Wow.

Most of the time the window graffiti I see are things like “Go Bombers” or “State Champs” “We’re #1”, etc.

I got a brief look at the driver but there was nothing remarkable about him — at least on the outside. But I now think there’s something remarkable about him on the inside. As I drove along the boulevard, I wondered what his life is like, what he does for a living and what his spouse is like. I wondered how they spend their time, if they have children, and how they originally met. But mostly I wondered what inspired him to drive around with that written on his car.

For the cynics who are reading this, yes I know, it may not be his car. Maybe it’s his wife’s, his daughter’s or his neighbor’s car. Maybe he’s a car mechanic giving it a test drive before returning it to its rightful owner. But still…there’s at least one couple who is happy, proud and honored to share with the world that they have a happy marriage that they want to celebrate.

February is traditionally marked as the month of love and the 2012 stewardship campaign.
“12 months of Giving” is sharing that theme as well. And I believe it’s a good one. Some people, relationships and even communities are easier to love than others.

It may surprise you to know that as we sweep up the final pine needles and seek to preserve our poinsettias, that Ash Wednesday is February 22nd. This is the beginning of Lent, a time to intentionally show God that we love God by recommitting ourselves to prayer, penance and forgiveness.

Forgiveness, I think, is the hardest work of all to do. Yet, it is crucial for our personal growth, healing from old wounds and disappointments and the pathway for deeper, more honest relationships with God, ourselves and one another.

“US News and World Report” did a study about 10 years ago with 100 couples seeking data about what preserves marriage. 50 of the couples were still happily married, 50 couples were unhappy and teetering on divorce. When polled about how the unhappy couples dealt with conflict, the vast majority said that unresolved personal insults during conflict were the cause. When the happy couples were polled about the same issue, the vast majority responded: being able to forgive and move on.

Easier said than done.

Lent is an important time for us to ponder, especially the ways in which we do not love others as God loves us. Along with Lenten bible studies, special worship services and lay witnesses in worship I invite you to start thinking about your own Lenten focus and how forgiveness can play a part in that. And when you can’t seem to find the courage to even consider forgiveness, ask the One in whom forgiveness and restoration is the very definition of Love.

Loving and forgiving with you in Christ,
Jen

Tekna Theou and R.O.C.K. will be collecting dry goods and financial donations for the Super Bowl of Caring on
ALL FOOD will be donated to the Boonton Food Pantry.

ALL MONEY collected will be donated to a charity selected by the youth groups.

Please support the youth of our church in this effort.

The Metropolitan Saxophone Quartet is setting new standards for saxophone performance. With their excellent precision of classical saxophone techniques as well as their “Burning” jazz and big band charts, the Metropolitan Saxophone Quartet achieves a high level of performance in a variety of settings, while captivating their audience of all ages. With their excellent and enthusiastic love of music combined with their light sense of humor, the M.S.Q. brings joy and fun into each performance and has audiences wanting more.

The M.S.Q. has been playing in New Jersey and New York since 2004 with performances held at Nyack College in Nyack, New York and throughout churches and community facilities throughout North Jersey. The M.S.Q. has a unique understanding of music which is evident in their arrangements of many classical and jazz selections, touched with humorous movement and excitement in their performance.

The Quartet consists of Erik Conough, soprano saxophone, Andrew Lopez, alto saxophone, John Di Egigio,
tenor Saxophone, and Michael Cardillo, alto saxophone. All are performers and teachers in schools, colleges, and their own private studios.

The program will be held on Sunday, January 29, in the church sanctuary at 7:30pm, directly following the
Soup and Chili Cook-off. Admission is free and a free will offering will be taken at the conclusion of the concert.

Those making soup or chili please bring it at 5:00 pm. There will be a sign-up sheet for those cooking and for the all important tasters. Please sign up for this annual, tasty, important and FUN event. The Metropolitan Saxophone Quartet that gave a lovely concert last year will again be entertaining us at 7:30 pm in the sanctuary and giving us a five minute “taste” for what will be coming just before the soup/chili tasting contest begins. (see page 3 in the January Spire for details)

The twelve days of Christmas and the “Feast of Epiphany” are often more highly celebrated in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity than they are in Protestant circles, where the magi are often tacked on to the Christmas story.

However, if you read Matthew 2:1-12 the wise men seeking Jesus (and Herod’s dastardly plan) is a separate event in an unknown timeframe after the event of Jesus’ birth. Check out the two different nativity stories told to us in only two of the four the gospels, Matthew and Luke.

The reason that I bring this up is that most of us probably consider Christmas as a glorious and mammoth single day and we are often exhausted and relieved when Advent and Christmas are over. I don’t know about you, but by late December my Christmas tree is as dry as a bone. My ornaments are falling off of branches that are now concave. Pine needles have found their way into my washing machine and I have finally opened and sent my last Christmas card. I have found time to rest and relax and visit and celebrate, but the story of Christmas is far from over. In fact, it is just getting started.

The Magi are only now getting on their way to seek Jesus. And so should we. As tired or relaxed or overstuffed as you may be feeling, I encourage you to try to mentally and spiritually follow along with Matthew’s story of the magi who now commence their journey to worship Jesus.

This fallow time is indeed the ideal time to be intentional about seeking Jesus ourselves and pay Him the homage He is due. I wonder….how much homage did we really offer Jesus on Christmas as we sped from house to home bearing treats and gifts? Were we really able to acknowledge the grace of God choosing to dwell among us as we ate to our fill or tried to be thankful for gifts we might never enjoy or use?

