogers Sunday), * There will be time for invitations. * The MPC Choir will offer “O God of Mercy”, words by Godfrey Thring; music by Simon Love, then * Debbie will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Luke 13:1-9. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “What To Do When the Bible is Scary”. * Next is the hymn of response, “Farther Along”. * Nest, Ben will lead us in a Pastoral Prayer, next * Offering plates will be passed, * The closing hymn will be, “Jesus, Teach Us To Be Neighbors”, then * Debbie will lead us in the Charge, * Ben will offer a benediction, * and Kim will offer a postlude.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, March 20th appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE MAKE THREE QUICK EMAILS OR CALLS FOR CLIMATE ACTION IN THE SENATE!
A good-sized chunk of the Build Back Better Act’s climate provisions have the votes in the Senate to pass, but are taking a back seat to other issues right now. Yet nothing could be more urgent. We need Biden and the Senate to prioritize and pass them before the November midterms.
- Call Feinstein at 202-224-3841 or 310-914-7300, or click here to email her.
- CallPadilla at 202-224-3553 or click here to email him. (You can call the Senators at any time and leave a message after hours. State your name and zip code, and then your comment.)
- Call President Biden at 202-456-1111 between 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM Eastern Time, Tuesday-Thursday, or click here to email him.
When you call or email them, please communicate the following message:
“Climate change is a pressing global security issue and time is running out! We need you to deliver immediate passage of the climate portion of the Build Back Better Act before the midterms!”
Once you’re finished these calls or emails please click here to log them.
The post Contact Biden, Feinstein and Padilla to urge passage of climate legislation now! appeared first on MPC Family.
Dear Church Family,
Words can barely express how joyful I felt to finally get to take the youth on a retreat again. Some things can be adapted to online, hybrid, or socially-distanced iterations, but late night bonding of teenagers under the stars doesn’t adapt well, and it was 2019 when last we got to go on a retreat together. And that is a long, long time for young people, some of whom were too young to be in youth group back then.
While I was meditating on God’s good creation, sitting out on a rock at Zephyr point, an annoying thing happened. My nature meditation was rudely interrupted by the sound of recorded music, coming from the golf cart of a staff member as they did their daily rounds taking care of the conference center. I tried to tune it out and focus instead on the sound of water lapping and birds singing, but it persisted until finally I gave up and embraced it. I didn’t know why it was so annoying. After all, if it had been birdsong and not recorded humansong I surely would have embraced it as part of the beauty of the place. But I have deeply internalized the lesson that nature is separate from humanity, and that nature is pristine and good while humans are flawed and bad. I realized that I believe this: while birdsong is almost always a beautiful gift from God, human song is only rarely pure and good (think Beethoven), being mostly common, crass, top-40 kind of stuff, like the screeching of a nasty blue jay. Whew. That’s a lot of internalized judgment I uncovered there.
So as I sat there I searched for healthier understandings of human creativity. One thought came to me — something I remembered from a reddit post – that humans are inherently creative creatures. We decorate everything we come across, from paintings in caves, to tattoos on our skin, to dividing time into beats and modulating our voices into tones of a scale. We even program robots to play music, just because we can (note: Curiosity, the Mars rover, sings happy birthday to itself: https://www.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/6sdyxk/a_response_to_those_saying_its_sad_how_the_mars/). Humans are inherently creative, made in the image of a creative God, and we fling our music out to the stars.
And the other thought that came to me was about the ravens in our Bible verse, Luke 12:24 “consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them.” The ravens may not sow or reap, but much like humans, they do collect shiny things. Adolescent ravens, in particular, are known for picking up shiny rocks and bits, just to keep for the curiosity of it…. Just like the human teenagers, who with very little direction created a mandala of nature materials, pinecones and needles and blocks of snow and ice making a swirl of pattern and beauty.
We are not so different from the birds, after all. Perhaps we do a little more agriculture than they, but we are engaged like them in music-making, nest-building, and picking up pretty things to look at on the beach. So may we, like the birds, find our own natural and creative place in this beautiful universe God has created. May we not build our houses like fortresses to keep nature out, but may we stay open and embrace the fact that we are natural creatures too, created beautiful and good.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
The post TALITHA’S TAKE appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim will offer a prelude, “Melodiya”, by Myroslav Skoryk + Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and conductor. In his lifetime Skoryk was awarded the titles People’s Artist of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine. * Ben will welcome us to Celebration. * Doug Brookes will lead us in the Call to Celebration (World Council of Churches). * The opening song is, “Come, Worship God”. * Next, Doug will lead us in a Prayer of Confession (based on a prayer from the World Council of Churches), * There will be time for invitations. * The MPC Choir will offer “Prayer of St. Francis”, then * Doug will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Phillipians 3:17 – 4:1. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “Heavenly Citizenship”. * Next is the hymn of response, “We’re Citizens of Heaven”. * Offering, * The closing hymn will be, “Restore in Us, O God”, then * Doug will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * and Kim will offer a postlude.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, March 13th appeared first on MPC Family.
Friends,
As I was in the process of trying to figure out what to write in Contact this week, someone asked me what I thought a positive outcome for the war in Ukraine would look like, and while I suspect the person asking may have been looking for something more geopolitical in scope, I had to say that my most basic prayer is that everyone in Ukraine–those who are ethnically Ukrainians, those who are culturally and linguistically Russian, Roma people and Jews, members of Ukraine’s beleaguered LGBTQ community, immigrants from Africa, members of far-right militia, and even Russian soldiers–I want everyone to have the kind of day I was having when I started writing these words.
