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Welcome to the Season of Grace Welcome to Advent Jesus is our example of grace and our role model. We welcome this time of reflection on God’s grace especially shown through Jesus. The pandemic of COVID-19 and the shelter in place should have been a panacea for writers, but it wasn’t. It became a time of reflection, but mostly difficult writing. We do, however, have reflections and these writings show us grace during these times. Because there were not as many entries for the 27 days, I included some poems or songs that reflect grace and the season of advent. Thank you Rev. Munchinsky for your many suggestions. Editing this Booklet has been an education for me. To see God’s grace in everything was a blessing. I hope you will be uplifted by the offerings. I wish to thank all the people who contributed to this project and especially to my editor and second reader, Jim Ripley. His tweaks were central to the project. Pam Ripley …I come to you To share His love as He told me to He said: ‘Freely, freely, you have received Freely, freely give Go in My name, and because you believe Others will know that I live. (words and music by Carol Owens) November 29, 2020 Grace and Peace to You! by Rev. Bob Mitchell And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of GRACE and truth (John 14:1, NRSV). “BY GRACE ALONE!” has been a rallying cry for churches that trace their origins back to the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. Perhaps the most familiar proof-text declaring the primacy of GRACE is Ephesians 2:8-10: (8) For by GRACE you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— (9) not the result of works, so that no one may boast. GRACE, as we understand it, finds its greatest biblical champions in the writings of Paul and his followers, probably because before his Damascus Road experience, Paul understood himself to have been the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). The word “GRACE” occurs some 75 times in the Pauline writings, and the greeting in every one of Paul’s letters, with the sole exception of Ephesians, includes the word “GRACE.” The word “GRACE” is always combined with another word (“GRACE and peace” or “GRACE, mercy, and peace”), but GRACE always come first! Paul’s first desire for all the individuals and congregations to whom he writes is GRACE! Every Christmas Eve Service at which I have officiated has included John 1:14, which declares Jesus, the Word made flesh, to be “full of GRACE and truth.” Surprisingly, John is the only Gospel in which the word “GRACE” appears, and all of its appearances occur in the first chapter–verses 14, 16 (two times), and 17. For the author of John’s Gospel, GRACE is preeminently understood in terms of the Incarnation of Jesus. Most of us Christians, and I include myself, hear the word “GRACE” and think immediately of the GRACE of God or God’s gift of GRACE through Jesus Christ, and rightfully so! But the author of Ephesians demands what sounds like the height of audacity when he demands of his readers, “Be imitators of God”! And Paul writes to the Corinthians Christians, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). We are to be imitators of the God of GRACE and of Jesus Christ, the gift of God’s GRACE, who was himself full of God’s GRACE! When we proclaim the riches of God’s GRACE and the fullness of Jesus ’GRACE, we are also declaring the Bible’s insistence that we imitate and embody that GRACE in our own lives! When we declare GRACE as God’s unmerited favor toward us while we showed animosity toward God, we are also declaring God’s desire for our relationships with others; God desires us to bestow our unmerited grace on others, even when they express animosity toward us! This Advent/Christmas season, may your life embody the GRACE of God in all that you say, do, or think about others, even, maybe especially, those who are hostile toward you! “Love Devine, All Loves Excelling”. #384 in UMC Hymnal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGGcqhKShQ8 Dear Creator, Instill in us the grace You have given to us in Your Son, Jesus. Show us the way to give Your unmerited grace to others even when we know their dislike and even hate toward us. Amen. _________________________________________ November 30, 2020 For Such a Time as This: A COVID diary by Pamela Ripley Read: Esther 4:14 (For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.) And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” We have come as Christians for such a time as this. And with God standing by us, we dare not fail. May the Grace of God be with us. At such a time as this, We must partner with a world wanting and in need of justice. Extend your hand with all your brothers and sisters to set a compass. Raise a ruckus In a true partnership of love. At such a time as this, Can we partner with a world that needs reforms? Social, criminal, mental health, education With partnerships help us avert storms. Make new norms. At such a time as this, Bold steps are necessary from us all. We must not condone mass incarceration. One simple law- Love Would bring the end of corruption, brutality And bring justice for all. At such a time as this, White America must examine their part in unearned advantage. Enslavement must stop, Economic and educational reparations beget more jobs. Our leaders should reflect us all. Every child needs the keys to a productive future… Support Their time has come. At such a time as this, We need to live to our potential. Our history, written by our children Must not remember us as villains. People, step up Love, action, care, Stand together. Our time has come. ” “For Such a Time as This” by Wayne Watson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcJUIAJNW0 Dear Father, Help us remember that those to whom much is given, much is required. (John Winthrop) Sanctify our actions with Your trust. Look kindly on our efforts. Give us knowledge to be successful. Give us grace to do what is required. Amen. _________________________________________ December 1, 2020 COVID Diary by Bobby Stein Read: Romans 8:28 It was early January and I was excited about the new year. I had read several spiritual books about blessings and I really thought that was how the year was beginning to unfold. For the first 2 1/2 months, it did, I was making new friends, seemingly almost daily, getting back in shape playing basketball and just generally getting a lot of exercise and feeling a lot better. Then March 11th hit with the pandemic and it seemed almost instantaneously that the world was changed forever. We, as a family were locked down and other than Costco runs and a few other things were very limited to what we could do. Out of this, in a way that seems only God could do, came some really good things. We, as family, by suggestion of the home owners association, made beautiful “chalk art” on the sidewalk and all over the neighborhood, neighbors wrote Bible scriptures on the sidewalk. It was beautiful, those sacred words and the imaginative creative pictures! I loved that month between March 11th and Easter. Also because so many people were off work, many people were out walking their dogs and playing with their kids at just about any time during the day. It was very festive and unifying and it felt like God’s amazing grace and the Romans Scripture 8:28. It seems God always has a higher purpose and can bring good from the apparent bad anytime He wants! “Love Lifted Me” Alan Jackson’s “Love Lifted Me.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsgA_TgDas Dear Lord, Thank You for letting me see Your love and grace all around me, even in these times. We ask You to grant Your grace to all at this time. Amen. December 2, 2020 One Day by Mary Wichmann Read: 2 Corinthians 9:8-10 For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, He will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Trumpeter Hibiscus was a late season gift from a new friend who was thinning her flower beds and shared her bounty. After inhabiting your place of honor as the greeter at our front door, you were too beautiful to just dump with the other flowerpots so on a busy fall clean up weekend I wrapped a large garbage bag around you so, your leaves wouldn’t make a mess and placed your bagged body in the basement next to the walk out windows for light. Maybe every week or two if I’d pass by I would add a little water and often an encouraging word. But in the back of my mind I knew the garbage bag could easily be pulled up around you if I decided you were too much fuss if you attracted bugs or if I simply no longer wanted to be responsible for you.

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