I have seen (and participated) in extravagant gift giving, tireless efforts to decorate and celebrate, and even our stock market that relies on ‘Black Friday’. The question I ask you to now consider, in these twelve days of Christmas is…are all of these plans, preparations and celebrations equal to or less than how much we actually pay homage to the new born king? I think for most all of us, I already know the answer…

Paying homage with you because of Christ,
Jen

The first is a series of TV commercials for a large retailer with an overly “caffeinated” woman in a red sweat suit, who is beyond obsessed with shopping fever. She seems driven by some internal demon to commence her Christmas shopping marathon in time for December 25th. It could have been funny if it weren’t SO overdone, making the woman seem to be almost mentally imbalanced. And that’s not OK.

There’s even a worse advertisement series, by another retailer, that displays a disturbing “in-your-face” attitude even to Santa Claus himself! This TV commercial shows the shopper home on Christmas Eve, slyly eyeing Santa, who is unable to put even a single gift into the Christmas stockings—because they are already filled to the brim. She arrogantly offers Santa the empty stocking of the family dog for ‘leftover’ gifts which stuns and alienates Santa. She proudly turns to go off to bed remarking to Santa “…awkward…”

I realize advertising is very subjective and as a pastor I am hypersensitive to the way Christmas is portrayed in secular culture. I am all for giving gifts and am always happy to find wonderful gifts in affordable price ranges. I am all for being generous and understand the pressure that we put on ourselves to “get it all done.” But these commercials brought me to another place…if there’s no room for Santa to place his gifts in our stockings because we’ve already ‘got it all covered’ …I wonder……How can God give us what we won’t allow?

I wonder in our anxiety to hunker down and try to endure on-going, unprecedented, world economic times, if we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands.

I wonder if because our lives are ‘not back to normal’ we have bailed on God as our Sovereign, the giver of all gifts.

I wonder in our compulsive efforts to handle it all, solve it all and buy it all, we have gone astray from the path of God and jumped right back on the treadmill of self-importance and self-reliance.

I wonder what we’re teaching our children and our neighbors and our friends about God — when Advent and Christmas becomes a time just to ‘get through’ not a time to slow down, notice, observe and celebrate. I’m not saying Advent and Christmas-time is easy. For most of us it is a mixed time especially if we’ve had loss, illness or even intense disappointment in this last year. And for many the decreasing hours of daylight exacerbate that. But I think celebrating Christmas in the darkest 6 weeks of the year has a lot of purpose. If we observed Christmas in the light the spring or summer, how could we fully enjoy the beautiful lights of our trees, the candles in our windows and the sparkle in our children’s eyes?

In the warmth of Spring and Summer how could we fully notice, appreciate or enjoy the endless LIGHT that comes to us in the deepest dark, cold night? Friends, there are gifts from God to us waiting to be explored, shared and received; but only if we make space in our stockings and time in our lives to notice Emmanuel, God being with us.

Watching with you for Christ,
Jen

However, friends of mine put their house on the market just two months ago and after only a one open house, and four separate offers, they will happily close on their home in two week’s time, at close to the original asking price.  What’s even more remarkable is that the buyer’s home inspection came back with a list (like they all do) but they were all minor requests (my friends say ‘miniscule’)  Why? Because for the 40+ years that they owned it, they cared for and maintained their home with time and money, on a regular basis.  This helped to produce a wonderful result for them in this normally difficult housing crisis.

The same can be true for our faith.  If we attend to our faith on a consistent basis, it can produce wonderful results for us when crisis strikes.  But for most of us, it doesn’t even occur to us to tend to our daily faith walk or if it does, it still gets short changed.

One way to attend to our faith regularly is consistent attendance in worship. But it seems that for many of you, Sunday worship gets dwarfed by travel, sports and even emotional or physical fatigue.  Another way to tend to your faith is to set aside a daily routine of prayer and devotional time.  But again for busy lives, this plan, well intended, also can get pushed aside.

This is why we offer many different types of Christian Education opportunities at First Church Boonton.  There is the Thursday Morning PW Bible Study, the Monthly Evening PW Bible Study, Sunday School for children ages 3–9th grade, youth groups (for grades 5–8 and 9–12) and the monthly Lay Listening Group starting up again in October.

There will be two additional bible studies this fall. The Men’s Bible Study, Saturday AM, studying the book of Hosea and a Sunday Morning Bible Study after worship, led by Rev. Jen and Seminary Intern John Molacek.

I know for some of you, you feel that “you don’t know enough to attend” but that’s not true.  None of us knows it all.  We are all on this faith journey together and every teacher has to prepare and ‘look stuff up’ because the bible is an enormous, never ending source of both information and history but most importantly, food for the soul.

If your faith is struggling or you’re struggling even to get to church, it’s probably due to being disconnected to God and others, and God’s word.  Trust me when I tell you, regular weekly worship attendance is tough!  And maintaining a daily prayer and devotional life is even harder, if you’re going it alone.  But I can also tell you that it’s delightful and life-giving to take and share the journey together.

Besides, how are you going to answer your children’s and grandchildren’s questions about God, if you don’t know who God is, first-hand?  Don’t go it alone.  Get yourself and your kids involved in studying God’s word and see how much more meaningful your life becomes.

Learning with you in Christ,
Jen

learn more about the Beatitudes…

• connect faith with your daily life…
• discuss some of the most difficult issues facing the world today — hunger, poverty, the economy, justice and peace and a woman’s role in society?

If you answered YES to any part of this question, make your move and meet us at 10:00 AM Thursday, September 15th in the church library.

We will meet each Thursday from 10 AM til Noon for 9 weeks and will study CONFESSING THE BEATITUDES by Margaret Aymer.

Books will be available after worship each Sunday beginning August 28.