A word from Bishop Oliveto

Dear brothers, sisters, siblings of the Mountain Sky Conference,

On Thursday, December 30, 2021, a wildfire raced through parts of our conference, destroying homes and livelihoods. We grieve with those who have lost so much, who now must pick up the pieces of their lives and begin again.

I give thanks for the ways United Methodists in the area stepped in to provide shelter and support in the midst of the crisis. This is at the heart of who we are as United Methodists: we know our faith is meant to be lived out in acts of compassion and mercy.

As a connectional church, we also embody a very basic understanding: we are one body, and when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. We are called to relieve suffering and care for one another so the entire body can be whole.

We in the Mountain Sky Conference are responding to the Boulder County fire in several ways.

- Our conference’s disaster relief donation page is ready to accept your generosity. Be sure to designate this donation is for “Marshall Fire relief”.

Donate Here

- The United Methodist Church of Johnstown needs to replenish “fire buckets”. Typically, a hub for these revolutionary tools, the entire supply was exhausted last year due to the Denton, Montana fires. Please consider donations to rebuild the inventory by visiting the site here: https://johnstown.church/disaster-response

- Our churches --- First UMC of Fountain and Erie UMC --- opened for evacuees with kitchens, spaces to rest and plenty of land to park vehicles.

We encourage you to help in all ways you are able.

May you continue to keep all impacted by the fire in your prayers, as well as first-responders and those who will continue to give care and support. May we find comfort and hope in these words of scripture:

I lift my eyes to the mountains. Where is help to come from? My help comes from God, who made Heaven and earth. God does not let our footsteps slip! Our guard does not sleep! The guardian of Israel does not slumber or sleep. God guards you, shades you. With Yahweh at your right hand the sun cannot harm you by day nor the moon at night. Yahweh guards you from harm, protects your lives; Yahweh watches over your coming and going, now and forevermore.

Blessings,

Bishop Karen Oliveto

A New Year’s prayer for an average, boring, unremarkable 2022

Welcome to Boring, Oregon

Note: Pastor Charles saw the following piece in the online edition of his hometown newspaper, The Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) and thought it worth sharing with the St. Paul's UMC family. It is posted here with the author's permission.

Shh. Everyone be quiet. Don’t rustle. Are you sure you want to wear such a noisy dress? Sequins are overplayed. Put down that noise blower! EXCUSE ME, IS THAT A TRUMPET?

Everyone may be tempted to celebrate big this New Year’s Eve. Despite ever-looming coronavirus variants, life has crept toward something approaching normal. That’s invigorating.

But it is my obligation to remind you what happened last year when people were optimistic. Not six days into 2021, violent insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, and Arnold Schwarzenegger had to admonish everyone while holding a sword. That set the tone, didn’t it? Our long-awaited summer was all about delta, and I don’t mean the airline. We had broken supply chains, inflation, mask mandate lawsuits over lawsuits to stop the lawsuits. And on top of everything, Gen Z said our jeans were ugly!

Read more at this link.

Devotional for the Seventh Day of Christmas

Hand-painted on wood

May this holy season be for each of us a time of moving beyond what is “reasonable” and toward the star of wonder; moving beyond grasping tight to what we have to unclenching our hands and letting go, following the Light where it leads; moving beyond competition toward cooperation, seeing that all humans are sisters and brothers; moving beyond the anxiety of small concerns towards the joys of justice and peace.

May the transforming acceptance of Mary and Joseph, the imagination of the shepherds, and the persistence of the wise men guide us as we seek the Truth, always moving toward the Divine promise, always aware God can be hidden in the frailest among us, always open to the unexpected flash of Grace, to the showing forth of that Love that embraces us all.

 

—from Education for Justice www.educationforjustice.org

Adapted by J.M. Deren

from “Blessings and Benedictions,” by W.L. Wallace

Shine On, Star of Bethlehem, CAFOD, 2004

Posted on Marianist Social Justice Collaborative website

http://www.msjc.net/

Praying for safety tonight

We join with many in our area in praying for those impacted by the devastating fires sweeping across parts of Boulder County. There are no reports of any loss of life although hundreds of homes and businesses have already been lost.

There are St. Paul's UMC members who live in the affected areas in or near Superior and Louisville. Mandatory evacuations are taking place in those areas and some of our people have left the area for friends or family elsewhere in the county.

Daily Camera report on today's fire.

Six more days of Christmas still to come!

