Unique intent of informal partnership

Details from Building and Grounds related to making 3rd floor more hospitable and safer

What to expect on June 1 ballot

ExCell Program introduction with Cindy Hutchinson (Director)

Questions and Responses

Diana Butler-Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us

You can listen to an audible recording (thank you Tori Tyndall and Ryan Corbitt) or read the article. We will use Jeff Chu’s honest reflection as a conversation starter around tables.

God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Meditation:  Among my fondest Christmas memories are the Christmas Eve services at Fredericksburg Baptist Church –the traditional hymns, the candles, the sense of family, big and small.  It is a time of great joy when we allow ourselves to think about new beginnings and hope for a better world.

In many ways that is the essence of Christmas.  It is a journey toward hope.  But God’s call to each of us is to put hope into action.  It would be a mistake to only see the joy and hope that the baby Jesus represents and not listen to the rest of the story, the story of God’s call to reconciliation for each of us and for those whose lives we touch every day.  Our response to the journey after Christmas must be, “Here I am Lord, send me.”

Thus, as we celebrate this holy day, we must recognize that the journey to Christmas was to prepare us for the hard work of the journey from Christmas.  The road is long and filled with trials but the Jesus we meet on Christmas Day travels with us, if we choose to let Him.  And He transforms us on the journey. 

 These words from John Westerhoff, III say it well:

We have been called into a visionary community to risky, laughable lives of tomorrow’s people, to live in and for God’s dream, to witness to a world of peace and unity, freedom and equality, of justice and well being for all people.  We are called to accept the cost and the joy of discipleship, to proclaim the word and deed of the good news of God’s dream come true.  God promises us courage and strength in the struggle for peace and justice; God forgives us our failures and lifts us up to new possibilities; God is present in our trials and rejoicing and hopes from this day forward.

Prayer:  Oh Lord, thank You for the joy of Christmas and Your gift of hope wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Please travel with us on the journey ahead and continually remind us that if we are faithful to the trek, not only will we find friends along the way, not only will we find the beautiful and the true and the good and the lovely and the delicious tastes and sounds and smells and sights given to us by the Creator of the journey …but we will also catch a vision of what is at the end of the road.  Amen.

      (paraphrase from Ken Medema)

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

 I have come that you might have life — life in all its fullness. (John 10:10)

Meditation:  Michael was nearly dead when he came to the Christ House medical recovery facility for the homeless.  Years of poor choices had all but destroyed his body, and he languished in bed for days.  Gradually, with rest, proper nutrition and hydration, and the introduction of appropriate medications, his body began to respond.  His vital signs improved, and he was finally able to take his meals in the dining room with the other patients.  He began spending more time out of bed, helping with daily chores and getting to know the staff and other patients.  A ready smile and laugh and a sense of humor began to be revealed.  Michael was rising from near death in more than just a physical way.  He completed the facility’s drug rehab program and was then able to move into Kairos, the long-term housing program of Christ House for former patients committed to recovery.

When Michael put on more strength-giving weight and muscle he could often be seen on weekends helping to strip and re-wax the floors, giving other patients haircuts, or giving a hand in any number of jobs that needed doing.  He became a regular in the Christ House worship service, too, serving communion, reading scripture, or sharing from his heart when called upon.  He seemed to have opened some previously-shut doors of his life to God, and God, in turn, seemed to be filling him with abundant life.  The addiction to drugs was displaced by the much more powerful high of God’s abundant blessings.

When Michael heard that a group of Christ House staff persons and Kairos residents were going to the Christian community of prayer, scripture, and singing in Taize, France, he jumped at the opportunity.  Taize draws thousands of persons, mostly young people, from all over the world at a time.  Three times a day the bells of Taize ring out to summon the pilgrims to worship.  During one evening worship time in Taize, Michael found himself standing before this group of several thousand pilgrim worshippers telling them how God had saved and was still working in his life to give him an abundance of blessings he never dreamed possible.  Afterwards, scores of young people crowded around him to get to know him better and hear more about his changed life.

One of the saints of old has written that “we have not because we ask not.”  Michael did ask.  He was asking of God by opening his life to God’s seemingly impossible possibilities.  And who could have imagined the abundant, mega-joyous results?

