English Ministry News and Notes 2016-11-20

•     Happy Thanksgiving! You are warmly invited to a fellowship potluck luncheon following worship today. Special thanks to turkey and ham bakers: Larry, Aeri, Brenda and Arlene.
•     Great Thanks to all those who participated in "Pick It Up Chinatown" last week! We heard that it was fun and satisfying. Special thanks for Burt & Jane’s leadership. Plan to join in next month on Dec. 11th.
•     UM Student Day Special Offering, Nov. 27th - The last Sunday in November has been set aside to remember our students. Your special offering supports students as they prepare for life in uniting faith with knowledge by providing scholarships for qualified United Methodist applicants.
•     Advent Begins - We will begin the special 4 week journey of Advent next Sunday, Nov. 27th.
•     Christmas Poinsettias - Bring Christmas beauty and color to the sanctuary by donating a $10 poinsettia. Signs up today through Dec. 4th. Thank you!
•     Please mark your calendars for Charge Conference: Dec. 4th, Sunday, at 2:00 p.m., Twin Towers UMC (Alameda). For the first time, we'll be joining with our circuit brothers and sisters for this annual business meeting!
•     Support the UMC's Imagine No Malaria campaign at Malaria Awareness Night with the Warriors on Jan 4th, 2017, 7:30pm - With each ticket sold, a lifesaving bed net will be donated to Nothing But Nets. Tickets are $80/$95. See Ben Wong for more info.

Thanksgiving

At Thanksgiving we pause, even if only in a cursory way (and it often is) to consider what we’re thankful for. Usually we’re more interested in turkey, football and shopping than in the practice of deep gratitude. (Isn’t it odd how on one day we give thanks for all we have, and then the next day we go on a mad shopping rampage?) But give gratitude a try. Take a moment to think of what you’re most deeply grateful for. Most people’s lists are kind of short. Family, friends, health, material comforts, our nation, church and pets. That about covers it.

Go deeper. As long as you’re being thankful for something, say, our nation, be thankful for the whole thing, not just your favorite parts. I’m thankful for all the people, all the kinds of people, all the races, all the ages and shapes and lifestyles and perspectives, the heroes and the ones who struggle. Everybody. If you are grateful for your family, give thanks for the whole ding dang family tree stretching back to Adam and Eve, even the drunks and cheats and losers and misfits. Thank God for them, each one of them, or you wouldn’t be here. If you are grateful for your health, thank God for your body, this amazing creation that may be older and weaker than you wish, but it keeps you alive. It knows how to move and feel things, how to digest food and fight germs and how to get sick instead of just rolling over and dying. Even pain is a necessary gift. Thank God for pain.

If you’re really deeply grateful for what you have, you know that it’s a gift. You haven’t earned or created it yourself. Your health, your family, your station in life, even the money you’ve “earned” is a gift (plenty of people work hard and no one pays them for it). And you’re grateful for all those who suffered so that you could have it: the underpaid migrants who pick your fruit, the black-lung infected miners who dig the coal that keeps you warm, the slaves that pick your chocolate (sorry, but it’s true, unless it’s Fair Trade chocolate).

Beware of selfishness masquerading as gratitude. There’s a difference between gratitude and possessiveness. Love does not rejoice at the suffering of others, nor does it seek to keep what we are grateful for to ourselves. (Thank God for my food; too bad for the poor... thank God we get cheap goods, though the people who made them can’t afford them...thank God for oil; too bad for the earth...) If we are truly grateful we are mindful of the whole. Even as we give thanks for our goods, health, friends and comfort, we are aware of those without. And we are aware not just in thought but in deed. In love, gratitude is not a feeling; it’s an act. We don’t just have thanks; we give thanks.

So as you think of the things you are grateful for, try this:

If you are grateful for your belongings, donate to UMCOR to support those who have experienced disaster and lost everything.

If you are grateful for your house, find out where the closest homeless shelter is and make a donation to them.

If you are grateful for your church, tell someone about this community today and invite them to come with you to worship one day.

If you are grateful for the abilities God has given you, put them to use by committing to a particular ministry via the Stewardship Response Card.

If you are grateful for your friends, greet someone you don’t know at worship this Sunday.

May gratitude be more than just a feeling for you, but something you practice. I hope that you have a deeply grateful thanksgiving.

-Adapted from “The Other Side of Thanksgiving” , Steve Garnass-Holmes

2016-11-13 Worship Videos

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2016-11-13

• Pick It Up - Join in the opportunity to be a sign of God's grace and goodness today. Participate in picking up trash in our neighborhood with others. Gather in foyer at 12:25 p.m. and follow Burt and Jane!
• Giving Thanks - We will celebrate Thanksgiving next Sunday, Nov. 20th. Worship will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Annex, followed by a fellowship potluck for the whole church. Please bring a favorite dish (main or side...no fruit or dessert, thank you!)
• Please prayerfully consider your giving this year in the areas of prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. You are kindly requested to return your completed stewardship card on Nov. 20th. Please connect with any questions or concerns.
• An Altar Piled High - as a sign of your gratitude, let’s fill our Thanksgiving altar with healthy canned food and dried goods for the Alameda County Community Food Bank barrel.
• Advent Begins on Nov. 27th!
• How Might You Serve? There are all kinds of different ways to be in ministry here at CCUMC. Please pray about this and be open to conversation for what that might look like in the new year!
• Please mark your calendars for Charge Conference: Dec. 4th, Sunday, at 2:00 p.m., Twin Towers UMC (Alameda). For the first time, we'll be joining with our circuit brothers and sisters for this annual business meeting!