 

Devotional for the Sixth Day of Christmas

Seven-pointed star/Nativity - Olive wood

The child is born! Alleluia! Our God has come among us! Let the whole earth rejoice! Let us leave the manger and return to our daily routines, knowing that we have seen the Lord, and glorifying and praising God for all that we have heard and seen.

 

Alleluia! Our God is now here! Go forth, with full confidence and joy that you have seen the Messiah.

 

Alleluia! Our God is now here! Go forth to spread the Good News wherever you go, sharing God’s love and promise with all whom you meet. Go into the world to find the lost, heal the broken, feed the hungry, release the prisoner, rebuild the nations, bring peace among people, and make music in every heart.

 

Alleluia! Our God is now here! In the name of our God, Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit, we cry out with the angels in the heavens and the shepherds in the fields: Alleluia! Our God is now here! Amen. 

 

—from Miracle in the Manger

posted on the Society of Saint Andrew website

The year in review

January: We begin the new year online; We continue to add photos of life at St. Paul's Flickr page; Passing of Rich Wahl; Philosophy of Religion online discussion begun by Scott Glancy and Claudia Mills. 

February: The second Lenten devotional; Virtual Ash Wednesday service; 2020 General Conference is postponed again to 2022.

March: Passing of Ed Steiner; Mass shooting at Table Mesa's King Soopers.

April: Virtual Maundy Thursday service; Virtual Stations of the Cross; Our second virtual Easter; Vitalant blood drive (17 donors); Mountain Sky Conference virtual Covid-19 Town Hall.

May: Mother's Day photo power point; Passing of Linda Bryant with memorial service at Brookdale Meridian.

June: Adult class resumes in-person meetings; Father's Day photo power point; Summer sermon series from the Apocrypha.

July: We (re)launch in-person worship; Ladies Lunch Bunch resumes meeting; Men's Breakfast returns to Le Peeps; We shared our 1,500th blog post; We celebrated the 25,000th visitor to our blog!

August: Masks are required in our building again; adult class suspends meetings; Bobby Dahlstrom leads the renovation efforts at the Wesley Foundation @ CU.

September: Choir returns to Sunday worship; Jubilante Ringers return to Sunday worship; Virtual blood drive (12 donors); We support Afghan refugees through a community appeal.

October: Wally Cleaveland memorial service; Dotty Lindley funeral service; Second virtual Annual Conference; Halloween falls on a Sunday.

November: All Saints Day remembrance; Work begins on the Nelson Memorial Garden; Veterans Day remembrance; 381 lbs. of food and other items donated to EFAA; Decorating the church for Advent/Christmas; Third annual Advent / Christmas devotional.

December: Don Lloyd memorial service; Another successful Mitten Tree drive;   We are back in the sanctuary for Christmas Eve; Christmas Eve Zoom devotional; Claudia Mills shares the final message of 2021; Passing of Skippy Rollins.

Devotional for the Fifth Day of Christmas

Mexican Nativity - wood

 

Let the love that shaped earth and heaven dwell within us this Christmas.

Let the love that created humanity dwell within us this Christmas.

 

Let the love that overcomes suffering and hatred dwell within us this Christmas.

 

Let the love that causes us to rejoice with loved ones dwell within us this Christmas.

 

Let the love that forgives and renews dwell within us this Christmas.

 

Let the love that brings reconciliation after separation dwell within us this Christmas.

 

Let the love that brings the blessing of peace dwell within us this Christmas.

 

And may we share that peace with all people near and far. Amen. 

 

—In Prayers for Christmas

 posted on Christian Aid website

Lest we forget

 
"The Holy Innocents" (Matthew 2:13-23)

Why, O God, must we remember the words

of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents today?

Just days ago, we sought the Christ-child. The heavens exploded with joy and proclamation and we raised our candles as if they were the soft twinkling of stars in the Bethlehem night sky. We heard once again the story of shepherds running from their flocks, to the very place where Love was born and our hearts were filled with their excitement. We are now looking East, toward the horizon for magi bearing gifts and we wonder what gifts might we also bring.

Why, O God …

Why must we remember these Holy Innocents now when we have knelt at a manger to witness Love first-hand? It is less painful and sorrowful for us to close our eyes to all of this.

Is it because there are still Innocents today?

In other countries …

in our own cities….

in our own streets?

Nameless and named?

Is it because there are still Innocents today? Hungry and cold and hopeless? Nameless and named?

Is it because there are still Holy Innocents today? Battered and bruised in the very place they call home? Nameless and named?

Why, O God, must we remember the Holy Innocents?

"Because, my child, there are Innocents in this world today, and mothers are weeping and refusing to be comforted. There are still Herods who have both great power and great fear within them.”