Prayer:  Gracious God, on this Christmas Eve ripe with joy and promise as we await the celebration of Christ’s birth, let us not forget that You are the great Dreamer of joyful dreams, the supreme Lord of joyful imagination, and that with You, nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

You will leave Babylon with joy: you will be led out of the city in peace.  The mountains and hills will burst into singing, and the trees will shout for joy. (Isaiah 55:12)

Meditation:   C. S. Lewis once wrote that “joy is the serious business of heaven.”  My understanding of that “serious business” grew substantially as I served on Fredericksburg Baptist’s 1995 mission team to Prague.

When the first request for team members came out in the church newsletter I felt a tug at my heart.  But I quickly talked myself out of it.  “I probably don’t have enough vacation days at work,” I thought, “and Dad is really sick, and it probably costs too much.”  A day or two later a good friend and member of the congregation, called and said, “I think you should apply for the Prague mission team.”  Her calling “out of the blue” caused me to open my heart and mind again to that possibility, and the result was great, great joy for me.

The joys were almost too many to count—seeing the beautiful, old, and historic city of Prague; helping to renovate the site for the International Baptist Theological Seminary; bonding with church members I hadn’t known well before; and meeting Christian people from many countries. Then there were the joys of opening my suitcase to find a note for each day from my husband and daughters; receiving notes from church members; and “running into” an old friend from our former church in Phoenix who was also working at the seminary.  I think the very apex of my joy there came one evening as we all sat on the patio and sang familiar hymns in our varied languages.  “Amazing Grace” is even more beautiful when the English is sung together with Czech, German, Russian, and Italian.  I thought to myself that this must be part of what heaven will be like.  I didn’t want the evening to end.

Not long after the team returned to Fredericksburg, my friend and I had lunch together and I said to her, “What if you hadn’t obeyed the prompting of God’s Spirit to call and encourage me to go to Prague?  I would have missed out on all that joy.”  She offered that she thought that we all probably miss out on lots of joy because we fail to listen and respond to many of the Spirit’s callings in our lives.  Think of what we miss.

So as you stand on the brink of Christmas 2019, give yourself  the gift of deep and lasting joy by inviting Christ into your life if you’ve never done that before, and  by listening for God’s intimate dialogue with you through scripture, prayer and meditation, sermons, books, music, the words of fellow Christians, etc., etc.  Then make a New Year’s resolution to respond to those tugs at your heart, perhaps to become involved in one of the new ministries of the church, or perhaps in one of longstanding.  Either way, God is eagerly waiting to bless you with joy!  

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, we thank You that the serious business of heaven and of heaven on earth is joy.  Now help us to get serious about this serious business, for Your glory and our sakes.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

Meditation:   For much of my life I have not been very good at accepting gifts.  I guess I could blame it on an upbringing that etched on my brain the old adage, “‘Tis better to give than receive.” 

I suppose that this saying is a useful tool for providing a perspective for children overwhelmed by the desire to receive, but as guidance for building relationships it is not very helpful.  

I have no specific memory of who helped me understand the subtle message of a reluctance to receive, but the value of that lesson has come home to me on many occasions as homeless friends, children, and others have sought to say “thank you” or “happy holidays,” or “I love you” with a simple gift. I have come to understand my acceptance of that gift is an acknowledgment of their humanity, that we are equals in the eyes of God, and that I have a need that they can fill.  I now believe that accepting a gift can be as much of an act of love as giving one.

On Christmas Day in 1986 an op ed piece entitled, “Gifts from the Homeless “appeared in the New York Times.  Written by author Jonathan Kozol, the short piece reminded us of the gifts we receive daily even from those who live on our city streets.

A homeless father of two children whom I met the other day in San Antonio told me that he sells blood twice a week to buy the food to feed his sons.  They sleep with him at night along a railroad track… Those of us who can afford to go to hospitals when we are sick should give thanks to those who offer us their blood – perhaps the one thing we might have supposed that they could call their own.

A woman who sleeps beneath the asphalt roadway of the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon, donates her body for medical experimentation at a local hospital and earns thereby enough to buy the heavy padded clothes she needs to make it through the winter.  Let us thank her for the health she gives us.

An important lesson on the journey to Christmas is that each one of us is created in the image of God and that our relationships to one another, to be honest and healthy, must recognize the contributions we all make.

Prayer:  Lord, thank You for all the gifts we receive this season.  Help us to understand that receiving can be an important and loving act as we build relationships with those whom we encounter each and every day.  Amen. 

