Jesus, the light that enlightens all humankind, enlighten and fill us today and always.

Merry Christmas…and God bless.

News From Sanctuary

CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE – 7PM @ TAPROOT…ON THE 24^TH, OF COURSE. BRING ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

Much Love,

Dr. Randy L. Rowland

2854 NW 59th Street

Seattle, WA  98107

USA

206.953.0909

www.sanctuarycrc.org

Welcome to this week’s Edition to weekly words….

NEWS FROM SANCTUARY –

Tonite 12/16 – Special Taproot Theatre “Christmas Past” one act play plus Sanctuary Band Christmas Music and Carols followed by Dessert at the Green Bean --- brought to you by The Green Bean, Taproot Theatre Company and Sanctuary. 7pm. Admission is free.

Monday 12/24 – Candlelight Christmas Eve service 7pm @ Taproot Theatre….we will doing a really meaningful (and cool) ancient candle lighting ritual that is quite different than the typical candlelight service. Please bring family and friends an join us.

Maile and Ozzie are missionaries from Africa living in Greenwood and they are a part of Sanctuary while on “furlow”. They just had a beautiful baby boy and are going to need to stay in Seattle for a good part of the next year. We are looking for rent relief monies, furniture and baby stuff to help them out. Want in? Good. We need you. Contact MarkMohrlang@gmail.com to get on board.  Thanks.

Also, as year-end approaches, we ask that you would prayerfully remember your church, Sanctuary and The Green Bean Coffee House in your giving. We are stretched on resources because we are doing so much. Also pray for God to help us meet our monetary and ministry needs. Thanks.

PRAYERS –

We pray, Lord, for Michael’s family as they mourn his passing from cancer. Comfort and draw them together.

Christ, we ask that you would continue to look after Ozzy and Maile and baby Nicholas as they adjust to a new home in the states and continue medical care for Maile.

Holy Spirit, we rejoice with all the students who have completed their academic terms and we pray for a restful and refreshing winter break.

Father, we do ask that you would provide for the financial needs of Sanctuary and The Green Bean Coffee House during a time when we are stretched thin.

God, we pray that unemployed and underemployed people who really desire to work will find jobs and be able to be self sustaining.

Jesus, we praise you for this Season of your coming to us…and we delight in the fact that you are with us now and always.

Lord, be with all who are or who are preparing to travel this holiday season. We pray safety and comfort.

REFLECTIONS ON “Voicing Advent” from Luke 1:56-79

I knew these folks who were devoted and humble people of God.

I wish we could have been neighbors.

She was a kind, engaging sort. He was a quiet, strong working man with a deep spiritual bent.

They did well in life and were loved by many….deeply involved as leaders in their faith community.

They even suffered pretty well. You see, they couldn’t have children, even though the desperately wanted to. There was pain and dignity in their loss – in their eyes.  Although, I could sort of see a little bit of resentment under the surface on him. But, together, this deep pain deepened their relationship rather than splitting it. You have to admire that.

They were really faithful people. You’d think that they deserved better. They were such practical and steady people. And, they weren’t religious cuckoos who were naming and claiming miracles to fix their problem…they just lived with it…no, in fact….beyond it.

Well, anyway, later in life, they actually thought they were pregnant. He found out about it one day while he was at a church meeting …. And the irony of his situation slipped out of his mouth along with a little of the bitterness…

Okay…well, let me give you a little more detail on this church meeting. The guy, he was a pastor/priest and he was in a holy prayer room burning incense as praise to God and praying when he says….and I totally believe….that an angel…well, more like THE ANGEL…archangel Gabriel, showed up, freaked him out and told him that he and his wife were pregnant. And, as he later told the story, he just couldn’t help but pop off a little…the shock of running into an angel in a prayer room, sort of made him transparent…and as the story goes…

 
¹⁸  Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” ¹⁹ And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. ²⁰ And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

So………..this guy that I really would have like to have known and been neighbors with, who is a practical dude, gets his practical vocal cords put on sabbatical for about 2/3 of a year…

 But, the angel was right. She, Elizabeth, was pregnant and all went as expected.

