This past week has been somewhat challenging. A couple of visitations and phone calls left me wondering about what’s on the other side of life. I was reminded of a story about a sick man who turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, “Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side.” Very quietly, the doctor said, “I don’t know.” “You don’t know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?” The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door a dog sprang into the room with his tail wagging and an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient, the doctor said, “Did you notice my dog? He’s never been in this room before. He didn’t know what was inside… he knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough.” On Saturday, December 14th, we will hold a Rosemary Service of Remembrance for parishioners who have lost loved ones and for whom this holiday season may be a difficult one. This service is meant to provide comfort, solace, and the assurance of God’s abiding presence. In as much as we may not know what’s on the other side of life, we are motivated by a different kind of knowledge that springs from an eternal hope - that our Master will be there, and that should be more than enough. As I called parishioners and invited them to the Rosemary service, what got me thinking was when I felt myself asking the same question as the sick man in the story - What lies yonder? It is a crazy thought, I said to myself. But the sad reality is that, for many of us, it is an incredibly helpless position because that is a part of our human story that we have absolutely no control over, but one which we want to maintain control, if possible. We like to be in charge, and like to be the determinants of what happens to us at every stage of our lives. And so to be confronted with our own helplessness is often the last reality we want to deal with. For many of us this is the period when we even shut down and become despondent. But we need not be! To the contrary, in fact. This is the moment of our lives when we have to reach out and re-dedicate ourselves to the Master, the God to whom Isaiah sings this praise: “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.” Finding ourselves in that position is when we have to reach out for the hand that has always its character of being outstretched and waiting to be touched. And so as I mulled over all these disparate thoughts flooding my mind, I made a visit to the hospital - in part because it is always a reality check for me, but more importantly to offer comfort, solace, and the assurance of the ever-abiding presence of the Master. God. When I walked into a room, surprisingly sitting on the windowsill of the parishioner was a card with a pithy message “Life is slippery. Here, take my hand.” It was surreal. I kept looking at the card and read it over and over again. There was this amazing sense of freshness and warmth that enveloped me. My countenance changed as I was fixated on it. It was as if I had been awoken from a deep sleep…Here, take my hand. I could feel myself reaching out to take the hand of the Master, stretched out for my sake and for yours. "Who doesn’t need a hand?" I asked myself. We all need a hand. We may be in denial about it, but whether at this very moment or in the future, you will need a hand. Maybe, even, at that point of helplessness. I also asked myself, "Which organization doesn’t need a hand?" All organizations - including Christ Church - need the hand of faithful parishioners like you and I in order to stay alive, to be active, and to proclaim God’s redeeming grace in this part of God’s kingdom, and beyond. “Life is slippery. Here, take my hand” It was a new one for me, but within those words, I could hear the doctor’s reassuring words to the sick man. Within those words, I could hear the antidote to our helplessness. Within those words, I could feel my burden being lifted. Within those words, I behold the assurance of the ever present hand of God. Those words are deeply promising, just like the season of Advent. Yes, Advent is about waiting, preparation, and anticipation for the little Child whose hands remains outstretched to hold us on our slippery path just so we do not fall. Indeed, all of our life is slippery, and there’s never been a day when we do not need a hand. If I thought I was going to cheer someone up, I found my spirit being uplifted by a simple card with a powerful message. May the message on the card lift your spirits up. ~Manny

The season leading up to Christmas can be a pressured time when frazzled nerves can help cause us to get beside ourselves. Christ Church offers Rosemary Service of Remembrance, a quiet worship that helps us to slow down and recover ourselves. We especially invite individuals and families for whom Christmas will generate painful memories of loss to join us in a comforting and meditative service of prayer, music and readings. In candlelight, sprigs of rosemary will be given as remembrances of those who are missed at this season of Jesus’ birth. The title for this worship comes from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, in act IV, scene V: “There’s rosemary; that’s for remembrance. Pray, love, remember.” This service is intended to help worshipers “pray, love, and remember.” All are welcome to join us on this special afternoon in Old Brick.

The Advent and Christmas season at Christ Church is a time of waiting and of watching, of listening and of breathing, and of focusing on our search for Christ’s peace in our lives as we prepare ourselves to celebrate his birth. This focus encourages us to slow down; Advent challenges the commotion that is commonly found around the holidays, and helps us stay grounded. This month, there are many opportunities for you to join in and celebrate the Advent and Christmas season. Whether gathering for a contemplative service, enjoying moments of festive song and dance, viewing our extraordinary youth during their Christmas Eve pageant, or peacefully ringing in the new year, there is something for everyone at Christ Episcopal Church. Our December outline is on the Christ Church website - https://www.christchurchcolumbia.org/advent-and-christmas-2… and if you have any questions, reach out at info@christchurchcolumbia.org. We look forward to seeing you!

