Beloved,
Is it not the perfect week to tackle our fifth cardinal sin, Lust? The sun is heating up the earth, the sap is rising, and plants and animals everywhere are doing what they were made to do: making more of themselves. Pollinating like mad. Getting on the good foot to do the bad thing, as Austin Powers might say. Yeah, baby! Shagadelic!
We starting talking about Lust at House Church last night. I’ve been with Aquinas and the big daddies of the historical church till now, on their theologies of the other cardinal sins. But here lots of us part ways with him, since for Aquinas, any kind of sexual expression outside of heterosexual monogamy within the bounds of marriage (including masturbation) is O.U.T. Sex is for procreation. That is it.
But since we technically don’t need to make any more of ourselves–in fact, it would be better for the earth if most of us didn’t make more than 1 or maybe 2 new humans–then what is sex for? If more is now permitted, in 21st century Christian theology, how much more, exactly, is holy, is healthy, is Godly?
Some of the questions Jeff asked us last night include, “Can sex ever just be physical and not spiritual, or are our spirits always ‘on the line,’ somehow? Can sex be spiritual and healthy without commitment, friendship or conception?”
I’d further ask: what of modern inventions: Internet porn, for example? online hookup sites? sexting?
I’ll be preaching on Lust, and its modern incarnation, and the choices we make as Jesus people. Chet is our able liturgist. Jeff will help us pray. We will be anointing our new deacons, and charging our Capital Campaign Executive Committee leaders!
After worship, Big Meeting Brunch teams meet to plan the work and life of our beloved community. Music, Children’s Ministry, Finance and Fellowship Teams are open to all, for a visit! Come see what’s going on on the inside.
Before church for your spirit: adult bible study with Matthew and Diane, and breakfast food! In the afternoon, at 1pm, Sabbath Yoga in the parlor with Jackie!
bless you, and may you be a blessing~
Molly
Hola Amados!
Merrymaking, you say? What happened to Lenten self-denial, temperance, fasting and prayer? Well, we do it with JOY in our hearts at First Church, right? What’s that in the corners of my mouth? No, it’s absolutely not vanilla pudding. Yes, I know it looks like vanilla pudding, and it’s only 10am, but…ok. Lent is hard. I admit it. I took too much on. I’m doing great with staying dry, not so great at relinquishing sweets, or gossip. That’s why we call it PRACTICE. I’m not too proud to admit it.
Speaking of pride, we are rocketing through the Seven Deadly Sins. We already have Gluttony and Greed under our belt, and this Sunday will turn our gaze to Envy and Pride, Envidia y Orgullo. Does one of these speak to you? Is it your personal bugbear? Aquinas called Envy “sorrow for another’s good.” In Dante’s Inferno, the proud were punished by being made to carry heavy stones around, to point them to the ground, in humility. How have pride and envy kept you apart from the great good God intends for your life?
Our Mexico Mission Team will use the poignant, pithy line from I Corinthians to guide their words this week: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” All 19 of us who are newly minted alums of the Casa San Jose orphanage will tell you (in prayers, confession, and 3 micro-sermons) how God broke into our lives that week in Mexico, and how God will break into yours, if you let Her. There will be great music from Project Soul, including 2 songs we sang on Ash Wednesday with the Casa children. And a kid-led Time for Children!
After worship, many treats on the coffee hour table, including coconut and cajeta from Colima (say that five times fast). And after that, if you’re ready to yoke your spirit to the spirits of others in a deeply meaningful way, join our First Church Prayer Team orientation, a 30-45 minute introduction to each other and to the rubric of praying our community’s prayers each week.
bless you, and may you be a blessing to others,
Molly
Hello Beloved,
How have the first few days of Lent been for you? A little drear? A little moody? A little spartan?
Well, chins up, First Church, because this is the Springtime of our Souls.
Springtime?! Have you looked outside today? Yuck.