“You must not forget and you must not look away."

© anna murdock

Zooming is fun!

 

Join us for the final Wednesday Zoom Fellowship of 2021 tomorrow at 10:00 AM. The weekly gathering is informal and lots of fun! Use this link each week to be part of this fun group.

Devotional for the Fourth Day of Christmas

Salish Nativity scene (from Bitterroot Valley, Montana) 

 

The Hands of Joseph

inspired by Matthew 1:18-22

 

I see the hands of Joseph. Back and forth along bare wood they move. There is worry in those working hands, sorting out confusing thoughts with every stroke. “How can this be, my beautiful Mary now with child?” Rough with deep splinters, these hands, small, painful splinters like tiny crosses embedded deeply in this choice to stay with her. He could have closed his hands to her, said, “No” and let her go to stoning.

 

But dear Joseph opened both his heart and hands to this mother and her child. Preparing in these days before with working hands and wood pressed tight between them. It is these rough hands that will open and be the first to hold the Child.

 

I see the hands of John, worn from desert-raging storms and plucking locusts from sand-ripped rocks beneath the remnant of a Bethlehem star. A howling wind like some lost wolf cries out beneath the moon, or was that John? This loneliness, enough to make a grown man mad. He’s waiting for this, God’s whisper: “Go now. He is coming. You have prepared your hands enough. Go. He needs your servant hands, your cupping hands to lift the water, and place his feet upon the path to service and to death. Go now, John, and open your hands to him. It is time.”

 

I see a fist held tight and fingers blanched to white. Prying is no easy task. These fingers find a way of pulling back to old positions, protecting all that was and is. Blanched to white. No openness. All fright.

 

But then the Spirit comes. A holy Christmas dance begins and blows between the twisted paths. This fist opens slowly, gently, beautifully, the twisted fingers letting go. Their rock-solid place in line has eased. And one by one the fingers lift. True color is returned. And through the deepest of mysteries, the holiest of holies, O longing of longings, beyond all human imagining this fist, as if awakened from Lazarus’s cold stone dream, reaches out to hold the tiny newborn hand of God.

 

 

—Catherine Alder, Journey with Jesus, http://www.journeywithjesus.net

This week @ St. Paul's UMC

 Monday:

9:00 AM, Office hours

Tuesday: 

9:00 AM, Office hours

Wednesday:

9:00 AM, Office hours

10:00 AM, Wednesday Zoom fellowship

Thursday:

9:00 AM, Office hours

Saturday: New Year's Day

5:00 PM, Bishop Oliveto on Facebook

Sunday: Epiphany Sunday / Second Sunday of Christmas

10:15 AM, Worship

12:30 AM, BBKC

Scripture lessons for January 2

7th c. mosaic, Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo

We begin 2022 with Epiphany Sunday at St. Paul's UMC with readings from Isaiah 60:1-6 and Matthew 2:1-12.

Devotional for the Third Day of Christmas

"Merry Christmas" in Italian on wood

We come to adore you, little one—on bended knee, with hopeful heart, and eyes stretched wide with wonder and awe. The gentleness of your gaze draws us into the mystery of all that lies beyond, and in that place of falling into joy we yield all that we are to you. 

And we pray. For those who are broken, those who seek, the trembling and the rumbling tummies, the haggard spirits, and the ragged lives. For those who cling to the last best thing, and those whose hearts pine for love. 

 

Bless us, O Lord, whom we adore, and turn our faces ever toward you. For peace, for mercy, for the sake of all that is holy. We come to adore you, O Christ.

 

—Rev. Anne Fraley

Rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church

South Windsor, CT

 

December 26 @ St. Paul's UMC: Prayers

Joys:

+Pastor Charles & Belinda give thanks for the kind gift from the congregation.

+Michele and Steve Matthews are thankful that their nephew, Josh Taft, has been appointed to a church in Longmont.

+Claudia Mills gives thanks for the life of Skippy Rollins.

+We give thanks for this week's birthdays: Ron Revier

+We give thanks this morning for Belinda Alkula (video/Zoom), Rebecca Glancy (liturgist), Austin Cooper (usher), Claudia Mills (message), Christopher Wahl (piano).

Concerns:

+We give thanks for the life of Skippy Rollins and remember her family as they enter into this difficult time.

+Louise Cook would like prayers for Matt and Monica who've come down with Covid.

December 26 @ St. Paul's UMC: Announcements

 

+Face masks are required for everyone inside St. Paul’s building. Thank you for your loving care for your neighbors!