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.   (Luke 10:27)

Meditation:  Lupe was a school crossing guard who lived with her husband and four school-aged children in a very small tarpaper dwelling in southside Phoenix, Arizona.  Her neighborhood of poor Hispanics, Native Americans, and elderly and mentally ill boarding home residents was not the pictorial stuff of travel brochures about sunny Phoenix.  As a neighborhood in the flight path of Sky Harbor International Airport, it was noisy, but most residents paid little attention to that until they were forced to move due to airport expansion in the mid-seventies.

Lupe enjoyed little of the world’s riches, but her soul was rich in faith which produced the gifts of God’s Spirit.  I can still see the light of her smile in my mind’s eye.  Because of her deep love for God, Lupe named her sons Moses and Solomon.  She made sure her children were in Sunday School and church every week and at every activity offered for their age groups at the Phoenix Baptist Center where we led Bible studies, sewing, crafts, recreation, and other activities.

Though she had very little in the way of material goods, Lupe was always finding a way to give – a shared meal, babysitting time, a hanging flower pot with a macramé holder she had made, and a small stuffed animal which our daughter, then a toddler, still cherishes to this day.

Lupe had learned the Christmas lesson that the widow in the Bible who gave her famous mite had learned centuries earlier – that it is more joyful to give than to receive.  They learned this truth and lived it out because they loved God with a passion that came close to total devotion – heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, may we who have most of what we want and much more than we need become more like the widow and Lupe who gave from their little.  As we journey toward Christmas, may we give passionately to You of heart, soul, mind, and strength, so that we may know You more deeply as the Ultimate Giver.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

Meditation:  As Christmas approaches, songs of peace often emanate from our lips.  But do we know what peace looks like?  

When we initially wrote these devotionals, there was much talk of war in Iraq, even as our nation continued to struggle with the problems in Afghanistan, Palestinian areas, and Israel.  Today, 17 years later, we still are dealing with the remnants of those wars.  And, in other corners of the world, peoples and countries spend their precious resources to take the lives and livelihoods of their neighbors.   Despite the current state of the world, the Christmas journey calls us toward peace.   But what does peace look like in a world so torn apart?  Isaiah (65:18-24 CEV) offers this alternative for our world:

Celebrate and be glad forever!

I am creating a Jerusalem full of happy people;

I will celebrate with Jerusalem and all of its people;

There will be no more crying or sorrow in that city.

No child will die in infancy;

Everyone will live to a ripe old age.

Anyone a hundred years old will be considered young, and to die younger than that will be considered a curse.

My people will live in the houses they build;

They will enjoy grapes from their own vineyards.

No one will take away their homes or vineyards.

My chosen people will live to be as old as trees,

 and they will enjoy what they have earned.

Their work won’t be wasted, 

and their children won’t die of dreadful diseases.

I will bless their children and their grand children. 

I will answer their prayers before they finish praying.

It is a long way from the place described by Isaiah to where our world finds itself today, and yet it is not an impossible journey from here.  To paraphrase a former National Security Administration official, we can bomb Afghanistan and chase al Qaeda around the world but we will fail if we do not see that the best deterrent against terrorism is hope.  In a world where hundreds of millions of people go to bed hungry each night, and where hate still rules many nations, it is not a hard leap to understand why some misguided young men and women are willing to sacrifice their lives for any cause which even remotely promises a better life for their families.  They are literally hopeless.  In their minds they have nothing to lose.

The promise of Isaiah can only be achieved when we really understand that the scriptures call us to do justice.  The gift of Christmas is the freedom in God’s love to seek this goal knowing that He is there to help us over the hard spots.   We are called to give hope to the hopeless even in today’s very difficult world. Clarence Jordan offers some guiding words for those who commit to taking on the daunting task of working for peace in a troubled world:

It seems to me that He (Jesus) said something like this: “Fellows, this is it. You think you’ve already been through a lot. You’re just getting started.  As you walked up these steps and came into My kingdom, I made it clear to you that you were there by making an all-out commitment. I charge you now to be faithful, cost what it may. But don’t let them scare you or bully you or make you back down.  Rejoice that you’ve been counted worthy to be on our side.  You’re in a great company of prophets whose glorious past stretches back to the beginning of time and whose future has no end. So, go to it. I’m with you.”

