2015-12-27 Worship Videos

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2015-12-27

• Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year! Please note that the church office will be closed Dec. 28th, 29th, and Jan. 1st.
• We send our snow-trippers off today! Please hold our young people and their chaperones in your prayers for meaningful, fun-filled, and safe time together. Please also lift Pastor Moon and his health concerns in God’s light.
• Looking Ahead to January - Please note these special worship and learning opportunities:
• Jan. 10th - Aeri spent all of September in Uganda with her last week in Kumi. She will bring a word to us during worship and host a report back over lunch. Bring your questions, ideas, and prayers for our ongoing partnership with Kumi Christian Visionary School.
• Jan. 17th - Human Relations Sunday: We welcome the Rev. Debbie Lee and her colleagues to worship. She will be preaching about the theme of accompaniment. There will be a special opportunity to learn more about accompanying families and youth seeking asylum. Please also remember that this is a special offering Sunday.
• Jan. 24th - Laity Sunday: We give thanks for and celebrate the ministry of you, the laity. Come, ready to hear a message from our English Ministry Council leaders.
• Prayer Invite: Cloud Cheung will be confirmed next Sunday, Jan. 3rd. You are invited to hold him in your prayers ahead of this special day.

The True Gift of Christmas, Father Alberto Cutie

Christmas is the yearly celebration of the birth of Jesus, but it is truly a gift that we must experience each day. I share with you and all my readers the following thoughts -- based on a meditation by an anonymous author -- which enlighten us during the busy holiday season and sums up the true meaning of what we hope to celebrate as people of faith.

Christmas is a present, not a past.

Christmas should not be just a historical date to remember, but a gift to be lived.

When you decide to love those around you, that day is Christmas.

When you take the first step to be at peace with a loved one, that day is Christmas.

When you meet someone who asks for help and you assist them with all your heart, that day is Christmas.

When you take time to talk to someone who is lonely and sad, that day is Christmas.

When you understand that resentment can be transformed by forgiveness, that day is Christmas.

When you let go of something to give to someone who needs it more than you, that day is Christmas.

When you realize that love, service and authentic concern are the best gifts, that day is Christmas.

When you decide to live with joy and hope rather than surrender to fear and sadness, that day is Christmas.

Christmas is something that was born in the heart of God -- who motivated by pure love -- sent his son Jesus to save us. Yet, Christmas comes alive to-day when we allow its true significance to be born in our hearts. May the beautiful holiday lights, parties, shopping and the exhausting rush of these days not distract us from the true meaning of what Christmas really is -- and can be.

Merry Christmas to all!

2015 Candlelight Worship

Worship Videos 2015-12-20

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon / Skit

English Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2015-12-20

• Great Thanks to all those who pitched in and helped out at the monthly all church work day yesterday and to the leadership of Al.
• A Warm Invite to Christmas Eve - Don't miss the beauty and mystery of Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. We will gather at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 24th. You are invited to bring a plate of goodies to share for the fellow-ship time afterwards.
• Please Note: The church office will be closed between Friday, Dec. 25th and Tuesday, Dec. 29th, then again on Friday, Jan. 1st.
• Please Pray for Our Snow Trip Participants and Leaders: Next Sunday, we send off a group of leaders and youth to North Tahoe to enjoy the snow and one another's fellowship. Please hold this time together in your prayers.
• We Give Great Thanks to Our Poinsettia Donors:
• Elsie Wan, Anna & David Wong, C.K. & Mabel Lee, Suk Ling Woo, Linda Woo, You Fang Fan Wu, Winnie Pon, Ulander Pang, Leo & Helena Lin, Wei Lian Lei, Theresa Leung, Donna Chan Chu, Richard & Adrienne Fong, Meina Ko, Kwok Kuen Cheung, Donna Louie, Xiao-Ling Fong, Kenneth Kwan, Raymond & Claudia Foo, Lin Kam Huey, Lucy Zhou, Grace Yee, Vikki Chan, Nagawidjaja Winto, Roy & Veronica Cheung, Ursella & Cloud Cheung, Xiao Ying Chu, Feng
• Our 2016 Hospitality Chart is posted in the Social Hall! Please sign up to share refreshments with your fellow worshippers!

Fourth Sunday of Advent

We mark this last Sunday before Christmas as the fourth Sunday of Advent. It is difficult to not rush forward and celebrate it as Christmas Sunday. We are surely ready for Christmas to arrive and everybody else seems to have moved ahead. Yet, it is only appropriate that during this season of waiting and anticipation, of preparation, we are being called to wait and anticipate for just a while longer, we are being given just a wee bit more time to prepare the way.

The late great African American theologian and mystic, Howard Thurman, wrote a book called The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations. It is a devotional of sorts in that it is a collection of meditations for the Christmas season. Thurman incorporates the hope, the sense of celebration, love, compassion, and blessing of the season into his writing and encourages us to find them throughout the year. The following poem/meditation is titled, “Christmas is Waiting to be Born.” May it be a source of meditation, inspiration, and call for you in these last days before Christmas IS born!

Where refugees seek deliverance that never comes

And the heart consumes itself as if it would live,

Where children age before their time

And life wears down the edges of the mind,

Where the old man sits with mind grown cold,

While bones and sinew, blood and cell, go slowly down to death,

Where fear companions each day's life,

And Perfect Love seems long delayed.

Christmas is waiting to be born: in you, in me, in all mankind.