This was Tuesday. The day began with a lovely walk around Temescal lake with a member of the church, a staff meeting made joyous by Ziggy Aho’s smile, and time out of the office to write this while roasting coffee. It was not a perfect day–I was well aware of all the things waiting for my attention on a long and growing to do list, but the sun was out, new leaves were starting to emerge from the fruit trees in my back yard, and everything was peaceful on Thornhill Drive. If it were possible to put such a day in a package and send to Ukraine, I would do so in a heartbeat.
One of the things I love about Montclair Presbyterian Church is how eager members of the church family are to be active in addressing the world’s great problems. You are working on issues like climate change, the preservation of democracy and the dismantling of structural racism. You are currently working on the resettling of refugees from Afghanistan, and now folks are starting to ask what can be done to help out with the situation in Ukraine. So far, suggestions have ranged from doing more refugee resettlement to finding ways to support the anti-war movement in Russia, and if you have any ideas, please pass them along.
Meanwhile, the coffee is now all roasted, and while I was writing this my to-do list got considerably longer. But before I go back to the office I’m going to go out into the garden and say an extra prayer for peace on this beautiful day.
God’s Peace,
Ben
The post From the Pastor’s Pen appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Marcia will offer a prelude, then * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Karen Ray Gibson will lead us in the Call to Celebration (from Iona). * The opening song is, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. * Next, Karen will lead us in a Prayer of Confession (from Iona), * then Debbie Fallehy will lead us in celebrating March birthdays. * There will be time for invitations. * The MPC Choir will offer “In Remembrance”, then * Karen will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Deuteronomy 26:1-11. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “Remember”. * Next is the hymn of response, “God Be the Love to Search and Keep Me”, and then * Ben will lead us in celebrating communion, * Offering, * The closing hymn will be, “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”, then * Karen will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * and Marcia will offer a postlude.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, March 6th appeared first on MPC Family.
In Judaism there is a three part formula for righteousness: doing justice, praying, and repenting. That latter piece trips up a lot of people especially in a society where we try to stay away from criticism, focusing on positive reinforcement, affirming words, and no judgment. But I think we get confused here between the idea of repentance as an act of being shamed in admitting you did something wrong rather than an intentional reaching out to God for help.
The Hebrew word for repentance is t’shuvah and it really means something more like “to turn back to” or “to return.” It’s less about prostrating oneself for punishment and more about acknowledging that trying to go somewhere on our own usually lands us moving in the wrong direction. We need to constantly be returning to God for guidance, for direction, to show us the way we are meant to go.
This season of lent that we are entering is a season of repentance in many ways; forty days of being very intentional about turning (back) to God, taking the time to reflect on where we have been, and asking for the help we need in moving in a new direction.
For a long time in my life I resisted making the turn back to God, largely because I didn’t want to have to say sorry to other people, I didn’t want to admit that I was wrong because there was so often shame or embarrassment in doing so. But about fifteen years ago I found myself brought to my knees with no where to go but to God, asking for help, asking for compassion, asking for guidance on the way I should go.
That is the miracle of this season, a time set apart that comes every year and gives us a chance again and again to return to the love that wants to guide us, and that promises to always help if we only are humble enough to ask. That is why I have ashes on my forehead to start the season, to remind myself that I am of the earth and that I will be intentional in returning to God, or at least I’ll try again and again.
Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart; return to the Lord your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love… – Joel 2:12/13
Maggie Harmon
The post FROM THE MPC FAMILY: GUEST WRITER MAGGIE HARMON appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim will offer a prelude, “Harpsichord Sonata in D” by Dmitry Bortniansky, then * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Cheryl Geckeler will lead us in the Call to Celebration (by George Appleton). * The opening song is, “All Things Bright and Beautiful”. * Next, Cheryl will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (a prayer delivered by John Paul II while visiting Hiroshima), then. * there will be time for invitations. * Cheryl will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Luke 9:28-36. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “The Power of Beauty”. * Next is the hymn of response, “Fill My Cup, Let It Overflow”, and then * Ben will lead us in a pastoral prayer. * Offering, * The closing hymn will be, “O Wondrous Sight, O Vision Fair”, then * Cheryl will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * and Marcia will offer a postlude, “Deo Gracias” by John Dunstable .
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, February 27th appeared first on MPC Family.
Friends,
Four years ago, my wife, Anne, gave me an olive tree which I planted in the back yard of the manse, and I waited to see if any fruit would set on the branches. The first year there were no olives. I believe I harvested 28 olives in the second year. The third year my yield was maybe twelve olives. This year, however, I picked more than a quart of fruit, which means that I finally have enough olives to brine and to eat, something that hardly happens overnight.
My olives came off the tree during the first week of January and I brined them for five weeks, changing the salted water every Thursday until the fruit lost its bitterness. Then I marinaded the olives—some in olive oil, vinegar, coriander, cumin, chili de arbol and garlic, and lemon peel, and others in olive oil, garlic, oregano chili de arbol and a bay leaf—and now I’m enjoying them. The cumin/coriander ones are better, but both are really good.
