The

Messenger

The Newsletter of the Saugerties United Methodist Church

Church Office # 845-246-7802                                                              Dr. Buddle’s Cell Phone # 1-845-706-0418

“To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Luke 2:11

“The Christmas Presence”

            As we begin the month of December our thoughts are on Christmas Day and the events of that day and all that is necessary to get ready for that important day. So preparation is a big part of our Christmas observances and celebrations. The season of Advent, in the Christian year, is the time that helps us to prepare for the Christian’s observance of Christmas. In the hymnal (page 207) there is a round which is a Taize Community pieze which reads “Prepare the way of the Lord. Prepare the way of the Lord, and all people will see the salvation of our God.” So preparation is needed in order for the Christian Community to be ready for the Christmas Presence which is the Presence of God Almighty in the form of the baby Jesus.

            We all know that “Christmas Presents” are an important part of our big day. We exchange gifts to loved ones and friends on this day set aside by the Church for the observance of the birth of the Child that came to be the Savior of the world.

            In the hymn “Away in a Manger” verse three we read “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray; bless all the dear children in thy tender care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

            Having Jesus present with us is what Christmas is all about. It gives us the “power” to live life through all the seasons and all the cycles of life.

            The depressing things that happen in the world, the violence, the inhumanity of people casts a dark pall over the season of “Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All.” It causes us to feel sad and cynical as to there being goodness in the world. But the good news is that “The Christmas Presence” of God in the baby Jesus visits our planet with all of its problems, with all of its short-comings to bring salvation, new hope and a time to sing the old carols of the season. God came into a world of sin back at that first Christmas and he still comes asking that His presence might enter into lives.

            Have a good Christmas event.                

                                                                                                                        Duane D. Buddle

Sermon Snapshots

Dec. 10^th - “Pass It On” Matthew 5: 13-20

“You are the light of the world.” We have heard this Scripture verse so often we may become immune to what Jesus was trying to convey with these words. He seems to be saying to us that we are to carry His substance, radiance and witness. He is calling us to be his channels to convey His light to the world. There is an awesome responsibility to be a channel for God’s light. But as we grow in Christ our witness happens naturally. Today we will look at what it means to be a light/channel for Christ.

Dec. 17^th - “Living In Spite House”

                   Matthew 18: 21-35

I wonder how many people live in spite house? Unhappy marriages probably produce the largest number of houses of spite. Divorce doesn’t help, it just continues the spite. Simon Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times? That is certainly a relevant question. Do I keep submitting myself to someone else’s abuse in order to maintain a relationship? For how long? But the real question this morning is really WHY is it necessary to forgive? It is necessary for us to forgive:

 FIRST- for the peace of our own soul.

 SECOND- BECAUSE THE PAST IS THE PAST.

 THIRD- We forgive because we have been forgiven.

If you are living in spite house, for one reason or another, it is much nicer in the fresh air of forgiveness.

Why don’t you ask God to help you let go of those feelings of anger and resentment today?

Dec. 24^th - 10:45 a.m.- “Life in a Changing World” John 1: 6-8, 19-28

For the past years in church circles I kept hearing about a paradigm shift? A paradigm is a way of looking at reality, a paradigm shift is when we view reality from a drastically different viewpoint. When that viewpoint changes, then everything looks different. John the Baptist was a prophet with a powerful message of social justice. People confused John with being the promised Messiah. His message of judgment and repentance resonated with people anxious for relief. But John knew he was not the Messiah, but a forerunner of the Messiah.

Jesus’ entry into history is without a doubt the paradigm shift of all time. Jesus was different from everything that people expected the Messiah to be. During Advent, each year, we move toward a climax in the birth of Christ finding that He is the fulfillment of life. God moves toward us in love to restore our broken lives. This Christmas eve morning– what are we committed to in our understanding of the Messiah? Jesus is the light of the world and He shows us what God will do in our world.

Dec. 24^th - 7:00 p.m.- “Joy To The World”

                  Luke 2: 1-14

Dec. 24^th - 10:00 p.m.- “Shepherds of the World Arise” Luke 2: 1-20

No part of the Christmas story is more widely read and known that this story of the shepherds. It brings back instant memories. Perhaps you were once a shepherd in a Christmas pageant. The shepherds, in the story, are quickly forgotten. They were ordinary people doing their everyday work and Christ comes to them right where they lived and worked. In that sense we see that the shepherds are really our own representatives. It was the common people, of the day of Jesus, who heard him gladly. Faith is born in ordinary situations. We must not make the mistake of looking for Christ in the extra ordinary areas of life. Secondly, when we do arise and go to Bethlehem we are likely to be perplexed and puzzled by what we actually find. God still comes in Christ in very ordinary forms. Thirdly, if we see the Word coming to us in ordinary forms, we will find life changed. In the shepherds we see life with a new measure of praise, and so it may be for us.

