Sunday Worship Preview - January 4

Sunday, January 4 (8:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. Traditional and 9:45 A.M. Contemporary)

Sermon - "High Def Christianity - A Clearer Picture of Jesus"

Features - Epiphany of the Lord & The Sacrament of Holy Communion

Scriptures - Isaiah 60:1-6 & Matthew 2:1-12

Theme - As we draw near to the 12th day of Christmas on January 6 (Epiphany) we begin a two-part sermon series on “High Def Christianity.” What does it mean to switch from an analogue faith to a digital faith? The story of the wise men helps us to see a clearer HD picture of who Jesus is.

When a USC Pastor Serves a PSU Church

My older and wiser brother is a United Methodist pastor in our Penn State dominated home church in southeastern, Pennsylvania. He also happens to be a graduate of USC which will be playing Penn State on New Year's Day in the Rose Bowl (4:30 P.M., ABC)

Somehow, the local York, PA newspaper found about this little piece of trivia and recently did a story on what it's like to be an SC pastor in a PSU church. You'll find the short video interview on the right side of the link above.

Enjoy the video.

When to Sing Certain Hymns

One of the most misunderstood aspects of church life is the process used in determining which hymns to use in various worship services. This is most pronounced around the Advent season when a number of people are interested in singing Christmas hymns during the month of December, but it also is an issue throughout the year as well.

Here are some reasons why I think this is one of the more misunderstood issues within the worship life of the congregation:

Reason #1 - The liturgical calendar vs. the secular calendar. The liturgical calendar is the church's seasonal approach to the selection of hymns. Liturgically minded churches are churches that take seriously the worship themes of the particular liturgical season the church is experiencing. For example, Advent (the four Sundays leading up to Christmas) is not a season to celebrate the birth of Christ but instead is a season in which to repent and wait expectantly for Christ's coming/2nd coming. Liturgically speaking, the Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve and lasts for 12 days (as in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song) until Epiphany (January 6.)

The secular calendar wants Christmas to begin sometime around Halloween, or at the latest, on the famous "Black Friday" shopping day. The church has said, "wait just a minute!" Christ's birth celebration isn't until the Christmas season. We need the four weeks before Christmas to be a time of preparing for his coming, not a time of celebration.

Reason #2 - Even though United Methodists have deep liturgical roots thanks to our founder, John Wesley and our Anglican heritage, not all pastors are liturgically minded. Some pastors are biased against the liturgical calendar because it feels too "Catholic" even though good liturgical practice isn't confined to the Roman Catholic Church. Liturgy is practiced widely by many strands of Christendom. In fact, several newer evangelical churches are beginning to reclaim the ancient/orthodox liturgical heritage which utilizes the liturgical seasons, the rich symbolism, and the more orderly approach to the Christian faith. How ironic that when some mainline denominational members have given up on liturgy, several new and growing churches are discovering how liturgy is connecting to younger generations who are hungry for this type of liturgical expression in worship.

On the other hand, there are also other United Methodist pastors who have used good liturgical practice in their churches and many UM congregations have enjoyed being faithful to the particular seasons in the church year and being distinctive from the secular culture. If some of these liturgically rooted church members would visit a church that has little sense of liturgy, it would feel strange to them.

Reason #3 - There is a sense among some church goers that pastors and worship leaders should choose the hymn favorites of the congregation. I've actually heard of churches who have conducted surveys on their favorite hymns and the pastor has inserted hymns into worship based on this survey. Well, that's OK if you're not interested at all in matching up the scripture readings for a particular Sunday with the appropriate hymns.

It's ironic that many folks who want favorite hymns are also the same folks who hold great reverence for the Bible, and yet personal hymn preferences are often chosen over against the theme of a given Sunday's scripture readings. Again, the Advent and Christmas seasons are good examples of this! The rule of thumb in choosing hymns for worship is that the theme of the scriptures for that Sunday always rule the roost.

Other thoughts: Having said all of this, believe me, I have my own favorite hymns that I would like to sing more than 2 times a year. Maybe my favorite hymn will be selected but it first has to meet the liturgical and scriptural theme test before it even becomes a candidate.

And last but not least, some of the lesser familiar hymns are chosen less for their singability and more for their very appropriate and deeply rich lyrics. And sometimes, the melody will grow on you and this unfamiliar hymn ends up helping you to worship on a deeper level for that Sunday.

For the liturgical calendar, this website, The Voice, is an excellent resource for folks who want to grow in their appreciation for the seasons of the church year.

Sunday Worship Preview - December 28

Sunday, December 28 (8:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. Traditional and 9:45 A.M. Contemporary)

Sermon - "A Sign of the Times"

Features - 1st Sunday After Christmas Day

Scriptures - Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 148; & Luke 2:22-40

Theme - Jesus was a sign of the times for Simeon and Anna. Jesus' presence was a light to the Gentiles and glory to the people of Israel. Simeon and Anna received the Christ child with praise and thanksgiving after Mary and Joseph arrived at the temple. Simeon and Anna encouraged the new parents, blessed their newborn son, and prayed for them day and night. We can find strength in our faith from the people who encourage, bless, and pray for us.

