Love Your Neighbor

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One of my favorite early monks in the church was a man known by the name "John the Dwarf" (sounds like he's right out of Lord of the Rings). We often think of monastics as solitary and reclusive figures, but they are quite the opposite. They have much to teach us about radical hospitality and love of neighbor. Rowan Williams talks about John below:

John the Dwarf: “You don’t build a house by starting with the roof and working down. You start with the foundation.” They said, “What does that mean?” He said, “The foundation is our neighbor whom we must win. The neighbor is where we start. Every commandment of Christ depends on this.” Everything begins with this vision and hope: to put the neighbor in touch with God in Christ.

Williams, Rowan. Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another (pp. 14-15). New Seeds. Kindle Edition. 

About the Author
Isaac Gaff is the Managing Director of Worship and Creative Arts at Calvary UMC

Sunday Worship (Flip the Switch - Isaiah 60:1-6)

This week we'll be exploring Isaiah 60:1-6.  

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

“Lift up your eyes and look about you:
    All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
    and your daughters are carried on the hip.
Then you will look and be radiant,
    your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
    to you the riches of the nations will come.
Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
 

Each Sunday you can find the live stream here or watch the archive here. 

A Light To My Path (Isaiah 60:1-6)

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This coming week's text comes from Isaiah 60:1-6:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

“Lift up your eyes and look about you:
    All assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
    and your daughters are carried on the hip.
Then you will look and be radiant,
    your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
    to you the riches of the nations will come.
Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.

Who Is My Neighbor? (2017 in Review)

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One of the things I enjoy about the end of one year and the beginning of the next are the various ‘Year in Review’ segments in the news.  Although there are plenty of things for which to be sad (deaths, wildfires, flooding), I love to remember the incredible blessings God has allowed us to witness.

There are many members of our Calvary family ministering to our community everyday in ways we don’t even know….and we celebrate their faithfulness to God!  There are also some things that we do as a church that we can easily identify…..and I want to make sure all of us see this full picture so that we can celebrate the faithfulness of our God.

Calvary tithes (gives 10% of our donations) to ministry beyond our walls.  In Matthew 25, we read these words of Jesus, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me,  was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”  (For the full effect, read Matthew 25:31-46.)

The Outreach Team has the responsibility of determining where the funds go.  Rounded off to the nearest 100, here’s how your tithe was used in  2017:

The Baby Fold                    $11,000
Faith in Action                       5,000
Home Sweet Home Ministries         11,300
Habitat for Humanity                 10,000
Midwest Food Bank                 10,000
Buliisa Water Project                 10,000
Haiti Church Build and Missions         14,700
Elmira Sellu (Missionary in Sierra Leone)       2,500
Illini Fighting Hunger (food packaging)       2,900
Mom and Me Camp                   2,000
Flood Relief (UMCOR)               5,000
Operation Christmas Child               1,000
Linda Unger (missionary in Nairobi)          3,000
Red Bird Mission                    1,000
ISU Wesley Foundation               5,000
Bloomington Township Community Care       1,000
Calvary’s Good Samaritan Fund          1,500
Flood Bucket Supplies                  500
Suubi Works (Uganda)              3,500
Our Conference Our Kids              3,500
Parkside Elementary Special Olympics         950

The United Methodist Church requests 6 special offerings which help various people in need and Outreach also contributed $600 to each of those 6 areas.

In addition, the church proudly contributes to the General Church (the United Methodist Church as a whole) through a benevolence asking called the World Service Apportionment, which supports a plethora of ministries throughout the world. Through the World Service Fund, we join hands with United Methodists around the world to help those in need.
Of course, it’s not only financial support that we provide…..people volunteered in nearly all of the above ministries and donated food, clothing, and gifts to many of God’s people.

So…..Calvary’s year in review, in part says that God was very faithful to allow us to fulfill the instructions of Jesus written in Matthew 25.  Thank you for being a part of God’s work throughout the world in 2017!

About the Author
Debbie Reese is the Co-Directing Pastor of Calvary UMC

Love Your Neighbor

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From Rowan Williams' book "Where God Happens:"

We love with God when and only when we are the conduit for God’s reconciling presence with the person next to us. It is as we connect the other with the source of life that we come to stand in the place of life, the place cleared and occupied for us by Christ.

Williams, Rowan. Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another (p. 36). New Seeds. Kindle Edition. 

Who Is My Neighbor? (Birthday Party for Jesus, The Baby Fold, and Evergreen)

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‘Tis the season for birthday parties!  Well, people may call them Christmas parties, but Calvary’s KidVenture sponsored a Birthday Party for Jesus this past Wednesday (12/20).  Not only did they read the story of Jesus’ birth while the appropriate characters acted it out, but they also collected gifts for Jesus!  The gifts were in the form of making cards for the residents of Evergreen Assisted Living across from the church and bringing diapers for The Baby Fold’s Healthy Start Program.

Jesus’ babies need lots and lots of diapers, and people were very generous in bringing them to the party.  The cards for the Evergreen Residents will be given out when our volunteers go to Evergreen to operate Calvary’s Live Stream on Christmas Eve and celebrate worship with these precious people.  I love that our children learn not only the very powerful story of Jesus’ birth, but also that Jesus loves it when we celebrate Him by giving to others.

The Baby Fold’s Healthy Start Program serves McLean and Champaign County moms aged 22 and younger who are expecting their first baby.  Many of these young moms are considered ‘at risk’ because many don’t have the support system they need to answer important questions about how to take care of themselves during pregnancy and how to take care of their baby when he/she is born.