Prayer:   Lord, continually remind us of the song of peace sung by the angels that Christmas so long ago, and give us the strength to be Christ’s peacemakers in the world today.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

And God’s peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:7)

Meditation:  I have known many dear friends who live or lived with a “thorn in the flesh” which God, for reasons known only to Himself, chose not to remove, giving each of these dear people grace and peace instead.

Victor suffers from severe insulin-dependent diabetes and painful spasms in his legs.  He prayed that God would save his right leg from amputation, but instead God graced him with a wonderful attitude; a determination that gave him the ability  to walk with a prosthesis; a terrific smile and sense of humor; and a peace and a gratitude to God for life that caused staff members and other patients at Christ House to try harder, too.

Raul, another patient, was not delivered of the “thorn” of terminal cancer, but God gave him the gracious gifts of reunion with estranged family members; renewal of his faith; the assurance of forgiveness of his past sins; and a place he came to know as home where he peacefully departed this world with caring medical staff and family at his side.

Carolyn was not to win her battle with cancer, either, but that did not stop her from spreading her love.  Despite her terminal cancer and her bipolar disorder, God’s grace, peace, and love shone through her.  She would always be the first person at Christ House to buy and circulate a greeting card for anyone’s birthday.  And she helped out in the dining hall there until a day or two before she died.  She departed this world in peace and victory.

Our friends Kathy from Richmond and Becky from Phoenix, and Ethel from Fredericksburg all fought their terminal illnesses so valiantly.  Each prayed earnestly for healing.  Friends and family and sometimes just acquaintances and total strangers prayed fervently for healing, but in the end God took them to their heavenly home.  And yet, in their relatively short lives God’s very-evident grace and peace produced so much love in action.  Kathy, Becky, and Ethel were “doers of the Word, not hearers only.”  All three were doing for others nearly up to the day they passed into an everlasting life of joy and peace.

Before Ethel departed, it was my great privilege on several occasions to sit at her bedside and sing softly to her.  When she could she would join me, singing in a faint voice.  One hymn we sang was “For All the Saints [Who From Their Labors Rest],” with words by William W. How set to the beautiful music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Verses 2, 5, and 6 go like this:

Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;

Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;

Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,

Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Prayer:  Lord God, often we do not understand Your ways.  Nevertheless, help us to be ever-growing in Your grace this Christmas season and all our lives, for You in Your peace-giving grace are sufficient for all our needs.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

Meditation:  When we moved to Fredericksburg in 1991 our two daughters were in the middle of fourth and seventh grades.  After a few days in their new school it became very apparent that our younger daughter was having great difficulty adjusting.  There were many tears and a real dread of going to school.  Despite the fact that my husband and I had prayed about and felt a definite calling to move to Virginia, I began to be upset regarding our daughter’s distress and to feel somehow that God was asking us to sacrifice our children’s well-being for this calling we had answered.  Each morning I practically begged God to give each of them a good day at school.

Then came my peace.  I had a devotional book that contained a passage about Abraham who, of course, was asked by God to take his precious and only son, Isaac, up the mountain to be offered up as a sacrifice to God.  The author of the passage, Carlo Carretto, writes that:

God,  wrapt round the colossal figure of this patriarch alone in the desert, . . . wants to communicate with the depths of Abraham’s being and tear him from himself and his involvement with his own  problems, which are like self-centered possessions; He wants to make this creature of His “more His,”  this man who is destined not for the tents of earth, but for those of Heaven.  So God asks of him an absurd trial, as love is absurd for anyone who does not live it, but as true and relentless as love for anyone who possesses it. . ..  What a drama was in the poor heart of that man!  God had asked the supreme sacrifice. If Abraham had had to turn the knife on himself it would have been easier!

My peace came as I believed that through this passage God was saying to me, “Remember, Ginny, that Abraham did not end up having to sacrifice his son, and neither will you be sacrificing your daughters.  Everything is going to be okay.”  And peace came, too, as the passage reminded me of God’s awesome presence always, but especially when He is asking us to do something that’s really hard for us to do.  There are times when God does ask us to complete other kinds of sacrifices, but this time God wanted Abraham’s trust, not his son.  That assurance gave me great peace.

The peace continued to flow as our Pastor Emeritus, Howard Cates, paid a visit with a deck of Uno cards and his loving support.  Soon he had our daughter talking and laughing again as she played Uno with a new friend she could trust in this new place.  And then Howard’s wife, Betty Jo, had us all over for dinner, and we played Uno again!  God had wrapped His arms around all of us through Howard and Betty Jo.  And God continued to show His presence throughout our future years in Fredericksburg, giving both our girls a true home, and blessing us in countless ways.