Well, believe it or not, “Lent” comes from the Olde English word “lencten” which means “springtime.” And, in fact, Ash Wednesday was the day after the new moon and Spring will officially arrive the day before the next new moon – less than 30 days.
Speaking of calendar trivia, if you look carefully, you will notice that there are 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
What happened to 40 days of Lent?! Who slipped us an extra 6 days?
Well, Sundays are not counted as Lenten days – they are OFF the calendar, out of chronology, Kairos, sacred, FEAST days. Sunday is a time to celebrate.
How appropriate that our first Feast Sunday of this Lent will be a Jubilee Sunday! We’ll be talking to the kids in the sanctuary about what Lent is and why we give things up. Is it holy to make ourselves miserable, to bear a cross? Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light! Maybe giving things up is way to find lightness of being and freedom rather than misery. Maybe it’s a way of putting down the cross, instead of picking it up?
WILL YOU PLEASE BRING A PILLOW TO CHURCH? Maybe one from the couch? One you don’t mind mingling with other Beloved pillows and whole horde of Jubilee children!
Our mission trippers will also be arriving home early Sunday morning – another celebration. They can’t promise that they will all make it to church that day, but their nearness to us will certainly be felt.
On Tuesday I would love it if you would join me and Occupy Somerville at Somerville High School at 6 PM for an MBTA Public Hearing on the proposed bus cuts and fare hikes that will affect many many people in our community! This is a serious justice and environmental issue in our city and there has been a lot of grassroots movement – let’s meet our neighbors and make our voices heard!
Wednesday we’ll be sending off a Brother in Christ, Dick Huber. Calling hours will be at the church at 11 AM and the funeral will start at noon.
Later that day Rest re/New will begin at 6:15 PM in the Chapel. Beloved Soup Time starts in Duhamel Hall at 7 PM and our Lenten House Church in Duhamel Hall will kick off around 7:30 PM and last about an hour. What will be talking about together? The 7 Deadly Sins!!! We’re re-engaging Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, & Gluttony to see what they have to offer us in our understanding of what sin is, where it lies, and how we can heal ourselves and our world as a community together.
Don’t forget that Early Morning Prayer is happening every morning at 7 AM in the Chapel and that the Palm Sunday Gospel Cantata rehearsals start Thursday at 7 PM in the Sanctuary – contact Thom (music@firstchurchsomerville.org) to get signed up to sing!
Lenten Blessing!
Jeff
Beloveds,
Today we sent off a great one, Barbara Huber. She was a faithful member of our church for her whole life. She was a friend, a sister, and a mother to all of us. Though we could never repay her, we sent her off with all the style and grace and food, food, food that she deserved.
This week we also lost another elder of our church, Priscilla Matheson, and you are invited to join us in sending her off as well. Visiting hours are this Sunday from 3-7 PM at Anderson Bryant Funeral Home in Stoneham. The funeral service is on Monday morning at 10 AM, also at the funeral home.
It seems that we’ve met the mourning appropriate for next week’s Ash Wednesday service a little early. But the imposition of the ashes is not yet quite upon us and there are blessings, prayers, and celebrations of life yet to attend to!
Tomorrow our Mission Trippers fly away from us (with all attendant blessings and angels) and fly into the embracing arms of the life and the love of the children of the Casa San Jose Orphanage. Friday evening, as you sit down to eat, send them special traveling mercies as their plane carries them to our community’s calling in Colima, Mexico.
On Sunday, we will climb a mountain with Jesus! Yes, I know we have a lot of work to do down here. Yes, I know that Lent is right around the corner. Yes, I know we might get lost along the way! But, On Sunday, we’re going UP anyway! And when we get up there we will experience the freaky, the spooky, the terrifying Transfiguration! We’ll also ask the kids what they think Jesus might say to a ghost when he meets one or two on the top of a mountain. And what might it tell us about life and death that Jesus talks to ghosts in the first place?! Don’t worry. We’ll come back down the mountain eventually to experience life and to change the world in new ways. OH, and to EAT PANCAKES.