+St. Paul's Wednesday fellowship meets here at 10:00 a.m. The passcode, if you are prompted to enter it, is 018669.

+The Ladies Lunch Bunch will meet Thursday, January 6, at The Depot (2366 Junction Place, Boulder). Please let Joan know if you would like to join us.

+The "de-hanging of the greens" takes place on Saturday, January 8 at 10:00 AM. If you able to come by earlier in the week, feel free to stop by. Contact Judy if you have any questions.

December 26 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

Welcome home!

Christopher readies for worship

Rebecca serves as today's liturgist

Claudia offers the traditional year-end message

Second Day of Christmas

Today’s Meditation Verse: “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”                         —2 Corinthians 9:15

Welcome...Claudia Mills

Prelude...Christopher Wahl

*Call to Worship (from Isaiah 9)...Rebecca Glancy

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. We have walked in darkness! Now we see a great light! Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. We have dwelt in deep darkness! Now on us has light shined! For to us a child is born! To us a son is given! And his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”!

*Hymn...“Joy to the World” (UMH #246)

Unison Prayer...Rebecca Glancy

Heavenly Father, it is Christmas at last! Once again, we celebrate the birth of your son, who came to live among us, to share human joys and sorrows, and to teach us how to love one another in your name. As the year draws to a close, a year filled with our own joys and sorrows, let us go forward to greet the new year with faith, with hope, and above all, with love. Help us to remember that your light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not, cannot, and shall never overcome it. Amen.

*Offering/Doxology (to the tune “O Tannenbaum”)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, in every generation. Praise God, all creatures here below, who gives to us salvation. Praise God above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let all creation praise the Lord with love and adoration.

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Morning Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer...Claudia Mills

The Lord be with you. And also with you.

Leader: Let us pray.

First Lesson: Matthew 16: 13-18...Rebecca Glancy

Congregational hymn sing

Second Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12: 4-13...Rebecca Glancy

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Sermon...Claudia Mills / “But who do you say that I am?”

*Hymn...“Many Gifts, One Spirit” (UMH #114)

*Words for the Journey...Claudia Mills

*Postlude...Christopher Wahl

Devotional for the Second Day of Christmas

Painted glass with votive candle

We have waited for a long time for your hope, your joy, your love to shine in the darkness of this world, Almighty God. Even now, in our gathering here, we await you. In our hearts, we still hope that your light will blaze forth, banishing the shadows of this world and guiding all the people back to you.

Yet you did not come into this world in a show of power and glory. You did not shine forth for all of creation to behold. A tiny spark—a newborn baby, visible to parents and curious animals. A host of angels—away from the populated areas, singing to migrant workers. A sparkling star—guiding foreigners to see what neighbors could not.

 

Open our hearts, merciful God, to the sparks of your presence still in this world. Open our eyes, that we might behold your presence in the least likely of places, and among the least likely of people.

 

God with us, kindle your spark within us, that together we may shine forth your light, we might banish the shadows of this world, we might be the continuation of the Christmas miracle: Emmanuel is in this world, God is with us, now and evermore.

 

Illumine our hearts, gracious God, that we might speak anew the words your Son will teach us….

 

—Rev. Eliza Buchakjian-Tweedy

First Church Congregational in Rochester, NH

Devotional for Christmas Day

Hand-painted Nativity on Delabole slate

The radiance of the Father’s splendor, the Father’s visible image, Jesus Christ our God, peerless among counselors, Prince of Peace, Father of the world to come, the model after which Adam was formed, for our sakes became like a slave: in the womb of Mary the virgin, without assistance from any man, He took flesh.…

Enable us, Lord, to reach the end of this luminous feast in peace, forsaking all idle words, acting virtuously, shunning our passions, and raising ourselves above the things of this world.

 

Bless Your church, which You brought into being long ago and attached to Yourself through Your own life-giving blood. Help all orthodox pastors, heads of churches, and doctors [theologians].

 

Bless Your servants, whose trust is all in You; bless all Christian souls, the sick, those tormented by evil spirits, and those who have asked us to pray for them.

 

Show Yourself as merciful as You are rich in grace; save and preserve us; enable us to obtain those good things to come which will never know an end.

 

May we celebrate Your glorious birth, and the Father who sent You to redeem us, and Your Spirit, the Giver of life, now and forever, age after age. Amen.

—A Syriac Christmas liturgy (Late third or early fourth century)

Hymn for Christmas Day

Charles Wesley, 1739

Hark, how all the welkin rings,

“Glory to the King of kings;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconcil’d!”

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,

Join the triumph of the skies;

Universal nature say,

“Christ the Lord is born to-day!”

