Author: Church Office

Advent shares the Latin root adventus meaning “a coming, approach, or arrival.”  It’s part of the word “adventure” – which I love!  Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas Day – not just the first 24 days of December.  In a way, Advent wreaths are more accurate timekeepers than Advent calendars, although I am a fan of both.  

Advent is the season of “already/not yet”: Christ has already come/Christ has not yet returned.  I am a believer/God help my unbelief (see Mark 9).  I am a complete human as I am/I am still learning to be fully human.  Advent carries the weight of the end times balanced with the hope of the Kingdom of God.  Consequently, it is a season of penitence and introspection, a time for prayer and silence, and a time of thinking through what the Church is, and what it will become.  That’s why we light candles, and read about John the Baptist, and focus on confession and spiritual growth.  We remember Christ coming as a vulnerable baby, and hope for the coming of Christ the Prince of Peace.

Advent gets really lost in the shuffle of seasonal chaos – the ridiculously early arrival of Christmas junk in all the stores even before Halloween, and the commercialism of toys and Santa and stuff, the intensity of parties and food and beverages and even having to pretend to like your Aunt Betty – it can all seem pretty insane.. 

So I invite you this advent season to really slow down. I invite you to fill your calendar with things that help you prepare once again to tell the story of the salvation of the world. The world can have all the rest. But for you, my friend, this advent season is calling you back in for so much more than any store could ever offer..

May this Advent prepare your hearts for the wonderful good news of the season.

Pastor Gretchen

Cell :717.679.0264

3131Pastor@gmail.com

There will be two worship services on Christmas Eve, one at 6:00 pm and the other at 9:00 pm. Both services will include the service of Word and Sacrament. The services will conclude with the singing of Silent Night outside under the canopy.  The choir and the bell choir will provide special music at the 9:00 pm service.  We look forward to seeing you at one or both of these special services.

The Lancaster Heritage Chorale will be presenting their final concert for the 2022 Christmas season in our sanctuary at 4:00pm on Sunday, January 8, 2023. This is a wonderful way to spend a cold winter afternoon. If you have never attended one of the Chorale’s concerts you are in for a treat.

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

That’s a saying that I’ve been hearing a lot of lately. My friends from Tanzania were the first to introduce that phrase to me. We stood in front of their congregation and the exchange went like this:

Pastor:  “God is Good!”

Congregation: “All the time! All the Time”

Pastor: “God is Good!”

It sounds so wonderful when you hear an entire audience declare God’s goodness. But what about when there’s not a crowd around? What are we declaring then?

When the chips are down and the enemy is hot on our heels, that’s when what we really believe comes out. In the middle of the night when your child is sick with a fever or when you have more bills than money at the end of the month, it may be more difficult to recall God’s goodness. In those times we have to reach down into what we know, not what we feel, and on purpose declare that no matter what, GOD IS GOOD. 

There is a source of light in being able to declare the goodness of God in the pit of despair. To be able to say this as punctuation on a glorious day is to create the muscle memory that we will need for the days that feel like h. e. double hockey sticks. It reminds me of 5^th Century monastic Christians called the Desert Father’s and Desert Mothers who prayed ceaselessly with the words of the Jesus Prayer. “Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me.” This ceaseless prayer would be a constant companion day and night that at some point the one who prayed would merge with the words of the prayer and understand themselves as being completely loved, fully in grace, and one with Christ. They became the prayer.

I see a growing desire in many of you to develop this muscle memory. Worship is a wonderful place to do this with intentionality. Allow yourself time to center yourself before worship and during communion. Try the words of the Jesus prayer or the declaration of God’s goodness. Use these prayers in quiet moments when you are alone like when you are driving in your car or doing house chores. Perhaps you want to intentionally focus on the Jesus prayer when you notice negative thoughts or feelings creeping into your consciousness.

These prayers are the cognitive tools that we use to remind our very complex brain something that we know deep down in the recesses. You are deeply loved by God and there is nothing that can separate you from that love. This does not mean that you will not have hardship and pain in this life. But it does mean that none of those things can separate you from God’s love.

Join us on November 6th for a presentation from The Gatehouse.  The Gatehouse is an addiction rehabilitation center.  See below for items to donate.

Classes with an * indicate that  meeting in the Fellowship Hall.