Advent Reflections
Walk with Jesus through this Holy Week
Jesus has enjoyed a triumphant entrance into the city of Jerusalem just days ago. We invite you to go with him to what would be his last supper with his friends. Then follow him to a garden to pray where he is arrested. His trial is a mockery of justice and he is executed by the Roman authorities while professing his gentle compassion for people and his love for God.Join us for a deeply meaningful and reflective worship service on Maundy Thursday--this Thursday evening April 1st at 7pm—either in person or live streamed on FaceBook.Good Friday we will make available a worship service that integrates the scripture focusing on what Jesus says from the cross as he is dying and the lives of Black people who have recently died in unfair and tragic ways. This is a powerful and evocative worship service that will be available through our church FaceBook page. We urge you to watch and pray.Then this Sunday celebrate the Easter resurrection by participating in our live worship service or viewing on line the simultaneous broadcast.We believe your lives will be enriched through sharing in these worship events!Pastor Dr. Jay Terbush
Enter into Lent with an Open Heart & Mind - A Lenten message from Pastor Dr. Jay Terbush
Wednesday February 17th the church begins the season of Lent. This is a time of year when the we are invited to enter a time of prayerful reflection, a time of self examination, a time for focusing on our relationship with God and preparing ourselves for the great and life changing events of Holy Week and Easter. So as your Pastor I want to encourage each of you to consider giving something up or taking on some spiritual practice in these days. Some people may give up some thing like watching too much TV or spending too much time in social media, others may give up a food that is enjoyed or maybe something that is not healthy for you! Some people take on a regular time of Bible reading or devotional reading, some take on putting all of their spare change in a bowl which they donate to the church on Easter. It is not so important what you choose to give up, it is the heart attitude; it is less important what you take on and more important the ways that this facilitates your relationship with God and others. The purpose of this taking on or giving up is to encourage you to go deeper in your life with God. So for example, if I fast from breakfast and lunch, the hunger I experience can remind me of my spiritual hunger. If I mindlessly begin to scroll through my facebook page, I can stop and remind myself of my desire to lean into the Spirit of God. So I invite you in this special season to consciously choose to observe Lent as a time of making a small but deliberate decision to focus on God’s life in your life. AND I would be honored to have you share with me what you are going to commit to doing or not doing over the weeks of Lent. I will hold you in my prayers. And will share with you my Lent spiritual practice/ discipline for your prayers for me.
Rev. Bill Neil's Farewell Message
A Last Word:There is a lovely gospel song by Andre Crouch that begins, “How can I say thanks for the things you have done for me?” He is asking God in response to God’s unconditional love. I say it to you for our shared years of life and ministry. Thank you for your faithfulness and participation, for your spiritual and financial support, for all you have done and for all that you are.As the season of Advent is one of preparation and anticipation, so the celebration of Christmas is one of culmination and completion. It is with these images that I retire as pastor of the Lee congregation.COVID continues and several vaccines are soon to be widely available. We have learned not to take for granted a smile or gentle touch. We continue our practices of mask-wearing and distancing as signs of love for others.In our service of farewell on December 27, we will formally release one another from the pastoral relationship. We are called to honor this separation as I move into retirement and you move forward with new pastoral leadership. Faith and I have sold our home in Lee. We will be moving to Vermont where we hope to buy a home in Burlington. My roadrunner email address will be discontinued and I will disconnect from facebook with church members as a way of living into these changes in our lives.I leave with gratitude and appreciation for all that has passed during these years together. May God’s Blessings truly be yours. Have a Safe, Healthy, and Happy New Year!Rev. Bill Neil
Life Finds a Way - August 27, 2020
