Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks be to you, God, awesomely distant.
Thanks for the searing of shooting stars,
the colors of the planets in the night sky,
the space and power beyond our perceiving
that sparkles the sky of our lives with your caring.

Thanks be to you, God, uncomfortably close,
giving life to dead dry things
-- the dance of pure stillness,
the beat of our hearts,
is your doing.

Thanks be to you, God, known in a body
who blessed as he lived,
who raised up our life
to be gathered as one,
reaching out for the kingdom.

The Pattern of Our Days:
Worship in the Celtic Tradition
from the Iona Community
(Paulist Press, 1996)

Community Worship Gathering

Sunday, November 23 at 6:00pm at 185 High Street.

Join us for a night of worship centered around Thanksgiving. Worship will include singing, holy communion, and a time to share our gifts with God through an offering. As always, feel free to bring a friend

Bring along food or homemade pies to add to our Thanksgiving baskets for our neighbors in need of a little extra help this holiday season.

As we begin our transition toward public worship in our new space, we will not be having a potluck supper this month. However, coffee and snacks will be served starting at 5:30pm, and worship will begin at 6:00pm

Parking is available on the street, or in the parking garage. There is a charge to park in the garage. If you park in the garage you can enter the building from the back hallway.

Hope to see you all there!

The Lost Sheep, The Lost Teddy Bear

Today's Scripture reading is the story of the lost sheep and the story of the lost coin. I really like these stories. I have unfortunately or fortunately heard them enough times for me to not really pay attention to the full meaning. So I thought I would search online for a video illustration that might take me a little deaper.

This is what I found. It made me cry. Maybe because I have a little girl whe loves her cuddlies or maybe just because I want to be treasured and not ever forgotten just like that teddy bear.

The Lost Bear Video

What do you think?

Join the Advent Conspiracy!

This week in LIFE Groups, we're continuing the conversation we started a few weeks ago about Advent Conspiracy. With the Season of Advent just around the corner and Christmas only about six weeks away, now is the time to be making those decisions about how to celebrate Christmas differently, in a way that truly honors Jesus' birth. For starters, how about this...?

• Worship fully.
• Spend less.
• Give more.
• Love all.

We've issued a challenge: to celebrate Christmas more simply this year by spending less on Christmas gifts for friends and family -- and then to match that amount, dollar for dollar, with a gift to help provide clean, safe, reliable drinking water to people in a developing country. It looks like we're going to help build a well for a school for orphaned children in Uganda... more about that project coming soon.

In addition, we're talking about ways to be in service right here in Portland in the month of December. It's going to be fun, we promise.

So here's our Christmas pledge:

Believing in the true spirit of Christmas, I commit myself to:

• remember those people who truly need my gifts
• express my love in more direct ways than gifts
• examine my holiday activities in the light of my deepest values
• be a peacemaker within my circle of family and friends
• rededicate myself to my spiritual growth

Join the Advent Conspiracy!

Love is a Good Thing

This week, as part of the Walk to Emmaus, I had an overwhelming experience with love. Without giving too much of the magic away for those of you who may want to do the walk, let's just say that I was hit pretty hard by how much God loves me, and how God shows his love through the people around me. However, even after being surrounded by all of this love, I woke up Monday morning feeling like I had been hit by a bus. My facebook status turned from "Erica is loved", to "Erica is blech." I was a mess, and that fact drove me crazy.

As I was recovering from this experience I had my iTunes on shuffle and heard a song from Andrew Peterson's new album "Resurrection Letter's Volume 2, called "Love is a Good Thing." I wasn't really hearing the songs that were playing until I got to this song, which seemed to portray just what I was feeling. I played several times over and over, as a reminder to myself. I found an interview with Andrew Peterson about this album where he says; "Yes,Love is hard and love stinks, but love is not bad. Love is good, and if it does stink it's only because it's on it's way to making you into something that you needed to become."

It made me realize that sometimes love hits you in a weird way, and sometimes it hurts, but at the end of the day all experiences of love are bringing us closer to who we are meant to be. God uses love as a transforming power in our lives, so that we may never be the same.

You can listen to the song by scrolling to the player and clicking "Love is a Good Thing."

Lyrics:

It knocked me down, it dragged me out, it left me there for dead. It took all the freedom I wanted and gave me something else instead. It blew my mind, it bled me dry, it hit me like a long goodbye, and nobody here knows better than I that it’s a good thing.Love is a good thing.

It’ll fall like rain on your parade, laugh at the plans that you tried to make, it’ll wear you down till your heart just breaks and it’s a good thing. Love is a good thing.

It’ll wake you up in the middle of the night, it’ll take just a little too much. It’ll burn you like a cinder till you’re tender to the touch. It’ll chase you down, swallow you whole, it’ll make your blood run hot and cold. Like a thief in the night it’ll steal your soul, and that’s a good thing. Love is a good thing.

It’ll follow you down to the ruin of your great divide, and open the wounds that you tried to hide. And there in the rubble of the heart that died you’ll find a good thing. Love is a good thing.

Take cover, the end is near. Take cover, but do not fear. It’ll break your will, it’ll change your mind, it’ll loose all the chains of the ties that bind. If you’re lucky you’ll never make it out alive, and that’s a good thing. Love is a good thing.

It can hurt like a blast from a hand grenade when all that used to matter is blown away. There in the middle of the mess it made you’ll find a good thing.Yes, it’s worth every penny of the price you paid. It’s a good thing.

Love is a good thing.
Do not fear.

Meet the Pastors

Allen Ewing-Merrill grew up in Searsport – two hours up the coast from Portland – and graduated from the University of Maine, Orono. After teaching high school English for four years – one at Bangor High School and three at Searsport District High School – he answered the call to ministry, graduating from Boston University School of Theology in 2000. He has served churches in Patten, Maine; Wilmington, MA; and Hudson, MA. Allen's special interests in ministry include preaching, creative worship, leadership and visioning, worship arts, and teaching.

Sara Ewing-Merrill grew up on the prairie in South Dakota, the daughter of two preachers’ kids (her grandfathers are both retired pastors). Sara is a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. She moved to our nation’s capital to pursue seminary studies at Wesley Theological Seminary, from which she graduated with a Masters of Divinity in 2003. She has served churches in Old Orchard Beach & Saco, Maine and Sudbury, MA. Her special interests in ministry include sacred dance, worship arts, and exploring new forms of worship.

Allen & Sara are the parents of Rachel, born in July 2006. They moved to Portland from Hudson, MA in July 2007 to begin their ministry as co-pastors of New Light, and they are so excited to be on this adventure together!