This past week, millions of us traveled far and near to be with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. Of all the people I have spoken to, each had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a part of me believes that they’d like to do it once more if they could. I stayed home and celebrated with my family, dining on a set of plates we’ve owned since before our first daughter was born. Those plates aren’t china, nor do they bear any semblance of sophistication, but we treasure them nonetheless and use them twice a year - Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am sure you can say the same for yourself... you have plates, maybe ones made of china, that you use on special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas. In fact, this occurred last week as I had lunch with a colleague friend and his father. My friend shared with me that they would, for Thanksgiving dinner, be using a china set given to them by his deceased mother. The wonderful part of the story is that the memory of a wonderful mother and wife is kept alive with a set of plates that had once felt her warm and tender hands. Thankfully, we didn’t break any plate, glass, mug, pottery, or anything else this Thanksgiving, but I cannot say same for everyone. An interesting part of all we share in common is that our plates, glasses, mugs, or pottery reduce in number - we break them - either by accident or by negligence. And for many of us, when these and many others break, we either sweep them up and find a resting place for them in the nearest trash bin, or we find other suitable ways to dispose them. I need you to take a moment and reflect on your own brokenness, as I also reflect on mine. The question is, what do we do with what we break? Better still, what does the world do with something that’s broken? We discard it. We throw it away. We consider it to be useless because it no longer serves any purpose. While you and I throw away things that are broken, there’s an art in Japan called Kintsugi. It is the art of repairing broken pottery. For any pottery that is broken, they put it back together and then use gold paint or gold filler - something precious - to put the broken pieces together. That broken piece then becomes an art piece in itself. Think about why the broken and mended piece becomes an art piece in itself…and it so happens because every broken piece has a story, every broken piece has a history, and out of brokenness the story of this broken piece of art is revealed. Come to think of it, our lives are like plates, cups, mugs, glasses, and pottery of every kind; they break, and they are fragile. We can often feel this sense of brokenness where we are shattered into a million different and disparate pieces - similar to a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle I once saw at an assisted living facility. We often try, desperately and on our own strength, to fit these broken pieces together again. What we seem to miss is that when life is broken into many different pieces, we ought to surrender that broken life to the Master Craftsman, and the Master Repairer of our lives is none other than Jesus. He is not only the one who puts the gold paint or filler into our broken lives but he is, himself, the gold paint and filler that mend our brokenness, and calls us my beloved, my precious one. Listen to what 1 Peter 2:9 says: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” We are way too precious to God to dwell on our brokenness. If you are, or feel, broken and do not surrender your brokenness to God, you remain broken. The only change that is possible, especially during this Advent season, is to surrender your brokenness to the Master Artist, who would make something beautiful out of your broken life - Kintsugi. My beloved, we may not be hungry but we may be spiritually hungry. And so the question is, where do you feel broken today? Where would you want the gold filler and gold paint - the healing Balm of Gilead - touch, soothe, heal and mend your brokenness? What’s in you that cries for release? What is it that takes you to the bosom of your bedroom, your inner temple, and breaks you down to the extent that your own brokenness overwhelms you? How much load are you willing to carry all by yourself? The questions are many, but the answer to these questions are one and the same. God. It is my prayer that this Advent season would be one of opening our own brokenness to God’s healing and mending grace. Kintsugi... God takes our brokenness and makes something beautiful out of it. ~Manny

Looking for an opportunity to recommit yourself to prayer during this season of Advent? The season of Advent is about waiting in anticipation for the wonderful story of human hope. Starting this evening, December 5th, Christ Church offers Advent Compline on each Thursday evening during Advent. Please come and make yourself comfortable in Old Brick at 7:00 p.m. as we share a calm and contemplative time of prayer and reflection during this most hectic and hurried time of year.

