West Springfield United Methodist Church
Sunday Worship 10am
The rushing, the hurry, the presents, the relatives…. oh rush, rush, rush.. How about a little coffee (or tea) and some time to relax? Now, how about a church service like that? This Sunday come and have a cup, some snacks (there is a rumor the pastor is making his mother’s coffee cake recipe), sing a few hymns, and instead of a sermon you’ll have a chance to ask some questions of the Pastor! It’s this Sunday at 10am.
Come and join us for a family Christmas Eve service complete with familiar hymns, wonderful readings and uplifting messages ending in a circle of candlelight! It all begins at 6:30pm!
All are Welcome!
It is Advent! A time of anticipation, a time of reflection, of thanks, of excitement. Four Sundays beginning on December 1st mark the days and weeks as we move towards Christmas day.
In the northern hemisphere, we are also marching towards the Winter Solstice, the day of the longest night. It’s no coincidence that the German and Scandinavian Christians created the ceremony of lighting candles to mark each week of Advent. Each week another candle was added, another source of illumination. In Oslo, Norway this year the sun won’t rise until 8:41am and will set at 3:36pm, just 6 hours and 45 minutes of light. More candles and more light becomes part of the celebration.
This year our Advent series isn’t focused on light but rather on the darkness. All too often we look at the world as binaries, good/bad, simple/complex, light/dark, but that isn’t the world is it? No one person ‘all good’ or ‘all bad.’ Nothing is really all that simple, everything has a little bit of complexity and even in the depth of the night there is a beauty. If you don’t believe me go somewhere away from the street lights and on a clear night look up you will see the heavens unfold before your very eyes.
Even the Advent candles are made more special because of the holiness of the darkness. Don’t believe me? Light four candles outside in the middle of a sunny day. Not exactly spectacular. Now light the same four at night in a dark room and watch the flames bring the room to life!
Each Sunday of Advent we are going to examine, to experience, the holiness of the darkness. You recall in Genesis that God created both the night and the day? God created both, and both are ‘good. Each Sunday we will hear the same stories we hear at Christmas, the angels, the shepherds, the manger, Joseph and Mary but we will see what an important role darkness plays in each story.
So come this Advent and share the darkness together. Wrap yourself in it, let your soul rest there. Come and relish not only the day but the glories of the evenings. Come and light a candle together to see in the darkness the holy, the wonder, the beauty that God has created for you.
Pastor Rick
Today – a welcome passage from Brother David Steindl-Rast,
just in time for Thanksgiving.
You think that this is just another day in your life… It’s not just another day. It’s the one day that is given to you – today. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the very last day then you will have spent this day very well.
Begin by opening your eyes, and be surprised that you have eyes you can open. That incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for our pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment, with clouds coming and going.
Open your eyes. Look at that. Look at the faces of people whom you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, Not only their own story but the story of their ancestors. All that life from generations and from so many places all over the world flows together and meets you here like life-giving water if you only open your heart and drink.
Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch, and there is electric light. You turn a faucet, and there is warm water, and cold water, and drinkable water… a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.
And so I am wishing you will open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you. That everyone you will meet on this day will be blessed by you, just by your presence.
Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you. Then it will really be a good day.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving – Pastor Rick
West Springfield United Methodist Church 