They are not, however, perfect. I’m already making notes and plans for how to improve the process for next year, but I had to prune my tree fairly significantly after my harvest, so I may not get much fruit next year. I hope the 2023 harvest is abundant, but I doubt it will be. If everything goes as I expect it to, my next batch of improved olives will be ready to enjoy in February of 2024, which means that what I hope will be my first truly excellent olives will be ready to eat six years after we planted our olive tree.
Six years is a long time to wait for antipasto, but I think my quest for excellent olives has helped me to slow down a bit and to live according to the rhythms of creation, which includes the important work of acknowledging both the goodness of what I’ve done (my current olives are quite good) and all of the possibilities for improvement (I cannot wait till the next harvest!). This, I think, is what it means to live by the Holy One’s calendar.
It has been good for me to work with olives because from time to time I need to be reminded that it’s ok for some things to take a long time. This is especially important for me during this seemingly-endless COVID pandemic. As much as I am eager to relegate the coronavirus to the archives of memory, I know now that it can take longer to make a truly excellent batch of olives than it takes for society to move past a viral pandemic. Still, people have been making excellent olives for thousands of years, and we’ve been overcoming adversity for at least that long. In the fullness of Holy Time, we’ll be eating olives without needing to take our masks off first.
The other thing I want to say about my olives is that as the storm clouds of war have been gathering in Eastern Europe, it has been good for me to be so deeply connected to a fruit and a tree that are symbols of peace. I’ve been trying to pray for peace while interacting with my olives—changing the brining solution, marinading them, and now eating them. I have found olives to be an important reminder that even as humans seem unable to resist the urge to kill each other and to destroy each other’s land and livelihoods, still, the Creator has given us reminders that peace is possible and necessary. It may be quicker to wage war than to cultivate peace (or prepare olives) but still, peace is possible. It is a divine gift we can enjoy together if we are attentive to all the ways we can improve ourselves, and if we are patient as we take the time to make the improvement come to pass.
Anyway, if you like olives, be sure to get some olives and eat them knowing they are a gift from God, a delicious morsel that has taken years to get to your table. And as you enjoy your olives, please join me in praying for peace.
God’s Peace,
Ben
P.S. Here is a photo of some of my Really Very Good but Not Quite Perfect Olives.
The post FROM THE PASTOR’S PEN appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim will offer a prelude, then * Ben will welcome us to Celebration. * Bill Neely will lead us in the Call to Celebration (Church of Scotland, adapted). * The opening song is, “Peace Like a River”. * Next, Bill will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (Church of Scotland, adapted), then. * there will be time for invitations. * Bill will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Luke 6:27-36. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “The Russians Love Their Children Too”. * Next is the hymn of response, “For the Healing of the Nations”, and then * Ben will lead us in a pastoral prayer. * Offering, * The closing hymn will be, “This is My Song”, then * Bill will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * and then Marcia will offer a postlude.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, February 20th appeared first on MPC Family.
Dear Church Family,
Three Januarys ago I was flying home from New York City in a window seat. From there I was able to gaze down on our beautiful country, and I wondered how its land and water systems would be changed in the next few decades. With my mind on the carbon emissions spewing relentlessly outside the plane, I scribbled my first pages of a book about the climate crisis. The scraps of paper in my notebook turned to a thick file, eventually became a full manuscript, and now is in the hands of a publisher, to be released in late April.
So much has changed over those three years. The climate crisis has catapulted from the headlines to, now, a full section of the newspaper. Here at MPC we have created and begun responding to our Climate Call to Action. The angsty teenagers in our youth group who graciously let me write about their existential dread are now confident college students or starting their careers saving the world (let’s have a particular shout out to Linnéa Gullikson, now working for Fish & Wildlife as a conservation biologist). Many of us have made lifestyle changes, going vegan (or reduceatarian) and buying or leasing electric vehicles. And MPC has started a climate spirituality group, to grapple as directly as possible with the spiritual ramifications of living through a crisis of this magnitude.
There is an important role for the Church in climate work. No, we may not be the leaders out front – those have already passed us by. We have been slow to hop on the train of climate work, though we are getting there. By the way, here’s a piece of good news: we have been petitioning the denomination to divest its funds from fossil fuels, and this work has moved at a classically Presbyterian pace, the speed of committee work… anyway, the most cautious of participants, the Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) committee, voted just a few weeks ago to add five major energy companies to our divestment list. This is a huge win and “the biggest divestment recommendation by the committee, based on company conduct, since the 1980s when its chief concern was apartheid in South Africa” (see more at https://www.presbyterianmission.org/story/five-companies-recommended-for-general-assembly-divestment-list/).