Salt & Light, Here & Now

Below is an excerpt from “Ahead of the Election, Poll Shows a Nation Divided” (US News & World Report, Oct. 25, 2016):

“Less than two weeks away from the presidential election, an annual survey released Tuesday shows the nation is sharply divided on nearly every topic, from race relations to what problems the next president should fix first, and a record percentage of people believe the country is on the wrong track – up nearly 20 percentage points since the last race for the White House.

Further, a sizable number of Americans, particularly evangelical Protestants, believe the nation’s best days came during the era of Elvis, the Cold War and legal segregation. Meanwhile, nearly half think the era of Beyonce, Islamic State group and Black Lives Matter is so bad that the country needs an authoritarian leader “who is willing to break some rules in order to set things right.”

Those are the top lines from a new poll, “The Divide Over America’s Future: 1950 or 2050?” a survey of voters conducted last month by PRRI, a public policy think tank.

Examining the attitudes among a broad sample of voters on a range of issues, the survey reveals a country sharply at odds with itself, said Robert P. Jones, PRRI CEO and co-author of the report, speaking at a Brookings Institute forum.

“It’s not a really stretch to say one thing about this election is it really is a referendum on the future,” said Jones. “Does the future look bright? Are we going to reach back for something in the past? Or are we going to lean into the cultural and demographic changes that are happening in the country and even celebrate those changes?”

Though the divide may seem obvious to anyone following the bitter presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the winner, Jones says, will face a daunting challenge: unifying a country that’s divided on partisan lines, including political correctness and whether the election itself will be legitimate.”

You can read the whole article here: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-10-25/ahead-of-election-poll-shows-a-nation-divided

As we sit with the election results and the recognition that we are deeply divided, how will we be salt – preserving, enhancing, seasoning, and creating a thirst for God in the world? How will we be light – illuminating, awakening, revealing in the world? How will we be growing disciples that make a difference, that exert influence, that are engaged and relevant for the transformation of the world?

English Ministry News and Notes 2016-11-6

• Great Thanks to all who participated in the All Church Clean Up last Sunday. The kitchen is shiny, the social hall closet was thoroughly organized, bathrooms deep cleaned, and more! Special thanks to the leadership of Steve and Al.
• Let's Love Our Community by “Picking It Up” - Next Sunday, Nov. 13th, from 12:30 - 2:00 p.m. we'll join others in Chinatown to pick up trash and clean storm drains. This is an all ages opportunity to serve. Please sign up with Burt & Jane today!
• Giving Thanks - We will celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday, Nov. 20th. Worship will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Annex, followed by a fellowship potluck for the whole church. Please bring a favorite dish (main or side...no fruit or dessert, thank you!)
• Please prayerfully consider your giving this year in the areas of prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. You are kindly requested to return your completed stewardship card on Nov. 20th. Please connect with any questions or concerns.
• An Altar Piled High - as a sign of your gratitude, let’s fill our Thanksgiving altar with healthy canned food and dried goods for the Alameda County Community Food Bank barrel.
• Advent Begins on Nov. 27th!
• Please mark your calendars for Charge Conference: Dec. 4th, Sunday, at 2:00 p.m., Twin Towers UMC (Alameda). For the first time, we'll be joining with our circuit brothers and sisters for this annual business meeting!

A Prayer for Election Day, Rev. Mark Sandlin

In Proverbs, we are reminded that Wisdom is a thing in which you delight daily. In the life and teachings of Jesus, we are reminded that loving others is one and the same as loving you.

As we, a nation who boldly proclaims across the face of our currency “In God We Trust,” approach yet another election cycle, we ask that you might inspire in us a deep seated desire to delight in wisdom rather than focus on party lines.

May we be moved to a compassion for others as a way of expressing our love for you.

May our hearts and minds teach our eyes to see the voting booth as a way to express our undying devotion to a better world – a world less cluttered with the pitfalls of the powerful – a world less littered with the entrapments of consumeristic competition – a world less defaced with the warping of the beautiful diversity your Creation contains.

Prayerfully we hope to be moved into action. Knock us out of our sometimes overly complacent perspectives of the importance of an individual vote. Compel us toward a fully engaged electorate who demands an equal engagement from those elected.

Plant in us a seed of biblical justice. Teach us to nurture and grow it. Teach us to never hide it under a bushel. Inspire us to plant it in our town squares, publicly proclaiming the value of every individual in our society. And with it grow in us and in our nation an expectation that our elected officials be active reflections of that same justice.

Keep all of this in our hearts as we approach the voting booth this week. May our choices be predicated on a desire to build a better nation, a true light on a hill, a nation that holds these words to be self-evident that all people were “created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Never let us forget, that the voting booth and an active electorate are our first line of defense. In a nation that has created people out of corporations, and “voice” out of dollar bills, remind us that, for now, our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution still tip the balance of power to “We The People.”

May we wield that power with grace and love and biblical justice based in equality, but... may we wield it boldly, assertively, and on behalf of all people. May we do so in numbers so massive that our voices be heard and in standing up may we alter the course of this great nation – re-establishing the pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness for ALL rather than solely for the powerful.

Let us not leave these words on this page, heard only in our hearts and never put into action in our lives. Rather let us be the voices in the Wilderness that the United States as become – let us be the ones proclaiming a higher way where all flesh may know that it is valued, it is cared for and it is loved.

Amen.