Abraham was spared the sacrifice of his son, but God willingly gave the ultimate sacrifice of His precious and only Son for us.  What will we give Him in return this Christmas?

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him:  give my heart.     

– Christina G. Rossetti

Prayer:  Holy God and Giver of peace and salvation, thank You for the very intimate ways You care for us and give us Your peace.  May we in turn be instruments of Your peace, spreading it to others as we journey onward.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

Meditation:  This prophecy of Jeremiah is repeated in Matthew as part of the Christmas story. We often quickly slip over the story of Herod’s effort to protect his kingdom from the new Messiah by calling for the killing of all Hebrew boys, “who had lived in or near Bethlehem and were under two.”   It is a hard story which seems to take us on an unwelcome path of sadness and fear in this season of joy. But the journey to Christmas is like all journeys; there are likely to be tears and hard places along the way.   

During the 1990s I spent a significant period of time working with people living with HIV/AIDS.  Even though I had spent a good portion of my working life until that time working among the poor and homeless, I had little experience in the world of those suffering from this awful disease.  I listened as a mother told the story of nursing her dying son in his final days, his frail body ravaged by the sores and disease that had consumed it.  I watched a friend waste away before my eyes as the disease, long in remission, cruelly reemerged and recaptured his body.  And I sat in stunned silence after hearing the news of another friend’s death from AIDS, knowing that the fear of revealing he was gay had forced him into a lonely and painful death.  He had not shared his diagnosis even with us, his friends.

I heard tragic story after story of lost loves and friends, of funeral after funeral, until even the healthy were so exhausted they no longer wanted to go on.  We seldom stop to think about the inconsolable grief some segments of our society have endured, and the strength they have shown in the face of this awful scourge.  And we seldom contemplate what this nation has lost in the young men and women that AIDS has taken from us. I grieve for the teachers, doctors, artists, dancers, athletes, engineers, and musicians whose life works would have made this world a better place.  I grieve for their partners and friends who have been left alone.  And I grieve that so many of us did not reach out to them.

Yes, the journey to Christmas requires us to share the grief that only God can relieve, and the hope of Christmas calls us to reach out to those who suffer and seek comfort and peace.  

Prayer:  Lord, give us the strength to journey with those who are marginalized, and those who struggle with sickness and the ever-present specter of death.  Help us to know what to do, what to say, and how to share your gift of peace. Amen

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here. 

For God has said, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.”  (Hebrews 13: 5b)

Meditation:  A pilot friend of mine told me a story of how he was flying in a storm somewhere over Florida.  The storm had gotten so bad that he had lost his bearings—he didn’t even know where he was.  But his radio contact with the tower stayed strong, and his air traffic controller did know where he was and was able to guide him safely to an airport.

Today the storms of this world threaten to destroy our inner peace and undo us.  The anxiety index has been off the chart with daily political upheaval, the existential threat of climate change, a deadly opioid epidemic, and endless war after endless war.  So how can we experience inner peace in the midst of all of this, even as Christians?  We must focus on the fact that, even when we are lost in the storms of life, God’s radar is still working. God knows where we are at all times and in every situation. God knows how His plans for us will be implemented.  Immanuel has come. God is with us and will never abandon us.  

When I wrote this devotion in 2002, Fredericksburg and northern Virginia were consumed by the terror of sniper indiscriminately shooting unsuspecting and innocent people.  I believe that part of God’s plan during the sniper crisis was that of calling millions of people, many who habitually pray and many who seldom or never do, to pray for the families of the victims, for those who were wounded and needed healing, and for the apprehension of the killers.  I believe God used the power of that prayer to put it into the mind of the witness or witnesses in Washington state to make the unlikely connection of a possible link to the shootings.  I believe that prayer power aided the truck driver at a Maryland rest stop to spot the snipers’ vehicle and call it in.  In fact, a small article in The Arizona Republic reported that the same truck driver had met just a week earlier with 50 of his fellow truck drivers to pray that the snipers would be caught.

The day after September 11^th I sat gazing out the window of our Arlington, Virginia apartment which overlooked the Pentagon from which smoke continued to float into the air.  As I prayed, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” I wept to think how far it seemed our world was from God’s kingdom coming or God’s will being done.  Then I remembered the words to the familiar hymn by Martin Luther which many thousands of people were probably pondering for comfort:

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great,

And, armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.     (verse 1)

And tho’ this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim—we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure,

For lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him (verse 3)

Prayer:  God of all goodness and all might, grant us peace in the knowledge that You are in control, even when much of life seems to be in chaos.  Amen.  

