Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (12.18.14)

Whoa, can you believe Christmas is a week away?  It has crept up on me faster than ever this year.  I'm excited about our Christmas services, as this year we'll host four services, all with the same message.  So pick one that's the best fit for you.  And invite a friend or neighbor.  You can send an e-Vite with all the details here.  

This Sunday, we'll wrap up "That Awkward Moment" as we talk about the Wise Men and the big shift in direction that their journey took.  I believe it's a story to which we can all relate.

Thought for the Week
"The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat.  The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them."  Isaiah 11:6

If you've been in church around Christmas much in your life, you've probably heard that passage.  Isaiah contains many prophecies about he birth of the Messiah, and it's often read in preparation for Christmas.  But it never gets old.  The world sorely needs the power of Christmas, and only the Christ-child can give us that hope.  It seems unattainable.  Heck, we can't even live with PEOPLE who think or look differently than us.  More than ever, we are a culture with deep divides:  red state/blue state, black/white, immigrant/native, conservative/liberal.  We are divided by for and against.  We don't seek to understand one another -- we just argue, fight, and post.  The power of the Christmas story told in Isaiah's prophecy is that what divides us no longer does under the leadership of the child born for all.  In Christ, we are all equal.  In Christ, we love one another.  In Christ, the last shall be first.  In Christ, there is no Greek nor Jew, male nor female.  In Christ, we pray for our enemies.  In Christ, we love our neighbor just as we love ourselves.  In Christ, the wolf does not eat the lamb.  They lie together.  The weak and the strong become friends.  The hunted and the hunter share a couch.  This is Christmas.  The arrival of a new day on earth.  If we want to be a people that truly 'spreads Christmas cheer' throughout the year, this is what it looks like from the perspective of God's Word.  We break down barriers.  We cross the battle lines.  We risk for new relationships.  That's what Jesus did in coming to earth.  That's what we are called to do.  That's Christmas.  I think our world needs Christmas more than ever before.

Season's Greetings,

Carter

Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (12.12.14)

I hope you're having a fantastic week.  It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away.  This Sunday we'll continue with our series "That Awkward Moment" in which we look into the characters of the Christmas Story and their awkward moments with God.  This week we'll be talking about Joseph.  Hope to see you there!

Also, don't forget to be making plans for Christmas @ Church of the Way.  We've got four different Worship Experiences to choose from:

Grayson Campus @ the SE Gwinnett Co-Op
Tuesday, Dec. 23
6:00 p.m. - Modern Acoustic Worship

Lawrenceveille Campus @ Archer High School
Wednesday, Dec. 24
4:00 p.m. - Traditions Communion Service
5:30 p.m. - Family Experience for Adults & Kids
7:00 p.m. - Classic Experience

Childcare is provided for all services.  Invite friends and family with an e-card here.

Thought for the Week
"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."  Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel -- God with us.  That is the story of Christmas.  In fact, that's the story of God's relationship with us, really.  We would rather God's story be another one.  We would rather the story be that we never have to go through anything difficult.  We would write a story in which life was easy and we were removed from any uncomfortable situation.  That is not God's story.  God's story is that He is WITH us.  Impossibly and incredibly with us.  In a manger.  Fleeing to Egypt.  With us.  In disease and divorce.  In the loss of of jobs and loved ones.  In tears of joy and cries of laughter.  In pain and suffering.  On top of the mountain and in the valley.  God is with us.  If we could really wrap our heads and hearts around the idea that God is with us, how would that change how we walk through the valleys?  Would we walk with more confidence knowing that the God of all creation walks alongside us?  Be encouraged.  No matter what you're doing through, God is with you.

In Christ,

Carter

Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (12.5.14)

I hope you've had a great week and looking forward to a great weekend.  We are right in the thick of our Christmas Season Series as we talk about "That Awkward Moment" and look at the awkward moments from the original Christmas story.  This Sunday we'll be talking about Mary's awkward moment. Also, an exciting part of our merger with Harmony Grove UMC is that James Savage, and his wife, Lindsay, will be able to move into the parsonage.  This coming Monday (Dec. 8) from 4:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. all are invited to come help clean the parsonage, do a little yard word and spackle nail holes.  We'll pick up some pizza and have fun getting the house ready for James and Lindsay.  The address is 1385 Harmony Grove Church Rd., Auburn, GA 30011). Thought for the Week "...unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure."  Lamentations 5:32 Have you ever wondered if you've wondered too far for God to forgive you?  Is my sin too big?  Was my mistake just too far over the line?  Jeremiah asked those words at the end of Lamentations.  Had the people gone too far for God?  Was God angry?  We've all wondered that.  The answer is no.  No sin is too big.  No one wonders too far.  God is not angry with us beyond measure.  God is disappointed when we sin.  Any parent is disappointed when their child disobeys.  We know they haven't chosen the best way.  We know they haven't taken the best path.  But parents always welcome children back.  A parent's love knows no bounds.  This is just a small snapshot of the love of God.  No matter what you've done, today is a great opportunity to take a step back.  You are not rejected.  You are loved as the way a loving father loves his child.  You are welcome to return. In Christ, Carter

Hope for the Hurt

This past week, I had the honor of praying at a Candlelight Vigil for those from Gwinnett County that had been murdered in the last year.  It was sponsored by the District Attorney's Office of Gwinnett County.  We prayed, sang songs, lit candles, reflected and read the names of every murder victim from the last year.  There were too many names.  One is too many.  People from all walks of life and every nationality gathered in remembrance.  Past victim's families also gathered, as they have become a part of this make-shift yearly congregation of hurt and loss.  I asked myself a question as I left, "Why do we hurt each other?"  How could that many people be murdered in the last 11-12 months in my county?  Why are we killing each other?

The events in Ferguson and the death and anger over Eric Garner continue to raise difficult issues.  I would not begin to understand the emotions, evidence and politics behind it all.  I grew up white in the deep South.  Those are the only shoes I've ever walked in, and the only experience from which I can speak.  I'm not an attorney and wouldn't dare to dive into legal issues I don't understand.  But I know this:  we've got to stop hurting each other.

A couple of months ago I flew out to a conference, and I was struck by a sense of despair as I prepared to put my shoes, everything I had on me and my belt in the X-ray machine.  My shoes.  We are now afraid of my canvas crocs.  We don't trust each other.  We are afraid that if we trust others, we will get hurt.  So, we choose to not trust and when when there is one step past the imaginary line we have drawn, we hurt others to protect ourselves.

We do this emotionally and spiritually, and in recent tragic cases, we do so physically.  A teenager is dead because of a lack of trust.  Maybe it was well-founded.  Maybe it was completely unfounded.  Rioters have taken to the streets to inflict hurt because they lack trust in authorities.  The natural order of our DNA is to hurt others if we fear getting hurt.  I'll bet you know someone who does this with their heart and tongue.

But, Jesus gave a different kinds of commands, "Love one another as I have loved you" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Don't protect yourself from hurt -- love!  The thing about love (and you learned this at 13 with your first 'steady') is that if you love and trust, you can get hurt.  But it's the only way.  I don't now all the answers to stopping crime.  I don't know the answers we're all seeking in race relations.  I don't know the issues to fix our legal system.  I do know the answer the world needs, though.  We have to show radical love.  I have to believe we live in a world hungry for it.  And I have to believe that if the Church would do as our Lord commanded us to do in our communities around the world, that people might want to know where that love comes from.  And we might get the opportunity to tell them that it's not a 'where' but a 'who' that is the source of our love.  Love someone.  Trust someone.  Risk for love.  If you follow Christ, this is the only way.