Although we may lag behind in some kinds of leadership, there is one niche that is very important for church people. We must develop the spiritual depth, strength, and flexibility that we will need to stay engaged without losing hope. We can be a refuge for the despairing, a beacon for the lost, and providers of pastoral care (whether we are pastors or not) to one another in our hours of grief. This does not mean that we need to be spiritual giants ourselves; we do not need to have all the answers or advice for those who are struggling. But by being a community of mutual care, engaging with the tasks and questions that the climate crisis demands of us, we make space to do the work together, held in love.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
The post Talitha’s Take appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim and Rich Larsen will offer a prelude, “Romance”, by Dmitri Shostakovich, then * Ben will welcome us to Celebration. * Susan Spore will lead us in the Call to Celebration written by Heather A. Moody. * The opening hymn is, “Tu Fidelidad”. * Next, Susan will lead us in the Prayer of Confession (written by Tom Cheatham), then. * there will be time for invitations. * Susan will then lead us in a scripture lesson from1 Kings 19:1-13. * Talitha will preach a sermon titled, “Bread for the Journey”. * Kim and Rich will offer a musical response, Theme from “Schindler’s List”, by John Williams * Next is the song of response, “Give Us Bread for the Journey”, and then * Talitha will lead us in a pastoral prayer. * Offering, * The closing hymn will be, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”, then * Susan will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction.and then the postlude will be offered.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, February 13th appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Marcia will offer an organ prelude, “Rendez a Dieu” (Lord, We Thank Thee), by Louis Bourgeois, arr. D.M. Johnson, then * Ben will welcome us to Celebration. * Bonnie Hamlin will lead us in the Call to Celebration from the PC(USA) Credo Program. * Brenda Steinmetz-Vallenas will lead us in opening hymn, “Surely God is in This Place, Holy Ground” by Stephen Iverson. * Next, Bonnie will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (adapted from a prayer by Howard Thurman), then * Debbie Fallehy will lead us in a celebration of February birthdays. * Bonnie will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Luke 5:1-11. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “Are You Willing to Try Something New?”. * Next he will lead us in the Hymn of Response, “Tu Has Venido a La Orilla”, and then * We will celebrate the sacrament of communion, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “New Songs of Celebration Render”, then * Bonnie will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * The postlude will be “Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Savior”, by D.N. Johnson
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, February 6th appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Marcia will offer a prelude, “Hymn of Praise”, adapted from symphony No.1 of Johannesburg, arr. by Richard Warner, the * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Susanne Lea will lead us in the Call to Celebration, (from Iona) * Kim will lead us in the opening hymn, “Return Again”, by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. * Next, Susanne will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (from Korea, adapted). * Susanne will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Luke 4:14-30. * Ben will preach a sermon, “The Cost of Telling the Truth”, * Then, the Hymn of Response will be “Calm to the Waves”. * Ben will offer a Pastoral Prayer, * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “Open My Eyes, that I May See”, then * Susanne will lead us in the Charge, andBen will offer a benediction. * Marcia will offer a postlude, “Fanfare in Ab Major”, by Charles Ore
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, January 30th appeared first on MPC Family.
Joy
I have a question. How can I experience joy when my life isn’t joyful? For the past two years, my husband has been dealing with aggressive metastatic prostate cancer. My heart breaks when I see him in pain. Our lives are turned upside down not only by Covid, but by cancer. We’ve canceled four trips, we’ve had up to eight doctor appointments in a week, the trial he was in at UCSF was canceled because it didn’t work for him. He’s on his second round of chemo. If he’s not downstairs by a certain time in the morning, I head upstairs to be sure he’s breathing.
So, I’ve been thinking about joy. I began this joy journey journal several weeks ago when I realized I was waking up feeling sad each morning. I remembered the verse “Joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5b) and decided to say that verse each night as I was going to sleep and start the morning with that reminder. That verse reminded me of other verses I’ve used to remind myself of God’s daily care and love for us. God’s mercies are new each morning (Lamentations 3:22,23); God gives us our daily bread (Matthew 6:11); God’s grace is sufficient (I Corinthians 12:9). So that is how I’m starting my days now – remembering with gratefulness that joy, mercy and grace are available to me each new morning, and God gives me my daily bread (the sustenance I need for this day).
As I’ve reflected on joy, I recalled the verse where Jesus tells his disciples during that last meal they shared together before his crucifixion, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full” (John 15:11). Jesus knows what is going to happen the following day, yet he is a non-anxious presence with his disciples, focusing on them rather than being filled with anxiety about what is going to happen the next day, and he talked to them about joy. I’m thinking that would not be my focus if I knew I was going to die an excruciating death tomorrow. Then in Hebrews 12:2, we’re told that Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. When he was in agony on the cross he was recognizing that the end result would be joy. So maybe there’s a place to be joyful in the core of our being no matter what’s coming in our future, and when we’re in the middle of a very difficult time to look towards the joy that will come.
As I discussed this with my friends and family, one reminded me of the verse “the joy of the Lord is my strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). The joy that we receive from the Lord gives us strength in time of pain and grief.
So this is where I am right now in my reflection on joy. The joy that is available to me deep in my core isn’t dependent on outward circumstances. There is a way to experience the joy of the Lord even in the midst of sadness, grief, anger, hopelessness and all those difficult emotions we encounter. The joy of the Lord gives us strength to endure those heartbreaking times in our lives. I also know that I will not always experience joy, that my effort to live into this life of joy at my core will fall short, that when sadness and grief overwhelm me, I may not remember that Jesus offers me joy in the depth of my being. But in the midst of it all, I am very grateful to God for grounding me in this promise, and I am very grateful for those times I am able to experience this soul-deep joy.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as your trust is in God,so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Overflow with hope? Hmm, let me reflect on that …
Lynn Viale
The post From the MPC Family: Guest Writer Lynn Viale appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Kim will offer a prelude, then * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Cheryl Geckeler will lead us in the Call to Celebration, (a loose paraphrase of Psalm 133) * The opening hymn will be “Jesu Tawa Pano”, * Next, Cheryl will lead us in the Prayer for Unity (a prayer from Iona, adapted). * Cynthia will then lead us in a scripture lesson from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. * Ben will preach a sermon, including the song “Rose Colored Stained Glass Windows”, * There will be a musical interlude for reflection, then * Prayers of the People, with sung response, “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying”, * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “We All Are One in Mission”, then * Cheryl will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * Kim will offer a postlude.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, January 23rd appeared first on MPC Family.