Worship Videos 2015-12-13

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2015-12-13

• All Church Work Day - Please plan to pitch in with our upcoming work day on Saturday, Dec. 19th, between 8:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Please see Al for details!
• Save the Date for Caroling - Join in this seasonal ministry of hospitality by visiting and bringing the blessed music to our home-bound and frail members on Monday, Dec. 21st. You will be blessed, guaranteed! Please see Charlie and Becky to sign up!
• Prayer Invite - Please remember this month's Adventure in Faith chapel on Dec. 16th and the outreach Christmas Sunday worship on Dec. 20th in prayer. We pray that families will be moved by the Christmas story and the welcome of this community.
• Christmas Outreach Sunday, Dec. 20th - Our CM brothers and sisters will be hosting the Homework Club families for worship next Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Twenty-nine children have been practicing sharing carols! They will be invited to remain for refreshments afterwards. You are invited to bring something for this time of hospitality!
• Christmas Eve Worship, Dec. 24th - You are invited to join in the beauty and the mystery at 7:00 p.m. Invite friends! Bring refreshments to share!
• Please Note: The church office will be open on the 24th, and closed the 25th through the 29th for Christmas break
• Christmas Eve Worship, Dec. 24th - You are invited to join in the beauty and the mystery at 7:00 p.m. Invite friends! Bring refreshments to share!

Prepare the Way, Rev. Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Prepare the way of the Lord,

make a straight path for God.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth;

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

—Luke 3.4-6

 

God of love, take my heart and change it.

Take what is rough in me and let it become gentle.

Take my fear and let it become wonder.

Take my anger and let it become sorrow.

Take my grief and let it become compassion.

Take my discouragement and let it become acceptance.

Take my doubt and let it become courage.

Take my hurt and let it become forgiveness.

Take my not knowing and let it become faith.

Take my self-centeredness and let it become love.

Take my broken heart and let it become my strength.

Take my life and let it become yours.

2015-12-6 Worship Videos

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

Baptism

English Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2015-12-6

• We Welcome Feng Xin into Membership - you are encouraged to meet, greet, and introduce yourself to our newest member, Feng Xin, from our 9:30 a.m. congregation. Brother Feng is a fluent Spanish speaker from living in Costa Rica for 20+ years and an avid handyman.
• Start your holiday shopping at CCUMC and help support our school in Uganda at the same time. On Dec. 5-6 we will be selling goods from our YCVM benefit at reduced prices. Find jewelry, art goods, toys, and unique items. Sale runs from 11-3 on Sat. And noon - 2 on Sunday. Volunteers who can help at the tables should sign up with Peggy or Becky
• All Church Work Day - Please plan to pitch in with our upcoming work day on Saturday, Dec. 19th, between 8:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Please see Al for details!
• Save the Date for Caroling - Join in this seasonal ministry of hospitality by visiting and bringing the blessed music to our home-bound and frail members on Monday, Dec. 21st. You will be blessed, guaranteed! Please see Charlie and Becky to sign up!
• Prayer Invite - Please remember this month's Adventure in Faith chapel on Dec. 16th and the outreach Christmas Sunday worship on Dec. 20th in prayer. We pray that families will be moved by the Christmas story and the welcome of this community.
• Please Note: Pastor Emily will be out of the office this coming week. She can be reached via email. Please call for emergencies.
• Christmas Eve Worship, Dec. 24th - You are invited to join in the beauty and the mystery at 7:00 p.m. Invite friends! Bring refreshments to share!
• Please Note: The church office will be open on the 24th, and closed the 25th through the 29th for Christmas break.

And it was sufficient, Kyle Childress

I love the way Luke and Matthew begin their Gospels. Both tell us of these plain, ordinary people, Mary and Joseph, who obeyed God, and through whom God begins the extraordinary work of salvation for all people.

 

Traditionally, the church has called Mary the first disciple. She was the first to believe and obey. And even though Luke tells her story with a bit more drama than Matthew’s telling of Joseph’s, we still get the message that here was an ordinary young woman – really a teenage girl – who embodied extraordinary courage and faith in God to be able to say, "Let it be to me according to your will." Or to put it more mundanely, Mary said yes.

 

More than one theologian of the church over the centuries has said that the great miracle that surrounded the birth of Jesus was not the miraculous conception of Jesus or the virgin birth, but that Mary and Joseph believed and obeyed.

 

An old rabbinical story says that when there was a crisis in the life of God’s people, the great rabbi, Baal Shem Tov, would go to a particular place in the forest, build a great fire, say a particular prayer, cry to God for salvation, and the story says, "It was sufficient; for God saw the fire in the place, heard the prayer and heard the cry, and God saved his people."

 

A generation passed and another grave crisis came upon the people. Rabbi Maggid of Mezeritch, a disciple of the great Shem Tov, went to the same place in the forest and cried to God for mercy, "Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer." And the story says, "It was sufficient. And the miracle was accomplished."

 

Still later, another generation passed and another crisis came upon the people. Moshe-Leib of Sassov, a disciple of Rabbi Maggid, would go to into the forest and say, "I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient." And it was sufficient and the miracle accomplished.

 

Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhin to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: "I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer; I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, and this must be sufficient." And it was sufficient (from Souls on Fire: Portraits and Legends of Hasidic Masters by Elie Wiesel, p. 167).

 

For Mary, and Joseph too, the great miracle was the simple act of obedience, of saying yes to God. Perhaps they knew a lot of Bible and were well versed in theology but I doubt it. Perhaps each of them was well situated in the religious life of Nazareth, but nothing is said about any of this. All we know is that each of them said yes to God. And it was sufficient. They didn’t set out to know all things, change the world, or even change their town. They simply said yes to God. And God said it was sufficient.

 

And it was sufficient. Amen.