⁵⁷ Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. ⁵⁸ And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. ⁵⁹ And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, ⁶⁰ but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” ⁶¹ And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” ⁶² And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. ⁶³ And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. ⁶⁴ And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. ⁶⁵ And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, ⁶⁶ and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. ⁶⁷

Zechariah then begins to talk about this child…and more than just a child…but a KINGDOM…AN AGE THAT WAS DAWNING…after 273 days or so of silence … here’s what beautifully bubbles to the surface…

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, ⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people ⁶⁹ and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, ⁷⁰ as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, ⁷¹ that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; ⁷² to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, ⁷³ the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us ⁷⁴ that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. ⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, ⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, ⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high ⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Here’s the distillation of what Zecchariah says in his word from God that comes from the depth of his being. I think it has some Advent inspiration for you and me.

1.    God made us. We belong to him….And, while we experience ourselves and our minds and our emotions…the reality of life is more about GOD than it is about us. We get that message today, when we see our friend get SILENCED to stop self-referencing and take time to GOD-REFERENCE. That’s a huge part of advent: TO MAKE THE COMING OF GOD A BIGGER DEAL THAN THE COMINGS AND GOINGS OF YOU AND ME.

2.    God is Saving us, because we are precious to him. You are worth whatever it takes to move your life forward. You are worth it!  God is not only taking care of you spiritually and in all other ways in your life at HIS EXPENSE…God is also taking care to shape something in you and me that is GOOD FOR THIS WORLD AND FOR ITS SALVATION.

3.    God is calling us to a future to serve him WITHOUT FEAR “all our days” – just like Zechariah, Elizabeth and Baby John.  I believe that this call to the future is in stark contrast to how Western Christians have been shaped and seduced into celebrating this Season on which we are embarking: Cultural Christmas=The Past, Sentiment/Memory, Family of Origin. There are some good things about that. I am not denouncing the past, sentiment, memories or families of origin…but I AM SAYING that an ADVENT encounter with the GOD OF HOPE…THE GOD OF THE FUTURE…THE GOD OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD…Stirs longing and yearnings for what will be that trump the sentiments of WHAT WAS.

Zechariah style ADVENT=The Future of What a Loving God is going to COMPLETE, HOPE and LONGING, New FAMILY (KINGDOM) OF GOD.

I can’t say I know everyone of you here well, but I have met and chatted with most of you. I would be happy to be your neighbor.

I have seen your honest faith and hard work.

I have seen a good life, and a desire to be a part of a faith community that makes a difference.

Some of us here … have suffered much pain with much dignity…and we have managed to keep OUR collective resentments and disappointments below the surface…below a greater desire to persevere and stay connected to God, Others, Life…

Most of us here are pretty practical. We aren’t of a name and claim it faith. We aren’t spiritual “posers” who try to show how we have it all together. We humbly accept what God has for us. But, we don’t necessarily see ourselves as world changers…and we don’t necessarily expect God to jump in and do miracles in and around us…..do we?

We find it easy to shape our lives on our past, our sentiments. We find it easy to “carry on” with today.

But, I need to warn you to be careful – this advent season may go down differently for you and me.

We may get sucked out of the sentimentality of Christmas’s past and sucked into the EVER EXPANDING, FUTURE FOCUSED ADVENT of which Zechariah speaks that is now and is coming in greater portions…

   because of the tender mercy of our God,

 whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high ⁷⁹

He will give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

 to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Please, go out in HOPE and MAKE IT A GREAT WEEK!!!

Much Love,

Dr. Randy L. Rowland

2854 NW 59th Street

Seattle, WA  98107

USA

206.953.0909

www.sanctuarycrc.org

Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekly Words From Randoon …

REFLECTIONS ON – “Advent Week 2”

Today is the second week of the Advent Season. One of the more commonly preached texts on this day is the one we chose at Sanctuary this morning. It is called Mary’s Song. Mary exalts God upon knowing she is with child – with a very special child. In Luke 1:47-55, Mary praises a God who is a Blesser, the one who silences the Opressor, the God who is Nearer than one could possibly imagine.

Mary’s song rings with humility and faith and expectation.