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

Meditation:  My father was an alcoholic. I have never written those words before.   It has taken me over 50 years to be able to acknowledge that hurt and shame in my life.  My father was a caring man with one of the best senses of humor on the earth, but he wrestled with demons for nearly all his 84 years.  To see him at work as a middle-class government bureaucrat one would not have sensed the brokenness in his life, or for that matter the brokenness his drinking brought to his family.  Brokenness is not often used to describe those of us in the middle class.  No, we reserve it for the poor, the sick, and the homeless.  But the journey to Christmas is about God’s reaching out to heal our brokenness.  The gift of Christmas is Jesus’ promise of healing, peace, and hope for all his children, no matter their status in life. 

Christ House is a medical recovery facility for homeless men and women in inner-city Washington, DC.  On the first floor of the facility is an all-purpose room used for meetings, dining, and worship.  On this day, the Easter Sunday worship was just beginning.  Crowded into the room was an array of God’s children…rich suburbanites and poor inner-city residents, old black patients and young white volunteers, healthy neighbors and sick guests.

As the service began, Pastor Allen Goetcheus asked the community’s spiritual counselor, Sr. Marcella to say a few words.  Her words were simple but direct, and there wasn’t a soul in the room who did not instantly understand how profound they were.  Looking out on the congregation of men and women battered but unbeaten by life, she smiled and said. “If you don’t believe in resurrection you haven’t spent any time at Christ House.”

The gift of Christ House is that resurrections, big and small, are a daily occurrence.  For some it is one day of sobriety after decades of alcohol use. For another it is the report that the HIV once consuming his body has been slowed to a stop, and for others it is the once unimaginable news that he is well and there is a home to move into.  

Through the brokenness of those with whom we worshipped at Christ House, those of us whose lives had our own trials and tribulations were allowed to confront the dark and hurting places in our own lives and to share resurrections with people who, on the surface at least, were very different from us.  It is impossible to worship with the poor and sick at Christ House and say you cannot deal with your struggles.

The journey to Christmas is the journey to hope and wholeness and, ultimately, peace.  

“This is the blood of Jesus,” Leland whispers to me as he hands me the communion cup.  In that moment the gift of Christmas is mine, for no distance separates the middle-aged, middle-class white man from a tiny Canadian border town and the formerly homeless black man with AIDS.  We have each seen our brokenness, and through the gift of Christmas Leland and I share God’s love and healing. 

Prayer:  Lord, help us to reach out to those whose trials and victories teach us about the healing gift of Your love.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

Scripture:  And Jesus concluded, “In your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbor toward the man attacked by the robbers?”    The teacher of the law answered, “The one who was kind to him.”  Jesus replied.  “You go then, and do the same.” (Luke 10:36-37)

Meditation:  A few years ago, I attended a meeting in Cincinnati and decided to spend the night sleeping in a shelter run by a close friend of mine.  For nearly two decades, my friend Buddy had reached out to the homeless men and women in that city.   Buddy was one of the most gentle and caring people I have ever known, unless you were a city official bent on redeveloping his beloved Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and displacing the poor and struggling families living there.

No matter who came to his door, no matter how dirty or confused or inebriated, Buddy put his arm around him and welcomed him into his shelter. 

Tom was one of those men who somehow found their way to Buddy’s doorstep.  The night I stayed at the shelter, Buddy asked Tom to give me a tour.  Tom spent a little time showing me the various programs and residential portions of the building, but mostly Tom took me on a tour of his life. 

He told me how he was abused as a child, how he quit school and got into trouble, how his marriage fell apart and he lost his family, and how drugs and alcohol consumed him for years.  He said, “I have a Master’s in drugs, and a Ph.D. in trouble!”

“But,” he proudly continued, “because of this place and the people who cared about me, I found hope and the strength to change my life.  I have been sober for 10 years.  I have my children back in my life.  I have a job I love, working with others who are struggling with addictions.  And most of all, I know who I am.”

It is clear that Tom’s life was changed by the programs which helped him deal with some very difficult personal issues and by his own willingness to choose hope over hopelessness.  But what really saved Tom’s life was the gift of hospitality — an unconditional acceptance of the stranger in our midst — provided by Buddy and his staff.