The premise for Jurassic Park was the idea that combining dinosaur DNA with DNA from today’s reptiles would produce dinosaurs which would NOT be able to reproduce. By doing so, the Park Authorities could control the dinosaur population. Early on, they realize that their dinosaurs are reproducing on their own. The Head of the Park observes, “Life always finds a way!”We live on a planet abundant in life forms from single-celled amoebas to complex humans whose multiple organ systems from skin to brain, heart to lungs, muscles to bones have allowed us to populate the earth with over 7 Billion people. Life found a way!We have a neighborhood cat, Mocha. We started feeding her and letting her inside for short visits last fall. On Halloween, we met her owners. They live one street over. A while later they came knocking on our door to ask us not to let Mocha into our home. Apparently, she had been out all night and they were worried about her. We grudgingly agreed and continued to feed her and visit with her outside. By late winter she was very pregnant. We heard that she had a successful litter and did not see her for a few weeks. Not long after her visits resumed, she appeared to be pregnant again.On Monday she dashed into the house early in the morning and disappeared into our den. After two unsuccessful searches, I found her under a desk and behind a pile of books. I picked her up and placed her outside. Faith noticed that she was bleeding. We put a box with a soft towel on our deck and contacted the owner. Later the owner arrived and took her home. Early the next morning, Faith heard a tiny meow from under the desk and found a day-old kitten – cold and hungry. She woke me to hold the bit of fur close to my chest while she warmed some milk and fed him with a syringe. Within a couple of hours, the kitten was reunited with his mother and two siblings. Mocha welcomed him and nursed him, but it was too late.Life looks to find a way. We are either life’s partners or its obstacles. Jesus came that we may have life: abundant and full. Our job is to devote our selves to life’s fullness for all, beginning with those who are “least” in the eyes of the dominant culture. Today I am haunted by the mewling cries of a new-born kitten and by the countless cries of children born into poverty, deprivation, hunger, neglect, disease or abuse. May God’s Life find its Way in each of us.Bill
Christian Love
There is a lot of extra activity here at the church building this week! A crew is here filming a big screen movie titled, "I'm Not Him." It is a family-friendly production in which Jesus is one of the main characters. Yesterday they used our church narthex (entry area) as a scene for the shoot. Today they are filming in the Lee Town Hall and using our rooms for the crew's tasks. Not only are we receiving an unexpected donation but we can look forward to seeing our building at the movies!
July 1, 2020: Sharing our visions
One of my regular email inspirations comes from Rev. Cameron Trimble, a coach and leader in the work of progressive Christianity. This morning her message is an invitation to see with new eyes. She quotes Wayne Dyer, "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."I have one of my new eyes and I am seeing a lot more with greater clarity and light. I can barely wait to get my second eye on July 9.Cameron also refers to Amy Herman who has a book titled, Visual Intelligence. She trains people to look more closely and deeply. Each of us sees with a difference in emphasis or recognition. It takes the whole of us to share our visions in order for a true community of love and peace to solidify.We need each others views and visions.Jesus spoke about those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. I hope that my eyes will continue to open to a greater vision of God's loving presence in our world. I hope the same for you.
Memorial Day thoughts from Rev. Neil
Wednesday thoughts
In the early days of the Covid crisis I read a report that suggested the deaths would be in the hundreds of thousands. By comparison, millions have died in recent wars. What if the world worked as hard to end war as it is working to end the Covid crisis?Just as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the vulnerability of this nation's poor and especially its African-American citizens, so also the Covid crisis is killing a much higher percentage of its poor and African-American victims. What would it be like to live in a nation in which each person's health and well-being was equally valued and supported?Some years ago, when I saw the movie, "The Martian", I was caught up in the worldwide campaign of concern for the one human who had become stranded alone on Mars. The whole world was watching and hoping for his rescue. It turned out that his salvation came from China! What if every individual human life received that same degree of interest and concern?
When warfare is outlawed and the bomb is banned;
when safety and hygiene are the laws of the land;
when dignity and respect bow to every woman and man;
when children are treasured and all understand
that consciousness is sacred,
we will then hand-in-hand
build a world of compassion.
We'll strike up the band
and justice for all will be our demand.
Blessings and peace,Bill