Shepherds of the world, Arise! Open your eyes to the heavens opening before you, and listen with the ears of faith to the message the angels bring. If we do Arise...we have nothing to loose but lives of drabness and defeat.

Dec. 31^st - “When Someone Else Gets The Honors” Matthew 20: 1-16

The basic human emotions we know are anger, hatred and resentment, but today we turn our attention to envy. As someone has said “after a person makes his/her mark in the world, a lot of people begin showing up with erasers.” We see envy in the Bible in Abel and Cain, we see it in the scripture lesson today in the view of what is fair and what is not fair for the laborers. There is the envy of the prodigal son’s brother and on and on. LIFE ISN’T FAIR. Why is it that it bothers us when someone has something we don’t have or is honored in a special way that annoys us because we were not? 

We need to begin by noting that envy always springs from a feeling of insecurity about our own self-worth.

We find that our efforts to bolster our self-esteem at the expense of the one we envy does more harm to us than it does to them.

Jesus, from His Cross says that “you are worth all the world to me, you are not a failure, you are not a loser, you are a child of the living God.

Our Deepest Sympathy to...

✞Wendy Backus on the death of her mother, Jane Perks who died at the age of 88 in TenBroeck Commons Nursing facility on November 10^th.

✞Thomas Schupp on the death of his grandmother, Eileen Schupp at the age of 87 on November 5^th in Kingston, NY.

✞Dave Jones on the death of his brother, Rev. Carl Burton-Jones at the age of 90 on November 15^th in Portland, Oregon.

✞Joe Arter & family on the death of his grandmother in Ohio the end of November.

Sunday School News

The Christmas program is scheduled for Sunday, December 17, during the regular Sunday morning service. The students will be practicing during Sunday School on December 3, 10 and 17. As a part of the Christmas program we will be collecting gifts for the Indian children who live on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. We ask the students to bring small gifts of school supplies, winter clothing - such as gloves or hats, books or small toys. These gifts should be wrapped in white tissue paper because we refer to the gifts during the program as white gifts. Money for postage is also appreciated. Coffee hour will follow the service and donations of cookies and punch would be appreciated. If we need to cancel the program because of snow, it will be rescheduled for January. There will be no Sunday School on December 24 or December 31.

We would like to thank everyone who brought in a shoe box for the Christmas Child project. This project helps brighten the lives of children around the world.

 

The Stewardship Campaign

During the current campaign we have asked you to imagine what you would wish for our church. I know that I imagine a church filled with families worshiping God together; a Sunday School filled with children learning about Jesus; a community centered on Christ that supports one another in the struggles of daily living. I think we have a good start on all of these things.

As your Finance chair, my other goals for our church are that we take care of our building, properly pay our staff, buy supplies for our programs, and even make improvements in our worship area. As of November 19, we have received over $75,000 in pledges; our goal is $116,000. The committee would like to thank everyone who has already pledged and ask those who haven’t pledged as yet to prayerfully consider it. The majority of our budget is based on the money we receive through those who pledge.

                                                Joan Robinson

A Big Thank You!

We express our deep appreciation to Joseph Arter who completes his term as Church treasurer and to Mildred Rosenberger who completes her term as financial secretary of our church. We also thank Wendy Falzano for being Treasurer for Mother Goose and Joan Robinson for being chair of the Finance Committee. They both complete their terms this year. Tom and Karen Reynolds also complete their terms as Coffee Hour coordinators. Each of these people have used their gifts for the cause of Christ through our congregation and for that we say “THANK YOU!”

Advent Walk

The date this year for the Advent Walk for the Council of Churches is December 6^th, 2006 starting at 6:00 p.m. Please save this date now. The service is begun at Atonement Lutheran and then moves through the Congregational, Reformed, United Methodist and St. Mary of the Snow Roman Catholic Churches. All are invited and encouraged to attend. Refreshments take place following the last service.

We welcome Christine Mason into our church fellowship on letter of transfer October 29^th, 2006, from the Hurley Reformed Church. She is a resident at the Mill in Saugerties.

10 - Faye Cartmell

16 - Doug Byrne

16 - Brenna Schupp

16 - Ann Mittag

20 - Isabel Arter

20 - Ava Machione

22 - Sarah Kopycinski

23 - Diane McDowell