Christ, by highest Heaven ador’d,

Christ, the everlasting Lord:

Late in time behold him come,

Offspring of a virgin’s womb!

Veil’d in flesh, the Godhead see,

Hail th’ incarnate Deity!

Pleas’d as man with men to appear,

Jesus, our Immanuel here!

Hail, the heavenly Prince of Peace,

Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

Risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die;

Born to raise the sons of earth;

Born to give them second birth.

Come, desire of nations, come,

Fix in us thy humble home;

Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,

Bruise in us the serpent’s head.

Now display thy saving power,

Ruin’d nature now restore;

Now in mystic union join

Thine to ours, and ours to thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,

Stamp thy image in its place.

Second Adam from above,

Reinstate us in thy love.

Let us thee, though lost, regain,

Thee, the life, the inner man:

O, to all thyself impart,

Form’d in each believing heart.

Christmas Eve virtual devotional

"The Nativity" by James He Qi

Zoom link

Welcome

Prayer (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153) – “Let Your goodness, Lord, appear to us, that we, made in your image, conform ourselves to it. In our own strength we cannot imitate Your majesty, power, and wonder nor is it fitting for us to try. But Your mercy reaches from the heavens through the clouds to the earth below. You have come to us as a small child, but you have brought us the greatest of all gifts, the gift of eternal love. Caress us with Your tiny hands, embrace us with Your tiny arms and pierce our hearts with Your soft, sweet cries. Amen.” 

“What Child Is This?” – Jubliante Ringers, December 15, 2019

Lesson – Psalm 68

A Christmas Prayer from India (Savithri Devanesen, India)

Lord, there is enchantment in the air tonight casting a mysterious spell of expectancy on all creation fulfilling the promise of the birth of God on earth as a human child. And as I watch with trembling hope the wondrous pageant pass by of poor shepherds and powerful kings the radiant serenity of the night is suddenly broken by a storm of power-drunk winds spewing bullets of hatred, hurling stones of violence on men and women on frightened children all fleeing from the grips of oppressive structures, from bondage of sorrow and broken lives, from explosive knowledge which has not yet solved the problems of hunger and poverty, from crumbling values which confuse the mind, from death itself... searching for the manger where God’s love and goodness for all humanity blossoms in the heart of a babe and lets us know anew this Christmas morn all people as our brother, as our sister. Amen.

Lesson – Psalm 97

A Christmas Prayer from Japan (Masao and Fumiko Takenaka, Japan)

Living Water One who said I am the eternal water dwelt among us, living with us, sustaining us, this is Christmas. To receive a cup of living water is not only to cleanse us, but also to cleanse all the waters. River and well, lake and ocean, and to share them with all. This is Christmas. Amen.

"Christmas Lullaby" (John Rutter) – Anthem Airs, December 24, 2019 

Lesson – Psalm 98

A Christmas Prayer from Spain (Richard Wilcox, Spain)

O Holy One, Word made flesh, eternity captured in a life within time, heaven laid in a manger stall; You, the Light dipped down into our darkness: we pray that You will forgive our sins and make us clean and open to receive You at Your coming. Loose us today from our treacheries toward You and our cruelties toward one another. Now we have come again, dear Lord, to the time of the Morning Star, to Yourself moving as azure blue into our contamination; as open touch to our fisted exclusiveness; as a carol sung to our meagerness; as rose to our bitterness; as love to our emptiness. You are upon us as sky, hands, songs, garlands, tastes making us Yours in joy. We marvel not that angelic hosts sang and shouted for joy. Amen.

Lesson – Psalm 102

A Christmas Prayer from Iran (Gherajeh Da’aghi, Iran)

O People, take a notice, the Messiah has come! The Saviour of the World has come! All the creation testifies to His coming, open your hearts and see your Redeemer! Don’t wait another day, open your eyes, and see, Prince of Peace, the Messiah has come. Amen.

“There’s Still My Joy” sung by Don Berlin, December 25, 2020

Lesson – Psalm 147

A Christmas Prayer from South Africa (Zulu, South Africa)

Great is our happiness great is, O King, our happiness in Thy kingdom, Thou, our king. We dance before Thee, our king, by the strength of Thy kingdom. May our feet be made strong; let us dance before Thee, eternal. Give ye praise, all angels, to the One above who is worthy of praise. Amen.

Reflection – Pastor Charles

“Fall On Your Knees” – Anthem Airs, December 24, 2019

Closing prayer (Robert Lewis Stevenson, 1850-1894) – “Loving Father, help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men. Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be Thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”