Sunday, November 29th, 2015
Our 33rd Yule Feast, scheduled for Saturday evening, January 9, 2016, is expected to attract about 200 medieval costumed adults, youth, children, members and friends of our church family. It offers us a kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, aromas and an extraordinary experience of Christian community.
Check out the Yule Feast page for more information, photos, and the forms you’ll need to construct a Yule Feast table (and hopefully win the Yule Feast Cup!).
Sunday, November 29th, 2015
Rev. Ben Daniel, in full kilt, tackles the apocalypse, challenging us to see the message as it was originally intended: as a message of hope in a world made new.
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Thursday, November 26th, 2015
Dear friends,
This week I preached on sabbath-keeping, and how it can make us into braver, more generous people. I spoke mostly poetically about it, painting large brushstrokes over the various ways the sabbath commandments were followed by ancient Israel and could be practiced again today. But some of you are pragmatists, so to balance out the poetry, here are some practicals: my list of the top five things YOU can do to keep the Sabbath.
1) Turn off your phone. I don’t mean silence it, I mean turn it ALL THE WAY OFF, and leave it in a drawer, so you can’t absently check it. Better yet, turn off all the household technology, and enjoy old-fashioned pastimes for a few hours or a day. This is not because there’s anything wrong with technology or inherently better about old-fashioned stuff – I’m no Luddite – but because our technology use often becomes so automatic, we cease to think about it. When we carry phones with us, we are always available for interruption.
2) Prep or postpone your work. For whatever time slot you’ve chosen as your sabbath, whether it’s a weekend day or a random Wednesday evening, make sure to get the work out of the way ahead of time or do it later. For example, prepare extra food ahead of time, so you can eat out of the fridge, and/or leave the dishes in the sink to do them the next day. This might seem baffling. How does this count as sabbath? You’re still doing the same amount of work! But that’s where sabbath differs from vacation. Sabbath doesn’t necessarily reduce our actual workload. Instead, it constrains it – by establishing sacred hours, upon which work may not intrude.
3) Consider other workers. Whose labor makes your lifestyle possible? Many people labor under such conditions that make resting nearly impossible. Can you advocate for a higher minimum wage, or better protection for sick days? Sick days can often be seen as retroactive sabbaths, the consequence of pushing a frail human body too far and too long. Yet people are often punished – formally or informally – for taking them. Then, there are those whose work never stops. Can you generously thank (and tip, if it’s appropriate) the workers who always labor straight through holidays, such as nurses, waiters, and bus drivers? And think carefully before you choose to shop at midnight on Thanksgiving, keeping in mind those who are giving up their holiday for you.
4) Think about a sabbatical. Are you burning out? I have no power over your places of employment and your other volunteer service positions, but if you need to take a break from responsibilities at church, I will back you up on that 100% and we will find others to rotate into leadership. Nothing here is so urgent that it is worth the cost of your health and balance. What’s more, as Presbyterians, we believe in rotation of leadership that gives everyone a chance to stretch their capacities in service. Let go of “I need to do it” and “I’m the only one who can.” God’s got this – it’s not all about you.
5) Brace for impact. Who is going to complain first, when you take a sabbath or sabbatical? Will your children whine about eating leftovers? Will your boss send you angry emails if you don’t pick up your phone on the weekends? For many of us, the biggest complaint will come from within; “BUT YOU HAVE TO WORK,” our internalized guilt system will start loudly and frequently beeping with alarm. Give it a chill pill. The world will continue without you for a day. And perhaps, just perhaps, the peace you experience will eventually spread to those who are initially upset by it.
May you both receive and give God’s sacred gift of rest this holiday.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
Thursday, November 26th, 2015
This coming Sunday marks the beginning of Advent, the season when we prepare our hearts and souls for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. This will be my 22nd Advent as a pastor and in all of those years, I doubt a December has ever come and gone without someone asking why we, in the Church, cannot get along with the early celebration of Christmas. Everywhere else you look, the Christmas season is well underway, the halls are decked, the bells are ringing, the mistletoe is hanging and chestnuts are roasting over open fires. So why aren’t we signing Christmas carols in church? Why are we bedecked in purple when the rest of the world is festooned in colors as white as Frosty’s cheeks and as red as Rudolph’s nose?
There are at least two reasons we observe Advent. First, we want church to be a place of refuge from the pressures and expectations of the secular celebration. For many people, the cultural celebrations of Christmas—already well underway—are a source of comfort and joy, but for a lot of folks, this is a challenging and difficult time of year, fraught with emotional burdens that must be carried though a dark night of the soul over rough spiritual ground.
An observation of Advent acknowledges that a significant portion of our population walk in darkness this time of year, and while the Advent promise is that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light” it is important to remember the darkness and to create safe spiritual spaces for those waiting to know the warmth of light.
Second, the observation of Advent is an exercise in delayed gratification that ends up being an act of resistance against the market forces that forever are trying to commodify the joy of Christmas. Advent is not for sale. It’s hard to put a price on the practice of spiritual patience. This makes Advent something everyone can afford. The angels of Advent turn no one away.
So I bid you a happy Advent, and I look forward to anticipating the joy of Christmas in your company.
Peace,
Ben
Sunday, November 22nd, 2015
Rev. Talitha Phillips calls us to make room for Sabbath — a time to unplug, slow down, and enrich our souls and lives — in our overbusy world, particularly as we prepare to enter the season of Advent.
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Friday, November 20th, 2015
This year, the FAITH TRIO Harvest Celebration is the Harvest Action 2015. We are marking a decade of friendship and marching for climate repair on Saturday November 21, 2015 from 10am-3pm.