Dear Friends,
Starting in September, I am planning to lead MPC folks on four retreats, one for each season of the year. The purpose of these retreats is to create a spiritual space in which folks form across the MPC family can deepen our connections to God, to one another, to the earth and to the world, and to explore what that belonging means in the different seasons of our lives. I’ve made a little video introduction to the retreat cycle. I hope you will give it a watch and let me know if you are interested in attending and let me know also if you are interested in helping me plan and organize the retreats.
God’s Peace,
Ben
The post From the Pastor’s Pen appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, Marcia will offer a prelude, “God of Grace and God of Glory”, arr. Wilbur Held, then * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Cynthia Blumgart will lead us in the Call to Celebration, (adapted from a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). * The opening hymn will be “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”, * Next, Cynthia will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (adapted from a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr). * Cynthia will then lead us in a scripture lesson from 1 John 4:7-21 * Ben will preach a sermon, * The hymn of response will be, “Thuma Mina”, and then * We will have a Pastoral Prayer, * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me”, then * Cynthia will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * Marcia will offer a postlude, “Awake, Awake to Love and Work”, arr. Sam Batt Owens
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, January 16th appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, we will have a prelude, then * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Doug Brookes will lead us in the Call to Celebration. * Next, Doug will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (excerpted from Augustine’s Confession). * Talitha will lead us in a Remembrance of Baptism, then * Doug will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Luke 3:7-17, 21-22 * Talitha will preach a sermon, * The Song of Response will be, “Listen to the Word that God had Spoken”, and then * We will have a Pastoral Prayer, * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “Take, O Take Me As I Am”, then * Doug will lead us in the Charge, and * Talitha will offer a benediction.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, January 9th appeared first on MPC Family.
Dear Church Family,
Happy New Year! And welcome to 2022, omicron surge and all. Any of us who had set specific hopes for a turning point in the global pandemic to coincide with the clicking forward of the Gregorian calendar must be disappointed. Perhaps the lunar new year will bring us better luck? Or groundhogs’ day, an end to long winter? Perhaps the spring solstice? Stay alert, says Jesus, for you know not the day nor the hour.
On the bright side, these are starting to feel less like unprecedented times. We might even have learned some surge-time lessons already: hunker down, mask up, get through. It seems so far like omicron might bring fewer deaths, but still we must be cautious out of care and concern for our overwhelmed essential workers who must continue staffing their posts, many doing double duty or more with many colleagues out sick on every side.
The MPC Re-Open Taskforce has some guidance for us during these precedented times:
- Boosters are much more effective than un-boosted vaccinations against Omicron. For everyone’s safety, please get vaccinated and boosted if you have not already done so!
- Omicron is more contagious than previous strains, and upgrading your mask from the simple cloth kind will help you and the community. Surgical masks, cloth masks with filters, and (best) N or KN95s worn correctly will all help, and we thank you for wearing them.
- We will be reducing singing in our Sunday celebrations in the weeks to come. The choir is taking a break, and congregational song will be simplified to more meditative songs that lend themselves to softly singing along rather than boldly singing out.
- With the current shortage of rapid tests, we will make sure the preacher of the day can test and unmask for their sermon, but we might not be able to procure enough tests for lay leaders or other participants to unmask.
- Please stay home (see us on zoom!) if you have any respiratory symptoms or known exposures.
We expect that in weeks to come the majority of us will switch from attending in person to attending on Zoom (in real time) or YouTube (participating later). We have already seen this switch happening organically, so we are glad that we both have safeguards in place for in-person programs and have a good online program set up. Some meetings have been switched from in-person to Zoom, depending on the size of the meeting and the availability of participants. Children’s programming is taking a slightly longer winter break before we resume in person. We encourage you all to be flexible and to remember that this is not forever.
If you had told me in March 2020 that we would be doing this, still, in January 2022, I doubt I would have believed you, but if I did I would surely have despaired. And I’m not saying I haven’t despaired. I have cried and yelled and sulked in turn, and I bet you have too. This morning a piece of wisdom came across my screen, saying “no situation is hopeless. Situations don’t lose hope; people do.” The converse of that feels very true: no matter what the situation, people can choose to keep hope alive. I choose to hope today, despite the situation. I have hope in our ongoing learning, changing, humbling and strengthening at the hands of this pandemic (cruel teacher, but wise students). I have hope in the bonds of love that grow ever stronger when we are kept apart from our loved ones. And I have hope in God’s faithfulness that will see us on the other side of this terrible time, still pulling us through.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
The post Talitha’s Take appeared first on MPC Family.