Henry Nouwen describes hospitality this way:

Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place…It is not a method of making our God and our way into the criteria for happiness but the opening of an opportunity to others to find their God and their way… hospitality is… a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances.. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the lifestyle of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.

Prayer:    Lord, help us to reach out to the strangers in our midst, to offer love, hope, comfort, support, and a safe place to find their own way.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

Meditation:  As I pulled my car into the parking lot at the shelter, I saw another car follow me into the small lot.  The car was crowded with children and belongings.  It looked like the family had endeavored to strap every last possession on the car’s roof, and the trunk strained with the remaining items.  As I sat and watched, three children climbed quietly out of the car, but it was clear that another child remained inside the car.  He was engaged in an animated conversation with his parents.  All of a sudden the car door swung open and the young boy burst out, tears streaming down his face. He was barely 12 or 13 years old. He began to walk briskly down the sidewalk, screaming and crying that he did not want to stay at a shelter, asking his parents, “How could you do this to me?”  As he walked away his shattered and defeated parents stood with their heads bowed, holding back their own tears.

Parents know how tough the years of a middle-schooler can be as they seek to venture out on their own and gain the acceptance of their peers. Can you imagine being a young boy living in a shelter? How do you invite your friends over after school?  How do you even tell your friends where you live?

Homelessness is hell for children, and it shapes their lives for years, if not for a lifetime.  A study by the Interagency Council on the Homeless (now the U.S. Interagency on Homelessness) revealed the sobering statistic that more than a quarter of all homeless adults had been homeless as children, and many others had experienced similar childhood traumas of abuse, foster care, or institutionalization.  Every day that we allow children to be homeless on our city streets increases the likelihood that they and their children will find themselves on those same streets years from now.  We must find a way to imbue this generation of children with hope for a future, or their hopelessness will consume them and diminish us.

Prayer:

We pray for children

              who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,

              who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,

              who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,

              who cover themselves with Band-aids and sing off key,

              who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,

              who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those

              who never get dessert,

              who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,

              who watch their parents watch them die,

              who can’t find any bread to steal,

              who don’t have any rooms to clean up,

              whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,

              whose monsters are real.

By Ina J. Hughs

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

Today we also celebrate the baptism of Haley Bell. Our scripture this morning is 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

Scripture Reading:  She gave birth to her first Son, wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger – there was no room for them to stay in the inn. (Luke 2:7)

Meditation:   It was my first night as a volunteer at the new Salvation Army shelter, opened to address the growing needs of homeless men in downtown Phoenix.  I had never worked with homeless people before, so I sat nervously at the registration table asking each man a few questions as he signed in.  As I got more and more into the flow of the job, I became more mechanical in my duties, soon failing to look up before asking the next man in line his name. As I crouched over my clipboard, I called out for the name of the next person in line.  A voice quietly said, “My name is Joseph.”   Continuing to stare at my clipboard, I asked, “And your occupation?”  Joseph quietly answered, “I am a carpenter,” and then he disappeared into the crowd heading through the shelter door.   

At that moment, just a few days before Christmas, I was jolted out of the complacency of my “official” role.  I realized I could not ignore these men. I could not fail to give them the simple dignity of looking them in the eye. If Joseph were there, could Jesus be there also?   And what if I missed the opportunity to grasp God’s outstretched hand and His invitation to journey with Him in service to the world? 

The Bible does not tell us why the innkeeper felt compelled to find a place for Joseph and Mary to sleep that night.  Perhaps it was the fact that it was clear that Mary was close to giving birth that moved him to compassion, but why had none of the other innkeepers felt so moved?  Maybe it was because the innkeeper had access to the cave where Jesus was born and no one else did, or perhaps it was simply a chance to make a little more money from the travelers visiting Bethlehem to pay their taxes. Or, just maybe, it was because by looking into the eyes of Mary and Joseph the innkeeper caught a glimpse of God’s love and chose to be a part of His plan for revealing that love to mankind.

We will have to wait until we get to heaven to get the answer to that question, but what we do know is that the birthplace of Jesus is an important part of the revelation of God’s story.  Through His humble birth, Jesus was connected to the world of the broken, and through that was able to teach us about compassion and grace and hope.  As Thomas Merton reminds us:

Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited.  But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room.  His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of person, who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated.  With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst… It is in these that He hides Himself, for whom there is no room.