Mary’s Song prompts me to search my own heart and discover the song that I am singing. Am I singing the redemptive work of God through history, or am I going cute and sentimental with reindeer? Am I vocalizing lauds about the Light of the World, or about how nice the seasonal lights on my house look? About the Coming One, or about someone who is coming over to my place during the Holidays?

Now…I am not a total scrooge. I am not saying don’t enjoy family, friends, lights and festivities. But, what I am saying is that the visible cultural Christmas wants me to narrow my song to a diddy about family traditions and Americana.  But, inside beats a heart that longs to sing Mary’s Song.

An option for you and for me. Crack a Bible and leave it open to Luke 1:47-55 and read this beautiful piece of soul music from Mary’s very heart…and from the heart of God….over and over and over again….until it sticks.

It’s a great season we are a part of. ADVENT is gloriously full of hope, longing, expectation and warmth. Let’s bask in the real thing together!

NEWS FROM SANCTUARY –

Attendance: 90  Kids: 5  Offering: $3,000

Friday 12/14 @ St. Mark’s Cathedral 8-9pm URBAN HYMNAL featuring Mark Mohrlang and friends in a fantastic Advent worship event. Please join us for THE LONGEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR.

NEXT SUNDAY – 12/16 @ 7pm we host a very special ADVENT SPECIAL – Taproot Theatre Company’s “Christmas Past” plus music from Sanctuary’s band and some Christmas Readings. Tasty desserts also served.  BRING ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS…!!!

Monday 12/24 @ 7pm – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at Taproot Theatre. This will be a beautiful night of praise and meditation. Don’t miss it!

ALERT: We have a young missionary family setting up house in Seattle for the next year or so. They need some furnishings, food, baby supplies, etc. Want to help out? Get in touch with Mark Mohrlang mark.mohrlang@gmail.com

PRAYERS –

Lord, we pray for continued healing for Kathryn after her emergency appendicitis. Ease her pain and make her ready to care for her infant child.

God, we thank you for family and friend.

Jesus, we pray your blessing on Maile and Ozzie now that they have brought baby Nicholas into the world.

Holy Spirit, keep those who are lonely, hungry, homeless and otherwise on the margins safe and open our hearts to reach out and assist as we are able.

Father, give grace and attentiveness to students as they head into finals week and grant safe travel home for the holidays as well.

Now, my dear friends, GO OUT AND MAKE IT A GREAT WEEK!

Much love,

Dr. Randy L. Rowland

2854 NW 59th Street

Seattle, WA  98107

USA

206.953.0909

www.sanctuarycrc.org

Welcome to this week’s Edition!

NOTE FROM RANDY –

Thank you for your kindness in prayers and your soothing words, and your patience with me as I have recovered from abdominal surgery these last two weeks. I am one tender/sore fellow, but feeling better all the time and please with the repairs done to me. Doctors say I am fully on track. No more pain medications, so I am thinking clearly, etc.

Sorry for the weeks without the Weekly Words, but I was a bit immobilized. So, now I am back in business and happy to be in touch.

NEWS FROM SANCTUARY –

Attendance: 90  Kids: 4 Offering: $4,800

Coming Up!

1.    Our giving tree for youth at risk is now set up at services. Please give to a very worthy cause.

2.    SPECIAL Christmas dessert/music/Drama, brought to you by Sanctuary and Taproot Theatre. Sunday Night 12/16 7pm at Taproot. A live play, Christmas Carols and Special Music, plus goodies to munch at the Green Bean.

3.    Christmas Eve: 7pm Candlelight Service at Taproot. It will be a warm and moving family event. Bring all your friends and family.

4.    Featured Speakers for Advent: Ben Katt 12/9, Randy Rowland 12/16, Mark Mohrlang 12/23, Randy Rowland 12/24 and Ben Katt 12/30.

5.    WINTER PREACHING SERIES: “Mark My Word” – Jesus ‘for us’ through the Gospel of Mark

6.    THE GREEN BEAN is going through some exciting changes and we NEED YOU to help us broaden our outreach to Greenwood and beyond. Contact Lisa Etter, Hayden Smith, Steve Geelhood or Randy Rowland for more information.

7.    Don’t forget to Check out Sanctuarycrc.org on the WEB regularly for updates on things in our worshipping community!