PLEASE NOTE: Celebration is back in the sanctuary! Everyone will need to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 3 days of each Sunday. You also may watch the service on a live stream in the courtyard or at home. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate. In order to keep everyone healthy & safe, we will:
- have socially-distanced seating “pods” set up in the sanctuary on one side, open seating on the other
- require mask-wearing when indoors
- require either proof of Covid vaccination OR a negative Covid test from within the last three days. Please see the ushers (they’re wearing leis!) for details
- run the furnace filtration system for ventilation, doors and windows open only when necessary
- if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * First, we will have a prelude, then * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration. * Lin Gentry will lead us in the Call to Celebration. * The opening hymn is, “We Three Kings of Orient Are”, * Next, Lin will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (Church of Scotland, adapted), then * Debbie Fallehy will lead us in a celebration of January birthdays. * The MPC Choir will perform, “Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning”, then * Lin will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Matthew 2:1-12. * Rev. Keith Geckeler will preach a sermon titled, “Long Journey Part of Gift”. * The Hymn of Response will be, “What Star Is this, with Beams So Bright”, and then * We will celebrate the sacrament of communion, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light”, then * Lin will lead us in the Charge, and * Talitha will offer a benediction.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, January 2nd appeared first on MPC Family.
There are two choices ways for us to gather in community: attending in person or joining via live stream at 10am. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate .
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * Kim will play a medley of carols prelude, and * Ben will welcome us to Celebration, * Sally Cole-White will lead us in the Call to Celebration. * The opening hymn is, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, * Next, Sally will lead us in the Prayer for Peace (from A New Zealand Prayer Book), * And next the MPC Choir will sing, “Methinks I See An Heav’nly Host” by William Billings * Sally will then lead us in a scripture lesson from Matthew 2:13-23. * Ben will preach a sermon titled, “Opt Out”. * The Hymn of Response will be, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”, and * Ben will offer a Pastoral Prayer * Offering, * Next will be time for invitations. * The closing hymn will be, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”, then * Sally will lead us in the Charge, and * Ben will offer a benediction. * Marcia will play a postlude, “On This Day Earth Shall Ring”.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, December 26th appeared first on MPC Family.
There are two choices ways for us to gather in community: attending in person or joining via live stream at 10am. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate .
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow! We hope to see you for one of 3 Celebrations, whether online or in person in the sanctuary! 4pm will be in the courtyard, masked and socially distanced. 5:30pm will be in the sanctuary, with masks and vaccine checks. This service will be live streamed, so if you want to stay out of the weather, the livestream starts at 5:30pm. There will also be a 9pm service, indoors with proof of vaccine and masking. We will be inside for two of the three services, but we have upgraded the furnace’s filtration system so will not need to have the windows open. Also, one side of the sanctuary will have the blue tape removed so people can sit with friends as they feel comfortable. The other side will remain socially distanced seating for those who prefer to remain socially distanced. If joining us in person isn’t possible or comfortable for you, plan to join us on zoom. As we return to the sanctuary, please see the note below the service information about vaccination status.
- Kim will play a prelude, and
- As we prepare to light the Advent Wreath, we will sing the processional song, “O Come, All Ye Faithful”.
- Next is the responsive reading as the advent wreath is lit, led by the Jackson family.
- Talitha will welcome us to Celebration,
- The opening carol is, “Once in Royal David’s City”,
- Next, Talitha will lead us in a scripture lesson, Luke 1:26-55,
- Followed by another carol, “Still, Still, Still”, as Mary and the Angel figures are brought forward.
- The next scripture lesson is from Matthew 1:18-25,
- followed by the carol “Love Has Come”, sung while Joseph and the baby figures are brought forward.
- Ben will lead us in another scripture lesson from Luke: Luke 2:1-20.
- The next carol is “Angels We Have Heard on High”, and the shepherds and sheep figures will come forward.
- Talitha will offer the next scripture lesson, from Matthew 2:1-12
- We will sing “What Child is This”, as the Magi figures are brought forward.
- Ben will offer a Christmas Eve sermon, “Christmas Journey”
- We will sing “Joy to the World”, following the sermon.
- Offering,
- Talitha will lead us in prayer,
- The MPC Choir will sing “Sussex Carol”, words by Luke Wadding, music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, led by Kim.
- We will light candles and
- We will hear the final scripture lesson from John 1:1-5,14.
- We will then move to the courtyard to sing “Silent Night” together.
- Talitha will offer a benediction.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Christmas Eve Celebration, December 24th appeared first on MPC Family.
Friends,
Ordinarily, I’d use this space—my column in the last Contact issue before Christmas, to share a few ideas and insights that, for whatever reason, didn’t make it into my Christmas sermon. This year, I’m writing to exhort you to be careful as you celebrate Christmas.
A year ago, we had our Christmas Eve services on YouTube, and the service was really good, but it wasn’t nearly as wonderful as in-person Christmas celebration. Last season, as I sat in the living room of the manse and watched the service online, I said a prayer of gratitude for knowledge that 2021’s Christmas would take place after the COVID-19 pandemic had been relegated to wherever it is that history stores it’s odd stories and strange happenings.
Turns out I was entirely wrong about that. I am grateful that we are now worshiping in person, and I cherish every opportunity I have to see members of the MPC family face-to-face, but the COVID-19 pandemic is not behind us, not even close.
So please be careful as you celebrate Christmas. Please keep wearing masks, and if you have not yet received your vaccine booster, please do so. If you have yet to get vaccinated, now really is the time. In my house, as we gather with friends for Christmas dinner, we will all be taking at-home COVID tests as an extra precaution, and I recommend the same for you and your loved ones.