It’s Big Meeting Brunch. It’s the Sunday before Fat Tuesday. It’s the Big Fat Pancake Brunch. Bring an extra fork because the fluffy golden goodness will be flowing. You won’t be sorry!
On Wednesday we will have a chance to be with our grief again as Lent officially begins. Early morning prayer will take place every day during Lent in the Chapel at 7 AM. On Ash Wednesday we will also do the imposition of ashes on all those who want to come in the morning before work. The ashes on our body are a physical sign of mourning and deep reflection – a way to remember and a means to meet God. At 7 PM we will hold our traditional Ash Wednesday service in Duhamel Hall.
Blessings to you, Beloved, when you mourn. Remember Jesus’ promise that when you mourn you shall be comforted. We will find part of that comfort in the life and love we share together.
See you all soon!
Jeff
hi Beloved,
It’s one of those all-church-all-the-time weekends in our beloved community. Maybe you are one of the 50ish people coming on our 7th annual All Church Retreat to Friendly Crossways! If you are, I can’t WAIT to see you in just a few hours! To relax, restore, re-friend, re-meet God in nature and rest and each other, and re-learn what power we have to bless one another and everything that God has made.
If you’re not coming with us, pause on your way this evening, strain your ears, and hear us singing around the fireplace. Hum a few bars with us. The Holy Spirit transcends time and space to hold us together. This is real.
Saturday evening, our Mexico mission team (20 strong! 15 adults and 5 kids) gather in Dorchester to make tamales for Eastern Service Workers’ Association, tamales they will sell to raise money to support their families. This is a warm-up act for our more dedicated service to the Casa, T minus 2 weeks away!
Sunday morning, good sabbath. It’s Communion Sunday and the occasion of the fifth sermon in the Recovery series: Step 5 is, “We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” Emily P (yes, that’s my sister!) is our first-time liturgist. Pray for her! Pass me a hanky! This will mark, I believe, the first time I have shared the chancel with my own flesh and blood, at First Church. I will preach, on the power of confession. Pastor Jeff will pray with us!
After worship, mingling and joy at coffee hour, our second hour of prayer, before our church staff (there are 9 of us now!) gathers for our own mini-retreat, to build connections and support each others’ work. Pray for us!
Our third hour of prayer on Sunday begins at 6:30 EST with the Superbowl kickoff. We’ll be worshipping in diaspora, gathered in twos and threes in front of screens (or big bowls of seven-layer dip, for the less athletically inclined) all over the region. We will, of course, be praying not for our own preferences, but that God’s will be done. We are that mature, as Christians. Yes?
God be with you!
Molly
Hello Beloved!
Well, winter finally found where we were hiding, yes? Ok, you can stay, Winter. Only for a few weeks though, you hear? Just till the novelty wears off.
We are deep into Epiphany now, the time of Jesus’s initation into public ministry, and his hazing, I mean calling, of the disciples. I’ll be preaching Sunday, on the calling of the first four who would grow to be twelve, and how you and I are implicated. Matthew is our able liturgist. Jeff Mansfield will be worshipping with our beloved kids, downstairs!
After worship, we will gather for our 136th Annual Meeting as a beloved community. We will hear a presentation about the proposed capital campaign, review and vote on a budget for the new year, and look ahead to what’s coming. It all sounds terribly dry, but in practice it is the most remarkable thing, to watch all these people who have nothing in common but Jesus Christ hash out how to keep calling an enterprise like our church into being and thriving. It’s democracy! Without PACs and subterfuge and namecalling and abuses of power and miscarriages of justice! I’m thinking of inviting the presidential candidates to show them how it should be done, with kindness and deep mutual respect, and lots and lots of hope and idealism.
Beloved, I missed you! and can’t wait to see you.
Christlove
Molly
Merry Beloved!
