Pastoral Message:“Musings on the Holy Days at Faith-La Fe” Week of the First Sunday of Christmas January 4, 2023
Pastoral Message:
“Musings on the Holy Days at Faith-La Fe”
Week of the First Sunday of Christmas
January 4, 2023
Dear People of God at Faith-La Fe!
This message is intended to go out to you on the 11th day of Christmas. I pray that you and yours have had life-giving Yuletide celebrations and observances.
And I hope you’d agree with me that we have had full and lovely Advent and Christmas seasons here at Faith-La Fe, robustly celebrating the seasons’ Holy Days. Our Advent soup and bread suppers followed by vespers, commemorating both Saints Andrew and Ambrose, were well-attended (about 25 each evening) and appreciated by the many who participated – a reminder of seasons past, prior to the pandemic’s multi-year interruptions of our life together.
Our worship celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe, honoring Mary, Mother of our Lord, was a meaningful first for me and for many of us in our congregation, a way also of honoring the heritage of our Spanish-speaking members and their families. Thanks to Pastor Veronica and Cor de la Fe for planning and leading this celebration. Our Lessons and Carols service, planned by musician, Jim Sage, and led by our Chancel Choir, was superb, moving, inspirational, and lovely. And then our festive celebration of Posada, featuring its very public, outdoor procession around the church campus as pregnant Mary and Joseph sought room in the inn, was both fun and poignant, and was followed by great food and a piñata for the children among us. Early Advent also saw a day-long event on a Saturday, when about fourteen of us gathered for a “Lutheran Refresher” day of study, conversation, and devotion which focused on Luther’s Small Catechism. This also served as a fine fellowship occasion for us to get to know each other better, especially those who intend to join our congregation.
Then there was our worship for Christmas – on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day, also a usual Sunday. Those celebrations were likewise fitting, compelling, and well-attended, Christmas Eve being the highest liturgical attendance since before the pandemic. Also fitting during the twelve days of Christmas was our observance of “Blue Christmas,” planned and led by Pastor Veronica, and attended by about a dozen of us – a quiet, understated way to honor and make room for a wide range of emotions for those for whom Christmas is not such a happy time. On this day, we commemorated the Holy Innocents, the young children King Herod had killed out of his fear of Jesus, proclaimed as king, certainly an occasion in salvation history that makes us “blue.”
All of this made for a full and rich set of observances of Advent and celebration of Christmastide. I am very well pleased with the level of engagement on the part of members. Thousand thanks to all of those who volunteered their time and energy and talents to pull off these many events. Special thanks to those who cooked the soup and baked the bread and provided other ethnic foods for our gatherings, occasions which also opened doors for deepening our sense of Christian community in our life together, especially important after years of pandemic social isolation. Those new to our community remark that Faith-La Fe knows how to party! That is, we eat well together and enjoy each other’s company – a real gift to those seeking community and belonging.
But one feature of our worshipful events sticks out particularly in my mind with great prominence, and that is, the theme of beauty. What we did together on these various seasonal observances and holy day celebrations was beautiful – visually, musically, liturgically, socially, spiritually. To craft events that are beautiful, it seems to me, is one of the important charisms, or spiritual gifts, of Faith-La Fe Church. And beauty is a central feature of holiness. As the psalmist puts it in some English translations, “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” (Psalm 96:9a) There is indeed something about beauty that is evocative of holiness. And we do beauty well here at Faith-La Fe. Both of our choirs serving worship in English and Spanish are of high musical quality. The architecture of our church, not only the nave, but the whole main campus, is quite beautiful, and the efforts that make our spaces even more beautiful for holy day festivals via lighting and flowers, other decorations and adornments are quite stunning in my estimation. I see our gifts at nurturing spiritual beauty – again, visually, musically, liturgically, and so on – as a central feature of our outreach and evangelism strategy to our wider communities, for those who seek more spiritual beauty in their lives amidst a world that can otherwise seem so very ugly in many ways.
Which is to say, watch for more such beautiful worshipful occasions which will be scheduled throughout the New Year in 2023. Planning for those occasions begins this week, in fact!
And there are other occasions for celebration scheduled even now. Plan to join us this Friday, January 6 at 7:00 pm as we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, the coming of the Magi to the child Jesus, making the good news available for all the nations. We’ll gather in the Parish Hall for an informal vespers service celebrating the day to be followed by a casual party. Come as you are. Bring something to share as we enjoy each other’s company on another major festival day in the life of the church. For Orthodox Christians, Epiphany is their Christmas celebration, so our celebrating on this day honors our ecumenical commitments and sensibilities as well.
The Feast of the Epiphany also inaugurates a season of epiphanies, of showings and revelations, as we learn more and more about Jesus and his life and ministry during our Sunday worship. For example, on Sunday, January 8, we celebrate the festival, Baptism of our Lord, as we fast forward in Jesus’ life to his third decade when he was baptized in the River Jordan by John which initiated his public ministry. That’s a perfect day also for us to celebrate the sacrament of baptism, and we will have two baptisms this Sunday, Grace Kuenzli and Zachary Jones, grandchildren of Jan and Ken Kuenzli, and my first baptisms as a pastor at Faith-La Fe.
So, there’s much to remember with thanksgiving during the holy days of Advent and Christmas 2022, and there’s much to look forward to in 2023, which I pray will be a new year of blessing in our life together in mission for the sake of the world.
Appreciatively and with hopefulness in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Pastor’s Office Phone Number: 602-265-5860
Email: pastor@faithalive.com
Announcements
Friday, January 6 at 7:00 pm – A Casual Social and Prayerful Gathering on the Feast of the Epiphany. We’ll celebrate the visit of the Magi to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with a brief and an informal service of worship followed by a time to be with each other for conversation while enjoying party-style refreshments. The principle here is to keep it simple! You may volunteer to provide food items for this occasion (sign-ups on the outside bulletin board in the breezeway), or simply bring along with you something to share.
Sunday, January 8 at 9:00 am (in English) and 11:00 am (in Spanish) – Baptism of Our Lord and the Sacrament of Holy Baptism (at 9:00 am).
Rummage Sale
Do you need more closet or storage space? Too many books? A piece of furniture you don’t need anymore? We have a solution for you! Faith will hold a Rummage Sale on January 28 with proceeds going to Faith. You can help make this a fun day of treasure and bargain hunting while at the same time raising funds for Faith ministries. Your donations will be gratefully accepted starting in January. Watch this space for more details over the next weeks.
Annual Meeting on Sunday, January 29
Plan now to join us between the 9:00 and 11:00 am liturgies for this important work of our whole congregation with special attention to our budget for 2023.