This evening the MPC Re-Opening Taskforce (our COVID response team) will be meeting to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to keep MPC members, friends, and visitors safe at our Christmas Eve services. I don’t yet know what the taskforce will recommend, but in advance of that meeting I feel as if I can say that our Christmas eve services will go ahead much in the same way they do on Sunday mornings, with vaccine or negative test requirements and mask-wearing mandated for everyone except leaders who have been tested. We will run the sanctuary’s air through the high-end filters we’ve installed, and we will encourage distance in seating and in interacting. I also would say that if you can get tested using an at-home test or a clinical test before coming to Church Christmas Eve, that is one way you can help keep the congregation safe. And, we will be having three services on Christmas Eve—one at 4PM, one at 5:30 PM and one at 9PM. We expect a larger crowd at 5:30, so if you are free to join one of the other services, that would help make the 5:30 crowd smaller, which would help keep everyone safer.
The Omicron wave has not yet hit the Bay Area, which remains a region with low transmission rates relative to elsewhere in the country. My prayer is that we can avoid the worst that Omicron has to offer us by loving one another enough to do what we can to stay safe.
A Merry and Safe Christmas to You,
Ben
PS I will be on vacation following the Christmas weekend, and back in the office on January 11, 2022.
The post From the Pastor’s Pen appeared first on MPC Family.
There are two choices ways for us to gather in community: attending in person or joining via live stream at 10am. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate .
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: It’s the fourth Sunday of Advent and we hope to see you for Celebration, whether online or in person in the sanctuary! We will continue to be inside but we have upgraded the furnace’s filtration system so will not need to have the windows open. Also, one side of the sanctuary will have the blue tape removed so people can sit with friends as they feel comfortable. The other side will remain socially distanced seating for those who prefer to remain socially distanced. If joining us in person isn’t possible or comfortable for you, plan to join us on zoom. As we return to the sanctuary, please see the note below the service information about vaccination status.
- Marcia will offer a prelude, “From Heaven Above, to Earth I Come”, arrangement by Wilbur Held
- As we prepare to light the Advent Wreath, we will sing the processional song, “While We Are Waiting, Come”.
- Next is the responsive reading as the advent wreath is lit, led by the Thompson family.
- The opening hymn is, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”,
- Debbie Dille will lead us in a Prayer for Peace, a “Blue Christmas Prayer”, then
- Ben will welcome us to Celebration,
- Debbie will lead us in the scripture reading, Luke 2: 1-5, then
- Talitha will share a special “Art Show Reflection”, and we will sing verses of “The First Nowell” between reflections.
- Next, the MPC Choir, led by Kim, will present, “Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree”, arranged by Alan Bullard,
- Ben will lead us in a Pastoral Prayer, after which
- a Minute for Mission will be presented by Pat Schwinn on the “Christmas Joy Offering”.
- Offering,
- Invitations.
- The closing hymn is “People, Look East”, and then
- Debbie will lead us in the Charge and Talitha will offer a benediction.
- Marcia will offer the postlude, “In Dulci Jubilo”, arranged by Wilbur Held, then
- Ushers will dismiss the congregation row by row.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, December 19th appeared first on MPC Family.
Dear Church Family,
This is my first Christmas as a parent; it’s Ziggy’s first time seeing the lights and hearing the story, though to be fair he seems much more interested in eating his Christmas storybook than listening to it. Ziggy may not have a profound Christmas experience, but something feels different to me this year, just because he is here with us. Now, I resist the kind of philosophy that tells us parents are existentially different from non-parents (especially the gendered version of this that says mothers are another kind of people entirely). I am not a different person than I was last year, or the year before. But my heart has opened up in new ways that seem important and worth sharing. Whether or not you have been a parent of any kind, I hope these insights are helpful on your advent journey.
This year I’m entranced by the mess of Christmas: the journey at an inopportune time, the birthing place not being where it was hoped to be, the unexpected strangers showing up. The blessing of the hospitality received, even though it was “only” a manger. By the way, recent scholarship has pointed out that mangers in Jesus’ day and place were often located in the same house as the people, just below the “upper room,” where even more guests would be hosted. The ground level had a dirt or clay floor and was used to keep valuable animals close by – the fatted calf, perhaps, or a goat or sheep that provided milk daily. Rather than imagine some far-off barn, lonely and windswept (like where the shepherds kept their sheep, perhaps), imagine a warm and festive house full to bursting with out-of-town travelers, so busy that the only place to fit one more baby was downstairs, in the manger. Mary and Joseph may have been lodged with animals and strangers but they were by no means all alone. This year I love the idea that they were surrounded by community, human and non-human.
This year I’m touched even more deeply than usual by the vulnerability of Christmas, the intimacy of the incarnation that God would be born in fragile infant flesh. This year I remember that Jesus was a real baby. He needed to be diapered, and had to be rocked to sleep, and probably bit his mother in frustration sometimes. Even though in some of the early Christian writings (Mark, notably) it seemed as if Jesus became divine at his adult baptism, in others (Matthew and Luke, from whom we take our Christmas story) he was divine from birth or conception, joining us in our fleshly form at the very beginning, as a pre-verbal chaos nugget. What a staggering mystery, not just the presence of God in peak adult flesh and brains, but God living in a little infant body with all that entails.
