December 18, 2024

Dear Beloved Community,

This upcoming Sunday our guest preacher is Rev. Alice Cabotaje, Director of Spiritual Care for Stanford Health Services. She's an old friend from years ago when she was at UCSF and part of Many Journeys MCC. Some of you may remember her Sunday afternoon dharma talks from that time.

Prior to coming to Stanford two years ago, she held a similar position at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Alice is an ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Church and an authorized Zen teacher and Dharma Heir in the Rinzai Zen School Empty Cloud lineage. Her detailed biography can be found at here.

Alice will be sharing a message on the theme for the 4th Sunday of Advent — Love. Her text is, appropriately, 1 Corinthians 13.

Next Tuesday is Christmas Eve, and I hope to see many of you for our service at 8pm. I am looking forward to spending my first Christmas Eve service with you as your pastor. So, without further ado, here's a little Christmas inspiration:

Loving God,

For you animals prepared a bed

For you the heavens shone brightly and the stars clapped their hands

For you angels sang to help calm your crying

For you shepherds stood watch and marveled at how small you were

For you wise ones came running from the east, and when they saw you,

They fell down on their knees

Because you were Almighty God and yet you were so vulnerable

You were God and yet you had a soft spot on your head

God with Mary’s milk on your breath, wrapped up in swaddling clothes

God, creator of everything, now born of flesh and blood to be with us

Emmanuel, God with us

Hope is ours

Peace is on the way

Sorrow has lost its grip

Love has flooded every heart

Emmanuel, God with us

Light has come back into the world

And the darkness of despair, and war, and hurt, and hate shall not overcome it

Tonight you are with us

And we will never be the same

We will be more tender

We will protect the vulnerable

We will stand watch

We will come running to soothe the pain, to befriend the lonely, to lift up the lowly

To live as your people, to walk with you in love

We pray all of this in the name of Emmanuel, God with us

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Here's wishing everyone all the best with your Christmas plans with family, friends, and chosen families.

See you Sunday!

Peace and blessings!

-Jorge

December's Giving Sunday offering is for the Christmas Fund UCC. The Christmas Fund has been caring for active and retired clergy and lay employees of the United Church of Christ for over 100 years, providing emergency grants, supplementation of small annuities and health premiums, and Christmas “Thank You” gift checks each December to our lower-income retirees. Thanks for always being so generous with your gifts.

The Church Council recently clarified what monies in the collection plate go to our Giving Sunday recipient each month. On the first Sunday of the month (the "Giving Sunday"), the whole plate goes to the designated nonprofit. Any other time during the month you can contribute by way of a check with the name of the nonprofit in the memo line.

Recent sermons

Check out our YouTube page to see recent sermons. Go to our archive of slides to see bulletins and slides used during recent services.

Recordings of our Taize services are also on the YouTube page.

Upcoming services and events

Monthly Potluck: Sunday, Dec 29, after worship. Come enjoy that lovely lull between Christmas and New Year's. Bring something to share.
Borg Discussion Group: Thursday, Jan 9, 7pm on Zoom. Read Chapter 9 of “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time” by Marcus Borg.
Book Group: Sunday, Jan 26, 7pm, on Zoom. "Parable of the Sower" was such an impactful book that we decided to read the sequel, "Parable of the Talents." Octavia Butler was quite an author.