REFLECTIONS – on “Let It Be” Luke 1:26-38

Well, here we are in the beginning of Advent Season, and it seems the thing to do is tell a story. Not my story….or just a story. BUT…THE STORY. But First, just a bit about the flow of Advent and Advent Worship…Week #1, this week, is often referred to as SECOND COMING SUNDAY. The first candle lit in the season and the first meditation around the Christmas story is meant to hearken us toward the ultimate reconciliation and consummation of all Things at the FINAL DAY OF THE LORD. From Early on, the church’s prophetic and pastoral voices have found it hard to depart from a message that says JESUS HAS COME<JESUS IS HERE<JESUS IS COMING. SADDLE UP!!

Even in today’s story of Mary and what we call the “Annunciation” when she is told that she will give birth to the God-Man, Jesus, the story reverberates with that ETERNAL PULSE that pulls this narrative out of hallmark card stands and forces it into the warp and woof of our everyday lives. Receive the Word of the Lord here from Luke 1:26-38 (ESV)

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

It takes a little imagination to put this into your own mind-space, but give it a try. One of the Archangels, Gabriel, known for his trumpet and his announcements on behalf of God shows up for a One-on-One with a girl of 14 or 15 years old at most.

Far from the bustle of Jerusalem and the hot spots of the culture….Nazareth is a fishing village out in the sticks on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  To put it in the context, an Archangel went past Seattle’s fleet and popped in on a young lady named Mary who lived in Raymond or Westport in the Gray’s Harbor area. And, here she is with the Miles Davis of all Heaven.

All we really know about Mary is that she is engaged to a man named Joseph, whose trade is carpentry, not a trade in step with his town…and he is a distant relative of Israel’s ancient hero-king, DAVID.

Gabriel has had some time to think about this and he’s a decent word-smith, so he finds Mary and greets here with a mid-intensity, angelic, heralding-type message: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Now if this were me, I’d be wondering, who are you shiny-haired, fiery-eyed dude? And, while you are at it, why are you here? And, couldn’t you have hipped me to this visit a little ahead of time. c’mon. Mary clearly starts coming apart at the seams here…

²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Now, I have always believed that God is my biggest fan, that God is in the balcony cheering for me; that God has great things for my life --- well beyond what I could think or imagine. But, man alive this would be reassure. “Don’t be Afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.”

I would want to know that God and I were okay.

This passage haunts me often, because even though I know that God is crazy about me and loves me more than I can possible fathom…my human brokenness still is always looking for the fine print that says I am a loser….for the clause that will obligate me to a life of misery and restitution as one of the boat loaders at Disney’s “It’s a Small World” Ride --- my idea of perfect divine punishment.

But, Mary who must consider this one day and THE GREAT DAY OF THE LORD that is coming all at once, needed just like you and me to hear “You have found favor with God”

Where are you getting away quietly to hear God say this to you, to prepare you for your real marching orders in life?

Who are the Angels, the messengers around you, that constantly remind you of your status before God and help keep you open to hearing the whole story every time God wants to speak to you?

I have a friend who was a fabulous Tight End in the NFL. His name is Charle Young. This now retired star out of USC, finished his career with the Seattle Seahawks and still lives in Seattle. He also lives into the Gospel very intentionally. He has learned from Gabriel and Mary. Go up to Charle and say, “Hi, Charle! How’s it going?” and he will immediately announce, “I am blessed and highly favored.” And, he lives it means just that.

Do you feel like you are ordering your life to hear news of God’s good favor toward you and news, even startling news, about his plan to utilize you in his redeeming acts in this world?

Because, fact is, life comes at us HARD with the Good Stuff and the Bad Stuff. LIFE COMES HARD AND FAST LIKE SEHAHAWKS STAR, DARRYL TAPP, ON A BULL RUSH FROM DEFENSIVE END ON AN OPPPOSING QUARTERBACK.

Now, listen  to what this little girl, barely through puberty, gets to hear from God Almighty --- and it’s good, because something good is taking place inside of her that makes her ABLE TO RECEIVE RADICAL GRACE AND RADICAL OPPORTUNITY AND RADICAL OBLIGATION IN WAYS THAT WE SOMETIMES FAIL TO BE ABLE TO SEIZE … Gabriel  continues speaking….

 ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Have you ever been in an intense conversation with someone and said, “let’s just get down to the bottom line?”….and regretted it?  The bottom line on this one is a monster. This little girl is going to bear in her physical body an ovum that has been impregnated by a Divine Seed, not the normal male contribution to a pregnancy.

This really tosses May off center. She is probably been creating a best case scenario that she is going to wed Joseph, have a honey moon pregnancy and give to birth to a  real special ‘prophet-type’ kid who could lead a nation or something like that.

Most of us by the time we reach puberty are aware of our plumbing and systems and how that they work and what they do….and though, she is not a well travelled or well educated girl, what she is hearing just doesn’t fit. So, she at least has the courage to have a clarifying conversation with an archangel. I find that gutsy!

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

Mary receiver personal divine revelation that she and her cousin Elizabeth are having very special babies in very special ways that they don’t even dream of  at the renowned University of Washington Fertility and Endocrine Center located at 1959 NE Pacific St ...

This is all way, way off the charts….and Mary is somehow on board.

I want to study and work on this “on board” character of Mary, because I think it is important for you and me.

Something glorious is taking place here. The word for glory in the Hebrew Old Testament is KABOD. It means HEAVY.

What Mary is encountering is so heavy as to crush her to powder. How does she stand?  I remember back in the late 70’s when I was pretty heavy, I once sat on a lawn chair…and my KABOD…the glory I bestowed on the chair, SIMPLY CAUSED IT TO COLLAPSE. There I was flat on my butt, by a swimming pool. Here’s Mary standing humble yet tall in the presence of an archangel. God help me….!!

But, Mary hears words from Gabriel that not only console her and make her feel better…they infuse her WILL to be GOD’s PERSON AT THAT MOMENT NO MATTER WHAT …

³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Concerned   about retirement? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Got Diabetes? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Marriage coming apart? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Job Going Bye-bye? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Having panic-anxiety attacks that make you think you are dying while driving the I-90 bridge? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Unable to get pregnant? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Pregnant and don’t want to be? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Have personality flaws that alienate you from others, but you can’t seem to beat them? ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.”

And….as this first little meditation for Advent 2007 that is as small as 12 verses and is as HUGE as the RECONCILIATION OF ALL CREATION IN JESUS CHRIST comes to a close Mary emits words I long to have form naturally in my throat…

³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; LET IT BE to me according to your word.”

And the angel departed from her.

 Back in 1970, a man who had had absolutely everything: Wealth, Fame, Adoration, Success beyond all imagination – found himself at the end of his rope. He was having deep trouble coping. His beloved mother, Mary, had died. His business was falling apart. Friends he had known and lived close to since his teenage years had become his enemies and each other’s enemies. The public spotlight was way ridiculously to hot to stand in. All was falling apart. And, he was valiantly trying to keep it all together with extreme efforts of the will.

As Paul McCartney sat at the keyboard in a studio where the strife surrounding the Beatles actually had them coming into Apple Records and Abbey Road Studios separately to record tracks for their final two albums, Paul remembered the words of his Mother, Mary McCartney. She had taught him, perhaps even from this passage in Luke, to move from a willfulness to a willingness to “LET IT BE”.

Listen for that willingness in the song Paul McCartney wrote many years ago thinking about his mother, Mary McCartney…and her advice to him … and see if you can appropriate at little of that “willingness” to be “on board” with a greater agenda than your own … just like the Mary we have been tracking today, as she heard the annunciation from Gabriel that she was to bear the God-Man.

When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

And in my hour of darkness

She is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

And when the broken hearted people

Living in the world agree,

There will be an answer, let it be.

For though they may be parted there is

Still a chance that they will see

There will be an answer, let it be.

Let it be, let it be. Yeah

There will be an answer, let it be.

And when the night is cloudy,

There is still a light that shines on me,

Shine on until tomorrow, let it be.

I wake up to the sound of music

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Let it be, let it be.

There will be an answer, let it be.

Let it be, let it be,

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Amen.

Dr. Randy L. Rowland

2854 NW 59th Street

Seattle, WA  98107

USA

206.953.0909

www.sanctuarycrc.org