Advent Quiet Day will take place in Old Brick this Saturday, December 7th. This time together helps us to focus and retain our perspective in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. Prior to the morning session, we’ll gather in Old Brick for breakfast and conversation from 8:30-9:00 a.m. We are blessed to have The Reverend Robert Bunker to lead this morning retreat. The theme of our gathering together will center around our Christ Church Spiritual Life theme for the coming year - Arise, for the task is yours. Take courage, and do it. We will have readings and discussions, as well as times for quiet meditation. This morning together will then conclude with a Holy Eucharist in Old Brick. Please join us for an enriching time at the start of this blessed season. Christ Church's Advent and Christmas outline is located here. Take a look, and join us often during this most festive and blessed season.

It's the final few days before the Christ Church Wreath Sale of 2019 comes to a close. More details about the wreaths can be found on our Youth Group page, or you can simply click here to go straight to the order form. Don't miss out!

I can only imagine the excitement of the Pilgrims at harvest time. They had endured a very cold and terrible winter. I am sure they had wondered if any of the seeds they had sowed would bear any fruit. They soldiered on till harvest time. And then they realized the fruits of their handiwork, much like the psalmist who was well acquainted with agrarian life and who shares these thoughts: “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” What fascinates me about Thanksgiving is the incredible desire to take a pause and offer thanks for all the gifts and blessings that you and I have received. As I said elsewhere, central to the Christian ethos is the idea of thanksgiving, and our Eucharist is based on this idea. The Eucharist is a sacrifice of Thanksgiving for the salvation that has been wrought for us. In a sense, then, what the Pilgrims did wasn’t alien to their understanding of what it meant to be a Christian; it was, in fact, rooted in it. I will always remember my first Thanksgiving. I flew to Maryland to be with my aunt, who lives in Riverdale. I knew next to nothing about Thanksgiving, but I was happy to be in Maryland for this holiday. On the way to my aunt’s house, I saw this cliché on a church’s sign-post: ‘What are you thankful for?’ I thought about the question, and I still think about it. This is because the opportunity to ask myself this question reminds me of all the gifts that surround me. In a more somber way, I acknowledge my dependence on these gifts and live my life in appreciation for them. Each and every day is an opportunity to give thanks... even for the smallest of gifts. Waking up in the morning to see the sunlight is an opportunity to give thanks. Taking a shower, dressing up, and grabbing breakfast is an opportunity to give thanks. Dropping of kids at school or taking them to board the bus is an opportunity to give thanks. Driving to Christ Church to serve you is an opportunity to give thanks. Driving home after serving you is an opportunity to give thanks. In fact, every single bit of my life - and of yours - should be about an opportunity to give thanks. And we dare to give thanks because the gift of giving thanks shapes the very nature of our relationship with others and ourselves. More than that, the ability to name the very people and things for which we are thankful is a stark reminder of our own sense of humility and interdependence. As I have said before, I’d prefer to live thankfully than faithfully. To live thankfully is to appreciate every single gift that you have, and that gift includes the people you love as well as those you may not necessarily love. You may wonder, "Why also people I don’t love?" Well, as scripture poses, what benefit is it to love those who love you? Believe me, giving thanks even for those you do not necessarily love helps you to correct those things in your life that you don't love about those you may not love. There is a story about an elderly man who lived in Phoenix. The man calls his son in New York and says, “I hate to ruin your day, but your mother and I are getting a divorce. It’s been forty-five years of misery, and I can’t handle any more.” The son screams at his father, “Pop, what are you talking about?” The father responds, “No, we can’t stand the sight of each other any longer. We’re sick and tired of one another, and I can’t talk about it anymore. Just call your sister in Chicago and tell her.” He then hangs up. The son proceeds to call his sister in Chicago, and tells her what their father had said to him. She gets very upset, calls her father in Phoenix, and screams at him, “You’re not getting divorced. Do not do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing.” And then, she hangs up. The old man puts his phone down, turns to his wife, and says, “Honey, the kids are both coming home for Thanksgiving. They’ll be here tomorrow … and they’re paying their own way!” Yes, they are paying their own way! The prank was an attempt to get these older kids, who are now parents themselves, to be thankful for something… that, among many other things, paying your own way to see mom and dad can also be an expression of your thankfulness to them for all they have done for you. What are you thankful for? Don’t wait to hear about mom and dad divorcing before you decide to fly home to see them on your own dime. Do not limit yourself in your expressions of gratitude. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. ~Manny

This is the Last Sunday after Pentecost. Readings for today: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Canticle 16 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43 The Collect of the Day: Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This autumn's next Adult Forum program is "Faith in the Public Square" and begins this Sunday morning at Christ Church. It's a four-part series that is intended to foster discussion about the nature of faith in the contemporary world, and the exercise of faith in today’s culture. This program aims to provide members of Christ Church, and the wider community, with opportunities to reflect on issues having to do with civic society and the common good, the maintenance of a flourishing culture, and the public exercise of religious faith. The first program of the series is entitled "Pluralism, Identity, Reconciliation" and is presented by John Keiss of Loyola University. We hope that you'll join us in New Brick at 9:30 a.m.

