One of my favorite holiday television shows is ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ In this animated Christmas classic, Charlie Brown confesses to his friend, Linus, that even though Christmas is coming, he’s not happy. Even though he likes many of the Christmas traditions, he still feels depressed. In fact, he wonders if something is wrong with him because he feels this way. Linus doesn’t offer much in the way of empathy, asking how on earth Charlie Brown could take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem!

As I was planning worship for Advent, I kept coming back to the Christmas Carol In the Bleak Mid-Winter. The images of water and earth being unmovable continue to describe how I feel about our current situation. The number of deaths from COVID-19 are increasing at a rate that experts expect to begin to double. Unfortunately, the same experts say that our situation will only get worse as we move more fully into the winter months. What was once a joyous holiday season has now a very bleak outlook.

One of my Christmas joys is decorating our tree with my collection of vintage ornaments from the 1940’s and 50’s. The bright colors, glittery designs, and endless variety of shapes never fail to get me in the mood for Christmas. Most of the ornaments from this era are silvered (to give them that “shiny bright” look) like the photo below. Some of you may recognize these types of ornaments from your own childhood Christmas tree

As many of you know, I grew up Catholic. I first heard my call to the ministry when I was 12 while I was attending Mass with my family. As the priest presided over the Eucharist, I felt a draw—a pulling of myself—towards the priesthood. It is an experience that I have never forgotten. However, what sealed the deal was the hymn we sang a few minutes later “Here I am, Lord” where I promised to go wherever God sent me.

This hymn was written by Dan Schutte in 1981. Schutte was a Jesuit studying theology at Berkeley at the time. One day a friend knocked on his door on a Wednesday and asked him to write a song for his ordination on Saturday. To make matters a bit worse, his friend had a list of images that needed to be included in the song and Schutte had the flu.

This week, we’re talking about the process of finding your place in a new congregation. If you’ve been a member of Puyallup UMC for decades, you probably haven’t thought about this question in years! Similarly, if you were born into this congregation, you might never have had the experience of wondering where to sit in the sanctuary or how to go about meeting people. However, if you’ve changed churches in the past, you know that it can be a challenge to figure out where you belong and how to find meaningful connections with others in the church. When the former Summit congregation was considering the idea of a merger, this was one of their fears – would they be accepted in a new church? Would it ever feel like home?

People come to church seeking many different types of connection. Some connect to the church primarily through worship, while others look for opportunities to make friends. Some people won’t feel at home in a church until they have a role in leadership or a particular job to do. Others come looking to join a small group such as choir or bible study.

I am writing to you to express my sincere apology. Last week, prior to our communication with you about the Safe Parking Program that the Church Council has been discussing, some of our members learned about the program from their neighbors and social media. This was wrong as you should have heard it directly from me. For this, I sincerely apologize.

A little over a year ago during our Puyallup UMC Lenten Study, we explored different justice issues affecting our country and our community. At a soup supper at the church, small groups were asked to identify the justice issue they would most like to see our church commit to working on. Every group responded by naming the issue of homelessness, and ideas began to surface about how we might engage in that work together.