The following description is found on The Baby Fold’s website:  

“The Healthy Start program is totally voluntary, but requires commitment from the mother to invite a Family Support Worker into her home bi-weekly through the remainder of her pregnancy and weekly during the first nine months of her baby’s life. A feature of the program is “mom is the child’s first teacher,” and the Support Worker brings many interactive ideas to help mom and baby relate and bond. The Support Worker becomes a trusted friend, a tie to other community resources, and a resource on so many “what do I do” concerns. Not only does the Support Worker help the mother relate to her child, she helps the mother build a safe and economically viable environment for her family. At the end of the Healthy Start program, the family graduates, knowing they have the resources and knowledge to manage the stresses of life.”

As you have your Christmas celebrations this week, I pray that you will be overwhelmed with the presence of Jesus and that you might consider ways that others have been in ministry with/for you and ways that you might be in ministry with/for others in the coming year.  Praise God for the gift of Jesus!

About the Author
Debbie Reese is the Co-Directing Pastor of Calvary UMC

Love Your Neighbor (Coming Home - Week 4)

Today's "Love Your Neighbor" comes from our Advent Devotional (found in its entirety here):

"At the time when Jesus was born, shepherds weren’t considered to be very important. They had important work to do, but they weren’t people that others might necessarily invite to their homes. Yet they were invited to meet the baby Jesus.

Are there people in your family or community who might not be invited to a Christmas celebration this year? Join hands together. Name those who come to mind that on this Christmas Eve are alone and forgotten. Together, think of a way you can recognize and remember some of the forgotten people. Together, pray for the forgotten people in your home, your church, or your community."

Deeper Dive Podcast (Coming Home - Week 4)

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Randy and Debbie continue the discussion on Mary's Song in Luke along with Zechariah's Song and Hannah's Song.

Listen in your device's podcast app – Apple version here and Android version here or use the desktop-only player below.

About the Authors
Randy and Debbie Reese are Co-Directing Pastors at Calvary UMC
Isaac Gaff is the Managing Director of Worship and Creative Arts at Calvary UMC

Teach Us to Pray (Coming Home - Week 4)

As we begin a week focused on peace, Saint Francis' prayer for peace is a great way to begin:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Sunday Worship (Coming Home - Week 4)

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This week we'll be exploring Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 1, verses 46-55:

And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Each Sunday you can find the live stream here or watch the archive here. 

A Light To My Path (Coming Home - Week 4)

Our text for the coming week comes from Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 1, verses 46-55:

And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
 

Question for Reflection:

This passage is at the heart of the Christmas Story, but at first glance, it seems disconnected. How do you make sense of Mary's song in the larger Christmas Story?

Who Is My Neighbor? (Home Sweet Home Ministries and Safe Harbor)

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As I write this, I can hear the wind whipping around the corner of my office and I can see the branches of a pine tree being blown back and forth.  The thought of going outside for any reason makes me want to curl up in front of my fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate.  And I think of those who have no other choice…who have no warm office in which to work, who have no warm home in which to live…..who have no choice but to hope a shelter is open in the evening where they might get a warm meal and a cot on which to sleep and thaw out for a bit.

That’s why Calvary is a strong supporter of Home Sweet Home Ministries and a regular provider of meals for Safe Harbor…both agencies which offer shelter for the homeless.  I love Home Sweet Home’s vision statement:  ‘Our ministry is to be a place of refuge and renewal powered by Jesus Christ.’

In an effort to better understand the needs of our community and to most faithfully use the tithe that Calvary so graciously gives to glorify God, I did a very informal community needs assessment last summer.  One of the things I learned was that affordable housing is one of the biggest needs in Bloomington/Normal.  It is impossible to work a minimum wage job and provide housing for a family.  In fact, minimum wage jobs often don’t guarantee a 40 hour work week, so it’s nearly impossible to provide housing for one.  Work more jobs, you say?  If you are single, that might work (although when your employer calls you to work and you have to go to your other job, how long do you think they’ll keep you?).  However, with even one child, going to work and paying for childcare is cost prohibitive…and when you add the other living expenses…well, you get the idea.

Is there something we can do?  Yes!  I’m glad you asked!  Of course you can always just stop by one of our community shelters and offer to help in any way that they need (remember to ask what they need rather than what we think they need).  There are always financial needs for those places in town who provide shelters.  Although we certainly don’t have a homeless shelter, Calvary uses our Good Samaritan Fund to help with emergency needs (which sometimes include temporary housing or food).  Our Christmas Offering this year goes to the Good Samaritan Fund so that we might help folks who just need a boost.

Along with others in the community as well as our church, I am going to participate in Home Sweet Home Ministries’ ‘A Night in a Car’ on Feb. 2 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bloomington.  You can donate toward my ‘car’ or sign up to bring your car and spend the night yourself.

None of us likes to see someone suffer from homelessness…and it’s even more frustrating to see the problem and not know what to do about it.  As we celebrate Christmas this year, may we know that our God sees every single person and allows each of us to reach out to others in a variety of ways.  Maybe someone just needs your encouragement this year.  Maybe they need a coat.  Maybe they need a meal. There’s one thing that people of all ages and stages can do:  we can all pray.  Will you join me in praying for those who are cold today?
 

About the Author
Debbie Reese is the Co-Directing Pastor of Calvary UMC

Love Your Neighbor (Coming Home - Week 3)

This week's "Love Your Neighbor" comes from this year's Advent Devotional found here:

"There are people in our neighborhoods, in our church, and in our community who need to know of God's joy. Select someone to visit today. Visit by phone or in person. Go as a family or by yourself. It doesn't necessarily have to be a visit to a home. Maybe there is someone you see in a place where you go to eat. Stop by today and talk with that person. Tell the person you visit one way he or she brings joy to you."