Harold reminded me of a few Januaries ago, when I came back from Hawaii and preached about swimming with the dolphins, as you slogged the snowy slog. How unfeeling of me! Just for you, I have ordered this, if not quite Hawaiian weather, at least, northern Californian weather? At least until Christmas. After that, you’re on your own.
Maybe it’s the unseasonable weather that makes Christmas seem extraordinarily early this year. Or maybe Christ just.can’t.wait to be born in our hearts? In any case: here we are!
The Longest Night service last night was lovely, led by pastors and laity from 6 area churches. Solemn and soulful indoors, ending in light and laughter outdoors as we lit a blazing fire in the evening rainy damp, and watched the Holy Spirit playfully blow out our candles.
We’ll take up those candles again Saturday night, on a different occasion. Christmas Eve Candlelight Carols begins at 7p. Silent and chaotic, joyful and solemn, all at once. Lillian S. stars as Baby Jesus, with her parents Tom and Michelle in supporting roles. You are invited to bring Gifts for Christ that the mission team will bring to the Casa in February: new socks and underwear, toothbrushes, and/or art supplies/puzzles for sharing. We’ll sing the old songs, we’ll have a moment for children around the manger, there may even be a mini flash mob. Bring parents, friends, roomies, grandchildren!
We could use a hand or two for setup and crowd control: if you’d like to help out, would you RSVP to me, and plan on showing up about 5:30 or 6:00 pm on Saturday?
On Sunday morning, the once-every-six-years-or-so Sabbath Christmas happens. Because it is a sabbath among Sabbaths, because Mother Mary herself could hardly have been expected to get dressed in an ugly Christmas sweater and hurty shoes for Christmas morning, you are invited to come in PJs and/or slippers to church. We’ll have bagels for breakfast at 9:30am if you’d like to come be our company. Worship is at the usual 10:00am hour–LOTS of carols, and no confession, as it’s a day when we rest from the shadow side of life. Toni S. is our able liturgist. Jeff will pray with us. Hugh plays. I will share a wonderful Christmas parable from Barbara Brown Taylor, before the kids, Peter and I duck out for California and Hawaii. We will pray for you while we are away! Please pray for us, that we aren’t eaten by sharks while swimming with dolphins!
A note: there will be NO formal child care in the nursery, on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. The nursery is available if you need a quiet place to take your children, but we don’t mind if they make noise in the sanctuary: all that business about baby Jesus being quiet as a lamb, I’m sure, was nonsense concocted by a bunch of monastic church fathers who never held a baby in their lives.
God rest ye merry gentlefolk,
Molly
Beloved,
Today dawns darkly: the shortest day of the year, and therefore the longest night. If you want to holler the light back to this hemisphere, if you need healing, want to pray for the world, or just don’t want to be alone, come join us for The Longest Night service! With Taize music, good bread, anointing for healing, and a fire pit. Here are the details:
The Longest Night Service, Wednesday, December 21, 7pm. A spiritual-but-not-necessarily-religious service for the shadow side of the season. We’ll gather to watch, pray, and light the night with folks from other churches and no church at all. Effect a catharsis of the spirit: we recognize that these holy days are also long and dark, and come with a host of feelings.
Cheerio Beloved!
Why does this time of year always make me feel vaguely British? Is it because Dickens ‘invented’ the modern mood of Christmas, with his famous little story? Some years I think: “we should really cover the sanctuary with sand and palm trees, to get into the REAL mood of a middle-eastern Christmas.” But every year, some wise deacon or other talks me out of it.
Nonetheless, we will try to bring the spirit of Bethlehem into our midst, in several ways, this weekend.
Tonight: Flash Mob: Occupy/Bethlehem! Marlin our PR guru has alerted the press. They are coming. You need to come too! So we have a flash mob and not a flash fizzle! We’ll meet at 6:30pm at church to get the lowdown, head to Davis Square at 7:30 to make it happen, and be on our way home to our jammies (or out on the town) by 8pm. There will be no dancing–I repeat, no dancing–only a little mild carol-singing, and witnessing to Christmas breaking out everywhere. Email Jeff Mansfield if you have questions or want to RSVP!