Who Wrote the Book of James?

Yesterday, my Thursday morning bible study began a new series on the Book of James. This first session was only an overview of the book, authorship, dating, primary audience, etc. When we resume on January 8, we will take one chapter at a time and since there are five chapters in this book, we'll be focusing on the Book of James over a five week period.

Real briefly, here are some of the overview highlights and I'll conclude with a summary of the many people with the name of James in the New Testament.

• The writing style of this book feels less like a letter and more like a summary of proper ethical conduct for Christians within the church.


• The author presupposes that the Christians are living in an alien world filled with immorality (reminds me of the Book of Revelation in this regard.)


• The primary audience appears to be Jewish people who have become Christian and who live outside of Palestine.


• There is an emphasis on the second coming of Jesus Christ.


• Tradition claims that the author, James, is the brother of Jesus. Because of the sophisticated Greek style of this book and the late acceptance of this book into the biblical canon, some bible scholars think it may have been someone else.

One of the problems in trying to figure out who wrote the Book of James is because James was such a popular name in the 1st century as well as within the New Testament itself. The reason for this is because the English name of James is a variant of the name Jacob from the Old Testament, the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. People would have been very proud to name their sons after this Old Testament hero in the faith.

And now to complicate things...which is why it's good to be part of a bible study to sort out some of these unanswered questions! For all we know, there might be only two people with the name of James in the New Testament or as many as eight different people. Here are the eight references:

• James the Greater (One of the 12 disciples)


• James the Less (One of the 12 disciples)


• James the Just (Listed in the Book of Acts & Brother of Jesus)


• James the Writer (the author of the Book of James)


• James the Son of Cleopas (Luke 24:10 & John 19:25 - Is this referring to someone other than the mother of Jesus?)


• James the Kinsman of Jude the Apostle (Luke 6:16)


• James the Brother of Jude the Writer (from the Book of Jude)

It's interesting that in our last bible study topic on the book, "The Blue Parakeet: How to Study the Bible" by Scot McKnight, the author sees a connection between Mary, the mother of James/Jesus (her focus on God's concern for the poor: see the Magnificat & the focus on taking care of the poor in the Book of James.) Did Mary teach James when he was a child about taking care of the poor and then he focuses on the poor this in his letter?

Finally, I mentioned that the Revised Common Lectionary which is a three year cycle of readings for each Sunday includes six different passages from the Book of James. We are presenting in the middle of the three year cycle which has five of the six James readings. The other James reading appears in the first year of the cycle.

Next summary on the Book of James: January 8 (when our bible study resumes after the holidays.) And of course, the fun part of this bible study series will be to sort out the whole "faith" (Apostle Paul) vs. "works" (James) debate.

Helping the Homeless

Today, Pastor Rick and I, along with a Faith Community member, visited Interfaith Faith Hospitality Network, a homeless shelter in Xenia. Don Schneider was busy at work with other volunteers getting the building ready.

One of the reasons we visited with Don and IHN was to see about the possibility of Faith Community adopting one of the upstairs bedrooms in the new facility which will mean providing furniture, painting the walls, and making it look nice in time for when the facility opens. Three or four other churches have already signed up to adopt some of the other rooms.

Seeing the building getting closer to completion has been exciting. Presently, IHN is only able to provide housing for up to 14 people. When this new facility is ready, they will be able to host around 24 people in need of shelter. In addition to being able to host several more people, the other huge advantage will be that the families won't have to travel from church to church each week. Presently, this is what the families need to do since their current facility doesn't allow for overnight stays.

The picture above is the largest upstairs bedroom facing N. Detroit Street. That's Don on the left with Pastor Rick and one of our church members. This is one of the rooms that is open for adoption by a local church.

As we get closer to the season of Christmas, we are reminded that there was no room in the inn for the baby Jesus. But thankfully, they found a place for Jesus to be born even if it was where the animals stayed at night.

Let's keep Don Schneider, the staff at IHN, and the homeless families of Greene County in our prayers especially during this cold season. May this become a place of refuge for people in need.

I was so proud to hear that several of our church members have been volunteering their time in helping Don and IHN. Way to go, Faith Community!

Sunday Worship Preview - December 21

Sunday, December 21 (8:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. Traditional and 9:45 A.M. Contemporary)

Sermon - "When Hope Is Not Enough"

Features - 4th Sunday of Advent

Scriptures - II Samuel 7:1-11,16 & Luke 1:26-38

Theme - Sometimes, our level of hope can get so low, that we need something even better than hope. We need to know of God’s presence and faithfulness. Like Mary in our Gospel reading for today, once we are assured of God’s presence, we can’t help but to say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”