Prayer:   Lord, thank You for the innkeeper who chose to be a part of God’s plan for the world.  Help us to be aware of those around us who need to find room in the inn – be it a place of physical rest or spiritual hope.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

The Christmas story is about journeys.  It is the story of a young expectant mother traveling to Bethlehem with her husband to pay taxes.  It is the story of the Magi following the stars in search of a King, and of humble shepherds taking leave of their sheep to find a Savior wrapped in cloth in a manger.

And so it is for all of us.  The birth of Christ marks the beginning of the journey to Easter and our personal journey from brokenness to wholeness.  For those who choose to listen, the Christmas story transforms each of us into a traveler on the road to reconciliation, redemption and hope.

Our personal journey has taken us to many places only God could have imagined, from the windswept plains of a North Dakota reservation to the sugar cane fields of south Florida; from a barrio in the desert Southwest to the hollows of Appalachia, and the streets of inner-city Washington, D.C.  Along the way we were blessed with a decade at Fredericksburg Baptist Church where we were nurtured, supported, challenged and uplifted.

In 2002, we were humbled to have been asked to share some stories of our journey with our fellow parishioners during Advent season.  And, this year, we are equally humbled to share these stories with our friends at Tabernacle Baptist Church. In the pages of this devotional you will hear the stories of those we have come to know as we have traveled…stories from our work with Native Americans, migrant farm workers, elderly persons and the homeless men, women and children.

Many of the people we will introduce to you in the pages ahead have led very difficult lives.  Most have overcome incredible odds and openly share their stories.  Others are more reticent, desiring to put the past behind them and grasp their new futures of hope.  In order to ensure that we did not compromise anyone’s privacy we have changed some of the details.

Additionally, to make it easier for readers (and the writers), we have chosen to refer to God as He, even though it our belief that God encompasses both masculinity and femininity.  All scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Bible in Today’s English Version, commonly know as the “Good News Bible.” 

A number of the readings make reference to Christ House, a medical recovery facility with 24–hour nursing coverage for homeless and formerly homeless men and women.  Christ House is an all-encompassing ministry with a social work department, a substance abuse recovery program, a worshipping congregation, and a staff who live in community on site.  Kairos House is a companion ministry nearby where former Christ House patients committed to recovery live in community. Christ House is located in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC, and was part of the Church of the Saviour’s family of ministries. The Church of the Saviour is now a scattered community of independent churches.

As we journey toward the destination of Christmas, we must recognize that this journey is only preparation for a longer one.  Christ invites you on a longer journey into the life of your community to tell the story of Jesus and reach out to a hurting world.

It is our prayer that through our stories you will hear the Christmas story in a different way this year, and the people we introduce to you will challenge you to invest yourselves even more in ministry at Tabernacle Baptist Church and in the community.   As we begin our journey remember these words of Jean Vanier:

We are called to drink deeply from the heart of Christ, so that we, the church, can become a home for the lonely and the crushed of this earth. Christ puts into the arms of His church the suffering and the hungry of this world so that they may heal us, call us down from our pedestals of power and wealth and lead us into the wisdom of the beatitudes.

Please come with us as we travel to Christmas.

Fred and Ginny Karnas

Summer Worship Theme, 2014

The summer of 2014 will be a special time in the life of Tabernacle Baptist Church. The congregation has unanimously voted to send our pastor, Sterling Severns, on a much deserved sabbatical of rest and renewal. He will spend the summer exploring and, in some cases, re-exploring those places he calls home.

However, Sterling is not the only one who will spend his summer exploring what it means to be “home” and, ultimately, what it means to be “home again.” As he goes, we will journey alongside him from afar as we, too, explore how home is so much more than a place. It is a great time to be a part of the Tabernacle family! We hope you’ll make plans to be with us throughout the Summer!

What is Home?:

The poet, Maya Angelou claims, “The ache for home lives in all of us.” If you were to ask yourself what it is that you ache for when you think of home, what might that be? Is it the safety and security of shelter? Is it a certain feeling or sense of nostalgia? Is it a freedom to be yourself without question? In this season, you are invited to reflect on what home means for you and how we, as a church, might become home for others.

*Each week features a 3 minute testimony from a church member on what home means to him or her. (???)

July 27:A Means for Experiencing God’s Hospitality (Luke 10:38-42)

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