This is good news when we ourselves are messy and vulnerable. Instead of praying for God to rescue us from our vulnerable mess, we can seek God’s presence within it all. So no matter what you feel, this Christmas season I hope you can find refuge and strength in the incarnation. God is here with us in the midst of it all.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
The post Talitha’s Take appeared first on MPC Family.
There are two choices ways for us to gather in community: attending in person or joining via live stream at 10am. To learn more about these choices, please visit mpcfamily.org/celebrate .
You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you!
If you are visiting today, we hope you’ll fill out our online Visitor Card at mpcfamily.org/hello .
If you’d like to support our work in the world (which is much appreciated!) please visit mpcfamily.org/donate .
In celebration this week: * The MPC Brass Quartet, directed by Kim Rankin, will perform the prelude, * As we prepare to light the Advent Wreath, we will sing the processional song, “While We Are Waiting, Come”. * Next is the responsive reading as the advent wreath is lit, * The opening hymn is, “My Soul Gives Glory to My God”, * Sari Kulberg will lead us in a Prayer for Peace, * Talitha will welcome us to Celebration, * The children will be dismissed to Godly Play. * Sari will lead us in the scripture reading, Luke 1::26-56, then * Ben will offer a sermon, “The Affirmations of Mary”, * Next, the MPC Choir will present, “Mary, Did You Know?”, by Mark Lawry and Buddy Greene. * Offering, * Invitations. * The closing hymn is “The Angel Gabriel From heaven Came”, and then * Sari will lead us in the Charge and Ben will offer a benediction. * The MPC Brass Quartet will offer the postlude, after which * Ushers will dismiss the congregation row by row.
The Charge (say together) Go out into the world in peace. Have courage; hold on to what is good. Return no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, and help the suffering. Honor all people. Love and serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Celebration live stream recordings Every week, we post a live stream recording to YouTube. You can view information about those live stream recordings and access a link to the playlist on our Celebration Recordings page.
The post Celebration Worship Service, December 12th appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Ben preaches on the Noah’s Ark story, taking both a modern and ancient approach, and finding messages of comfort in both interpretations. For the reading, Rev. Ben quoted the Noah story from Bill Moyers’ Genesis series. Read the summary and see clips from the series
The post Through the Waters appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev Ben preaches on the the Feast of St. David, connecting his story to a heresy that still drives us towards unattainable perfection and unrealistic levels of happiness.
The post The Tears of St. David appeared first on MPC Family.
In response to the unrelatable Jesus of Matthew 17 (the transfiguration), Rev. Talitha celebrates the complex, challenging, dynamic Christ who inspires us to action.
The post Taking Jesus off the Pedestal appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Ben preaches on the seemingly impossible standards set by Jesus’ challenging ‘salt of the earth’ teaching, and how it calls us to active morality & welcoming grace into our lives. Read Matthew 5:13-20 on Bibles.org
The post Be Excellent to Each Other appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Ben discusses his recent silent retreat at New Clairvaux monastery, and what it taught him about prayer, silence and wise foolishness. Read First Corinthians 1:20-31 on Bibles.org
The post Reflections from New Clairvaux appeared first on MPC Family.
Ben is sure of his belief in God, but his views of God’s nature have evolved. He argues that a church should be the same way. It should be a unity of good people who welcome heresy.
The post A Strange Kind of Unity appeared first on MPC Family.
On MLK weekend, Rev. Ben invites us into the miry bog of Psalm 40 to work for a better, more just world.
The post What Are You Waiting For? appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Ben preaches on Acts 10:34 and its call for worldwide unity, connecting it to the need to resist war, particularly a war with our Iranian friends and fellow children of God. Read Acts 10:34-48 on Bibles.org
The post Our Shared Humanity appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Ben preaches on epiphany, calling us to seeing the world in new and different ways, even when it leads us to challenging and difficult ways of seeing the world. Read Matthew 2:1-12 on Bible.org
The post A Different Road Home appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Talitha leads us through a guided “examen” of 2019, looking back on the highs and lows and recognizing God’s presence throughout. Read John 1:1-14 on Bibles.org
The post Where have you seen the light? appeared first on MPC Family.
MPC Music Director Kim Rankin discusses Bach’s Cantata No. 140 and its relationship to Matthew 25:1-13. Listen to the full recording below. Read Matthew 25:1-13 on Bibles.org
The post Wachet Auf (Bach Cantata) appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev Ben reflects on Isaiah’s vision of peace, reminding us that we are called to make this vision manifest on Earth by working for justice and for an end to poverty. Read Isaiah 11:1-11 on Bibles.org
The post Living For Others appeared first on MPC Family.
Rev. Talitha explores the seemingly black-and-white messaging of Matthew 24:36-44 by searching for a more flexible interpretation and connecting with the fluidity of non-binary gender identification.
The post Toward a Non-Binary Advent appeared first on MPC Family.
On Christ the King Sunday, we are reminded that God abides: all that is beautiful and holy infuses us and the world around us. Prayer can be a way of reminding ourselves of that and summoning the strength within us. You got this!
The post You Got This appeared first on MPC Family.
Pondering the apocalypse story of Luke 21:5, Rev Ben discusses whether creativity is OK to pursue when the world seems to be spinning out of control.
The post Art for the Apocalypse appeared first on MPC Family.