Tomorrow: Cantata dress rehearsal starts at 4:30 in the sanctuary. If you are not in the choirs, no peeking! In the evening, Jenny Utech’s annual holiday party. It’s a lovely fete, a mellow chance to make friends or really feel Christmas. Jenny lives at 37 Hall Ave, a short walk from the church.
Sunday: Christmas Cantata and Festival Worship. This is our *big* chance to be together before the holidays scatter many of us back to where we came from, other places we still call home (for newbies: Christmas Eve is big too, but a different crowd: neighbors and extended family). We will open worship with the lighting of the fourth advent candle by Carol and Calla Taylor. It will continue with an audio postcard from Jeff Von Wald and Julie Rossate, our servants of Jesus living in Bethlehem, of all places, to help us arrive emotionally where Jesus is. Jeff M, Rebecca H, Reebee G and others will help us lean into the story, with readings. The children will sing, the adult choir will transmit the Holy Spirit through songs we have been practicing for two months (Sweet Honey in the Rock!), and new members Seth and Tracy Wispelwey will break our hearts open with Tracy’s original music. But wait, there’s more! Resounding Joy bell choir, and Go Tell it on the Mountain with double bass, trumpet and percussion!
After worship leaves us breathless (literally), we’ll head downstairs for old-school Christmas fun: hot brunch, sweet treats (can you bring a sweet to share?), children’s book exchange and Christmas carol singing at the top of our lungs (this is your chance to feel like a diva: get practicing O Holy Night in the shower this morning).
Beloved, bless you on your way today, whether your head is in Bethlehem or stubbornly staying here, in the bleak early winter, frosty wind made moan.
Molly
Were you raised in church, and kind of miss the rituals and mood-making that happens this time of year? Were you not raised in church, and wonder what all the fuss is about? We invite you to join our progressive, warm and open community for Advent and Christmas festivities this year.
Christmas Carolling to Occupy/Boston: We’ll sing old Christmas carols to new justice words with our brothers and sisters in the Occupy movement, Sunday December 4 at 1:00 pm.
Advent Morning Prayer: A quiet, candle-filled start to the day, in our downstairs chapel, every Thursday morning at 7am.
Rest and re/New: Intimate worship for the whole brain, in our downstairs chapel, every Wednesday evening at 6:15pm.
Christmas Carolling in Community: Saturday, December 10, 6:30pm. Call or email church office for details.
Occupy/Bethlehem Flash Mob: Friday, December 16, 6p. Place TBD!
Christmas Festival Worship: Sunday, December 18, 10am. Our bell choir, children’s choir and a supercharged adult choir will shake the rafters, including music from Sweet Honey in the Rock! We’ll hear an audio postcard from Jeff and Julie, our ministers working with Palestinian Christians in modern-day Bethlehem. Following worship: Fabulous brunch, children’s gift books, and singing carols at the top of our lungs.
The Longest Night Service, Wednesday, December 21, 7pm. A spiritual-but-not-necessarily-religious service for the shadow side of the season. We’ll gather to watch, pray, and light the night with folks from other churches and no church at all. Effect a catharsis of the spirit: we recognize that these holy days are also long and dark, and come with a host of feelings.
Christmas Eve Candlelight Carols, Saturday, December 24, 7pm. For all kinds of families, couples, singles; for gay and straight; black and brown and white; rich and poor; regulars and newbies; and everyone in between. A brand-new Baby Jesus, plenty of candles, beautiful music, and a star will remind us what it is to be a human being fully alive.
Christmas Day Worship, Sunday December 25, 10am. Don’t be alone: come for breakfast at 9:30am, stay for carols, community, and preaching that makes you laugh and cry (you’re invited to come in PJs!). Bring your children, your roommates, your parents who are visiting from out-of-town!
