Devotional for December 3

Silent Night Chapel - Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria

“Silent Night” 

UMH #239

“Silent Night” is woven through all my memories of Christmas. Singing the song on Christmas Eve and lighting candles is my fondest childhood memory of St. Paul’s. Then when I moved away from home I would see many of my childhood friends while walking down the aisle with our lit candles. I’ve been able to share this experience with Melanie and then Jessie and Alex. I learned the song in German in my German language class. In the 1970’s at the end of the Fairview High School Christmas Concerts all members of every choir would process out into the audience filling every aisle and sing “Silent Night”—hundreds of voices in beautiful harmony. It was very moving. The song always moves me. I hope it blesses you as well.

—Bob Muckle

This week @ St. Paul's

Monday:
9:00 am, Yoga with Rebecca

Tuesday: Giving Tuesday - UMC
7:00 pm, Insight Meditation

Wednesday:

7:30 pm, Choir practice

Thursday:

11:00 am, Ladies Lunch Bunch @ Boulder Cork

Friday:
8:30 am-4:30 pm, Mountain Sky Inclusiveness Conference @ St. Andrews UMC - Highlands Ranch

Sunday: Second Sunday of Advent

8:30 am, Hand bell practice

8:45 am, Church school
10:15 am, Worship
12:30 pm, Beautiful Boulder Korean Church

1:00 pm, Church Council

Scripture lessons for next Sunday

The scripture lessons for the Second Sunday of Advent come to us from Matthew 3:1-12 and Isaiah 11:1-10.      

Devotional for December 2

“Mary, Did You Know?”

by Mark Lowry

When I had children of my own, this song spoke to me like no other. Imagine the grace, perseverance, and endurance Mary must have had in order to share her son with the world. What joy, pride, awe, and unbelievable grief she experienced. We can best honor her sacrifice by honoring her Son, our Christ, every day, in all things. This song was not written until the 1980s, reminding us that the message of Christmas is relevant today, right now. It’s not only a celebration of a one-time event from long ago, but a celebration of the ongoing Joy and Promise of Jesus’s birth. Hallelujah! 

—Sandra Jordan  

Advent has begun!

Chrismons await

Pat Cleaveland prepares to the first candle

The choir is amazing!

Fellowship time

Pastor's office

A new church year began today with the celebration of the First Sunday of Advent. Claudia Mills shared the annual introduction to the Mitten Tree and we sang "O Mitten Tree."

This morning's anthem was offered by our choir, a rendering of "I Was Touched, and I Believe." Today's sermon was a reflection on the Chrismons that were placed on the tree by the congregation.

Thanks this morning to: Amy Abshire/Pat Cleaveland (Advent wreath), Belinda Alkula (Video), Jerry Beaber, Austin Cooper, & Terri Himes (Ushers), Jessica Bishop (Nursery), Louise Cook/Etta Levitt (Counters), Tim Cook (Church school/trombone), Lorie Courier (Accompanist), Scott Glancy (Church school), Bob Muckle (Liturgist), Bob & Melanie Muckle (Flowers), Ron Revier (Chancel choir), Jim & Joey Vander Vorste (Fellowship), and Christopher Wahl (Accompanist for Alpha/Omega).

A prayer for World AIDS Day

Praying the Prayer Jesus Taught (Inspired by the Lord's Prayer) 

Our Father…
You know me … You know about my HIV/AIDS.

Holy is your name …
Prince of Peace in the storms of rejection
Mighty God in the times of my weakness
Wonderful Counselor in the times of confusion
Everlasting Father in the times of initial and eventual death.

May Your Beloved Community come…
Where poverty will be no more
Where disease will be no more
Where discrimination will be abolished
Where justice will abound.

May Your Will become transparent in our culture…
A culture of intolerance and indifference
A culture of ignorance and fear
A culture of exploitation and destruction
A culture of xenophobia and homophobia.

Set us free to experience Your forgiveness…
For actions taken and not taken
For words said and not said
For limiting your possibility within
For not forgiving self or others.

Lead us from temptation to transformation
The temptation of war
The temptation of haughtiness
The temptation of ethnocentrism
The temptation of supremacy.

Provide us with the bounty of health
The food pyramid, not the politics of food
Acceptance, accessibility, and equality
Love, hope and, faith
Compassion, justice, and peace.

You deserve glory and honor
For loving me with my HIV/AIDS
For making medications possible through research and science
For the experience of comfort from friends, family, and caregivers
For having prepared a place for me in Abba Father's house.

AMEN for the breath I breathe.
AMEN for Your eternal breath.

(From https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/worship-resources-for-world-aids-day-december-1)

Devotional for the First Sunday of Advent

"People, Look East"

  UMH #202

Note: Today begins of Advent/Christmas devotional. Entries will be posted here and on Facebook starting today and continuing through the Day of Epiphany, January 6.

I wouldn’t call myself an Advent zealot, like one of our former pastors who actively disapproved of singing any Christmas songs whatsoever until Christmas Eve; ditto for putting up the Christmas tree on Black Friday. But there is something special about recognizing Advent as a season of waiting, and singing the hauntingly beautiful Advent hymns that we can’t sing the rest of the year. The most lovely might be “People, Look East,” with its lyrics by poet Eleanor Farejon, who also wrote the poem that was set to music as “Morning Has Broken.”

“People, Look East” quivers with anticipation, bidding us to look in toward the rising sun: the rising Son. In Farejon’s lyrics, all of creation is eagerly waiting for Love, the Guest, Love, the Rose, Love, the Star, and Love the Lord, to make His appearance among us. The very furrows of the earth are glad. The stars in the heavens are keeping their watch. Mortals and angels make their vigil together.

But Farejon’s waiting is not mere passive expectation. Hers is a call to preparation, for all of us to ready ourselves for what is coming. As we await Love the Guest, she instructs us, “Make your house fair as you are able, trim the health and set the table.” As we await Love the Rose, the furrows are told to “give up your strength the seed to nourish.” In the final verse, the angels are told to “set every peak and valley humming with the word, the Lord is coming.”

What are WE doing to prepare for His coming? How are we nourishing the seed of our faith? Are we setting our beautiful Boulder mountains humming with this good news?

—Claudia Mills