Parish Administrator

Ted's Christmas Letter

Christmas 2023

Dear St. John’s Community,

The season of Christmas is a marker like no other in our shared life.  By the time Christmas Day dawns for us here in North America, people around the world will have held religious services and family gatherings, parties and celebrations, spoken in countless languages and marked by a wondrous array of cultural traditions.  The Christmas season is a world-wide inbreaking of hope and light, made especially poignant for us in the northern hemisphere by its proximity to the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.  Christmas comes to bring light into our darkness every year.

While Christmas marks our shared life, our lives mark Christmas.  The Christmas we celebrate is marked by the life changes we experience in the year prior.  In the Cole home, we have been looking at videos of Christmas past when Theo and Zachary were experiencing it for the first time.  Those were wondrous and joyful Christmas celebrations, marking a “before time” for Sage and me forever changed when, from the unknown we all come from before conception and birth, these two beautiful boys entered our lives.  As I look to the horizon of this coming Christmas, I am reflecting on it being the first without my Mother in the world, the first Christmas where all my grandparents and now both my parents have crossed over into the unknown we go to at death. There is a sadness in this reflection, but with that sadness a hope in the mystery that is Christmas.  The mystery of Christmas is God entering our world from we know not where and manifesting in our darkness Christ’s love and light.  In that mystery, my loved ones are parted from me but not from God, and in God, love still binds us together even when I see them no longer.  

I wonder what life changes have marked your Christmas across the years.  I wonder what in your life has changed this past year that will mark the coming Christmas season.  I wonder who has come into your life bringing surprise and wonder.  I wonder who has moved on, leaving sadness but maybe also a hope that, in the end, God’s love holds us all together.

At St. John’s, we constantly experience comings and goings, some long expected, some unexpected.  In those comings and goings, there is a center in this place that holds us as we come and go, a center in Christ that manifests when we care for one another, when we care for those around us, when we care for those around the world, and importantly when we care for ourselves.  St. John’s is a center we come to for spiritual sustenance, for inspiration, for beauty, for healing, for blessing that we might go forth as a blessing to others.  That is how Christ comes to us, to bless us that we might be a blessing to those we meet along our way, from one Christmas to the next.

Each Christmas season here at St. John’s, we share a financial appeal.  This year, we reach out to ask your help to end 2023 well and set us up for an abundant 2024.  Our financial life in the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic is challenging, but there are signs of hope.  We have new pledging households for the first time in a couple of years and an array of organizations and groups using our space and enriching our community.  We are finishing up a robust round of capital improvements and gearing up for the next round.  

For our 2023 Christmas Appeal, we ask that each pledging household make a gift of two weeks or half a month’s pledge.  Some households will not be able to make such a gift, and we understand.  We thank you for what you do give!  Some households can and will give more, and we so appreciate your generosity!  Those of you who do not pledge to St. John’s, your generous gift of any amount to our Christmas Appeal is most appreciated!  Thank you!  Please use the enclosed envelope to make your Christmas gift to St. John’s and bring it to any of the upcoming worship services through December 31 listed below, or mail it to the church at the address at the bottom of this letter before December 31.

By supporting one another through our support of St. John’s, we keep a marker in this community of Jamaica Plain and in our lives that Christ is always at the center, is always with us, blessing us that we might be a blessing to others.  We keep the mark of Christmas manifest year round, even as we rejoice in this special annual celebration each December.  We round our comings and goings, the unknowns we come from and the unknowns we go to, with the mark of God’s love made manifest in Christ at Christmas.  And that love is forever!  Thanks be to God!

With love and blessings,

Ted+

Monday Music - Dorie's Playlist August 21, 2023

We’re trying something new with our Monday Music posts! Our curate, Dorie, will be offering a weekly playlist inspired by the upcoming Sunday’s readings from the lectionary, along with a brief reflection. If you enjoy thinking about Scripture in creative ways, have an undying love for indie pop ballads, or just want to have more impromptu dance parties with your philosophical musings, then this is for you!

Here’s what Dorie has to say this week:

Coming up on Sunday, we are tasked with holding the promise of a prophet in the midst of a systematic genocide, Paul's admonitions to live into our own flourishing, and a messianic secret that has inspired both confusion and joy.  While we start out with the brutal slaughter of the Hebrew people (“Butchered Tongue” and “O Death”) and the grim realities of economic and social exploitation (“Something to Hope For” and “Working Man”), we also get to bear witness to the bravery of a number of women—midwives Shiphrah and Puah, Moses’ mother Jochebed, Moses’ sister Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter—to ensure that life, even just one, continues (“Samurai Cop (O Joy Begin)”, “Water”, and “River”). Paul encourages us to lean into our own gifts for the good of the entire community (“Ngamila”), and Jesus reveals that he is the Messiah, which has historically caused deep confusion, especially among scholars (“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”), but also shows how deep his trust was with his disciples, and how much they cared for one another (“Damage Gets Done”). I'm struck by hope in the readings this week--the hard-won promises that arise from brutal circumstance that serve to remind us that even in the midst of evil and terror, God is still here with us, and that we too can arise from despondent places.  Even when the world is confusing and difficult, we have the immense capacity to be surprised by joy.  May we all continue to find those moments as we navigate the ups and downs of our week!

Here are the lectionary readings, to read about what she’s talking about!

Taking Faith Home

WEEKLY MILESTONES

Take a moment to tell or think about a recent mountain high and/or valley low in your life.

CARING CONVERSATIONS

Discuss in your home, small group, or use for personal reflections:
 When you have a conflict with someone, are you able to see the situation from the other person’s perspective? Explain.
 What makes it difficult to be a fair judge of other people’s thoughts and actions?

Taking Faith Home

DEVOTIONS

Read: 1 Kings 3:5-12.

Humans have proven throughout the ages that they can explain away any thoughts and

actions. Our own sense of truth and justice can be hurtful and unfair. We know how we can try

to fool ourselves and others. Solomon also knew this, so he prayed to God for “understanding

to discern what is right” (1 Kings 3:11b). The Hebrew literally says, “to hear justice.” That is, to

let Solomon’s mind perceive and hear real justice on behalf of others. This is a daring prayer

that puts others before his—and our own—interests. Our imperfect sense of justice and truth

needs the humility of Solomon to recognize that God’s truth stands out from our own. A good

example is when the disciples heard the many parables of Jesus. Perhaps the greater wisdom

would have been to acknowledge that they really did not understand them (Matthew 13:51).

Discuss: When have you prayed for wisdom and understanding?

Pray: God of justice and truth, give us a humble heart that we may see and judge people

with mercy and understanding that dares to love others through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Download this week’s Taking Faith Home now!