We are participating in the Northern California Climate Mobilization, which is a local effort in advance of the 2015 UN Conference on Parties in Paris (COP21). This is a mass international mobilization as world leaders in Paris make decisions that will effect the planet for the far future. This mobilization is to show mass support for an agreement that will be effective and binding. Below is an outline of the events for our Faith Trio congregations.
Northern California Climate Mobilization demands:
List of events (Join us at any event – Look for our Faith Trio Banner)
10-10:45 am – Shabbat service near the Lake Merritt Amphitheater at 12th Street & Lake Merritt Blvd, Oakland
11:00 am – Assemble with the Northern California Climate Mobilization at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater
12 noon – March to Oakland City Hall / Frank Ogawa Plaza
1:00 pm – Rally with Northern California Climate Mobilization
2:00 pm – Move to the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California at 1433 Madison Street, Oakland. Bring a bag lunch and eat together.
The Islamic Cultural Center has invited us to gather after the action is over in their downtown facility at 1433 Madison Street near 14th Street for eating and talking together. If you have any questions, please email (check the MPC directory) any members of the Faith Trio group: Betsy King, Brad Hester, Dave Siegenthler, or Peggy Alter.
BACKGROUND OF THE FAITH TRIO — The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Montclair Presbyterian Church and Kehilla Community Synagogue became the Faith Trio as a result of September 11, 2001.
One Sunday weeks after the attack, three Muslim women (a mother and her two grown daughters) visited Montclair Presbyterian Church. After the service one Christian woman asked if she and others could visit an event at the Islamic Cultural Center. That year Muslim-Christian friendships developed as members of both congregations joined in each others’ events leading to annual Harvest Dinners. In 2005 Kehilla Community Synagogue joined, bringing together the three Abrahamic faiths calling themselves the Faith Trio.
The Trio has held Harvest Celebrations for the past decade, and has organized interfaith art exhibitions, poetry readings, text study sessions, and have also volunteered in food bank service together. These activities are organized through monthly meetings of representatives from each congregation — the Faith Trio Committee.
This year instead of a feast, the Faith Trio celebrates the harvest and planet earth with prayers and marching feet.
Please Join Us!
Thursday, November 19th, 2015
Last Sunday in the wake of the terrible Paris attacks I prayed for imams and all Muslim leaders who need to reclaim and interpret their religions so that the world doesn’t mistakenly allow Daesh (a better term for the so-called “Islamic State”) to be accepted as a valid interpretation for Islam. My prayer, if you will, was for those who are fighting the theological and ideological fight to keep their religion from being hijacked.
But as I perused the news today, that prayer stuck in my throat. The prayer is answered, in a way, but there’s a new prayer. The first prayer was answered when #notinmyname started trending worldwide as Muslims (from teenagers on Instagram, to elders and clerics) came out to loudly denounce the “Islam” supposed practiced by Daesh. They are doing a great job. But are we?
Friends, I am sorry to say that we need to pray for ourselves, and for Christians worldwide, to keep our religion from being known as a religion of hatred and intolerance. I’m talking about the anti-refugee sentiment, the merciless attempts at border-closing, and some quite unabashed hatred of our supposed enemies.
For is it not violence to slam an open gate shut?
Is it not violence to deny shelter, food, water, and protection to those who have none? If a poor one dies for lack of food, while we have food and could give it, their death is on our hands, according to a long tradition of our faith and other faiths:
You shall welcome the stranger, for you were once strangers (says the Hebrew scripture Leviticus 19:34).
You shall welcome the stranger, for I am the stranger: whatever you do to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you do to me (says Jesus in Matthew 25:40).
Many of you heard the good news announced on Sunday, that the refugees from Honduras with whom we have covenanted for support were finally and fully granted asylum to stay legally in the USA. We know, from walking this road with them, that the process of seeking asylum was far from easy. We know that even now it will still be hard and they will continue to need support as they build a permanent life here. But we also know that it is not only our religious duty, but our delight and our joy to be able to welcome them here. We are so privileged to be able to be of service in such a valuable way.
So let’s leave the “war on Christianity” and the Starbucks holiday cups far behind. Christianity is not, and never should be, a religion that draws lines keeping some out and others in. We need to proclaim loudly, not just with words but in clear action, that we worship and serve the Christ who was a refugee child, and who was born in a manger because there was no room in the inn. May our hearts and doors and governmental policies be open wide to welcome him this year.
Every Blessing,
Talitha
Thursday, November 19th, 2015
The Montclair Holiday Stroll is coming soon — Thursday, December 3rd, from 5:30 to 8pm — and MPC will be there, handing out cookies and cocoa and good cheer! We hope to see you there, either as a volunteer at the MPC table or just to have some cookies and visit.
Montclair Village Association presents the 13th Annual Holiday Stroll; an admission FREE, family friendly holiday festival open to all celebrants & perfect for joining in the holiday spirit! Special discounts and promotions are offered as over 40 merchants stay open to greet guests with music, food & drink. Holiday carols will fill the streets with performances by several Oakland school and youth groups including the Pacific Boychoir Academy, Edna Brewer Middle School, Zion Lutheran Choir, Corpus Christi School MUSE Band, St John’s Episcopal Church, Head Royce School, the Bishop O’Dowd Brass Ensemble, Oakland Ballet Company and many more! Donate a toy to the “Random Acts Toy Drive” hosted by the Oakland Fire Department, then follow The Tap Dancing Christmas Trees for a visit with Santa!
(source: the Montclair Village Association)
If you’d like to bake cookies and/or help work the MPC table, please talk to Anna Santos or Steve McKiernan. We’d love to have your help!
Sunday, November 15th, 2015
Rev. Ben Daniel discusses the story of the “Widow’s Mite”, connecting it to a wider issue: do we give of ourselves, and our resources, in a way that makes the world more righteous, peaceful, and whole?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