Your balloons, or mine? I don’t know what it is about balloons that is so enchanting to kids. My children fight over balloons all the time, and I am sure yours might do the same. Whenever we get the chance to go to Red Robin for lunch or dinner, these kids simply cannot contain themselves with the excitement of the sight of those balloons that regularly sit right by the entrance. Instead of one balloon each, we often end up bringing about five or six home, thanks to the folks at Red Robin, as they are always kind enough to let kids have as many balloons as they want. But as many as they are allowed to have, they still fight over them - yours, or mine? There’s a story of an instructor for a capacity building exercise. The instructor gave each participant in the seminar a balloon, and then invited each to blow air into it. Afterwards, she gave each person a marker pen with the instruction to write their names on their balloons. The instructor collected all of the balloons and let them loose in an adjoining room. All the participants were invited to then go into that room and find the balloon on which they wrote their name. You only have to imagine the chaos that subsequently enveloped the room. Each wanted to find their own balloon, the one that bore their name. For about fifteen minutes, each of the participants scrambled around while grabbing, checking, and tossing back those balloons which didn’t bear their name. In the process of this semi-organized melee, many of the balloons were burst, leaving some of the participants with none. The instructor then invited the group back to the first room and gave each participant a new balloon, and again asked them to inflate it and write their name on it. The instructor took the balloons to the adjoining room and then let them loose once more. But this time, instead of each participant finding their ‘own’ balloons, they were invited to simply grab a balloon, any one of them, and if it didn’t contain their own name on it, they were to simply find the person whose name is written on it and hand it to them. The entire process took only a couple of minutes. Not only was it orderly, but not a single balloon was burst and so each participant received theirs, unharmed. I thought this was a wonderful story. It is one which points at a much deeper human problem. If you think more broadly about the first scenario, you can draw that awful conclusion that in our attempt to actually seek what we believe or feel ‘BELONGS’ to us or, at least, has our name on it, it often doesn’t matter how we acquire it. Remember the phrase, "by any means necessary"? That’s how we often tend to want to claim what belongs to us. And in doing so it often doesn’t matter whether we hurt others or destroy what belongs to others in our attempt to seek what belongs to us. The first chaotic scene I described above is simply a reflection of all our individual attempts to find our own balloons. See, our balloons are very dear to us, and we have to find them at any cost. The sad reality is that we can conveniently lay most of the problems of our world and our collective lives on the doorstep of our individual attempts to find our own balloons. Stephen Hawkins once noted that it is greed and stupidity that will end the human race. His sober thoughts might not be far from the truth. The second scenario above was calm, collected, and intensely productive. In that one, there was no need to scramble or scream, struggle, or fight. There was no need to step on one another’s balloon in an attempt to get your own. Each participant knew that he or she was assured of a balloon - the kind of assurance which was absent in the first scenario. Each participant knew that receiving a balloon was a question of when, and not if. Think about how different our world, as well as our communal and individual lives, would be if we were intensely engaged in helping others find their balloons - or, in fact, finding their balloons for them. One of the early Christian writers, Tertullian, once remarked that the one thing that converted him to Christianity was not the arguments, because he could find a counterpoint for every argument. Rather, they (Christians) demonstrated something he didn’t have: “The thing that converted me to Christianity was the way that they loved each other.” One way to rephrase that is to say, "the thing that converted me to Christianity was the way each found one another’s balloon for them, or helped each other find their balloons." Our reality is one where we cannot live life as though we are looking for our own balloons. If anything at all, the spirit of Thanksgiving stands in direct contrast to this idea. Remember, the Pilgrims found it prudent and worthwhile to offer thanks because the Native Americans helped them to find their own balloons or found their balloons for them. As we look towards celebrating the holidays with family and friends, we are reminded of the ethos that guides our interactions with others - it is not about fighting for only ourselves but it is about fighting for each other. Thanksgiving and Christmas are about goodwill, the kind that provides us with more than enough reason to help others find their balloons - or, better still, to find their balloons for them. Yours, or mine? May this season be one of harnessing our collective energies in finding each other’s balloon. ~Manny