Happy New Year! - Tidings from Thomas

Happy New Year!

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord,

plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. - Jeremiah 29:11

While I was a student at Wofford, the college’s athletic teams made the jump to NCAA Division I.  That year our men’s basketball team was ranked dead last in the preseason poll.  The coach made jokes like, “We can only get better from here” and “No matter what happens, I know we won’t get any worse than we are right now.”  Those early seasons were a struggle, but since then Wofford has been to the NCAA tournament five times and won multiple regular season and conference tournament championships.  The 2018-19 season saw Wofford make its first appearance in the top 25 and the mighty Terriers become Cinderella story of the NCAA Tournament.

This bit of basketball history came to mind as I look back on 2020.  This was a year that started with promise and excitement that collapsed in the throes of a global pandemic.  Before washing our hands of 2020, let us be reminded that God has done good things this year.  Also like 2020, the new year will bring good things in the face of continuing challenges.  The one thing we must not and cannot do is give up or stop trying. 

As a church family, we cannot neglect our God-given mission to follow Jesus by loving God and loving our neighbors.  We can and will continue to make this mission real in our life together. 

As individuals, we must also recognize that God has a calling on our lives.  God has chosen you as his daughter or son and has great things in store for you.  Those things may be hard to see right now, but they are real.  The new year will bring both challenges and blessings, but God is with us no matter what.  We can create space in our lives to help us see those good things God is doing and for God to help us overcome those challenges. 

With this in mind, I have some New Year’s resolutions to recommend.  I read recently that 40% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions.  To put that in perspective, about 33% of Americans watch the Super Bowl.  Even though we keep our New Year’s resolutions with varying degrees of success, chances are a lot of you will be making them.  Even if you are making the usual resolutions relating to waistlines or personal habits, I’d like to suggest four resolutions to add to your list. 

1.     Read your Bible – The Bible is God’s revealed Word to us.  It’s as if God wrote us a letter containing the most important things ever.  We deprive ourselves of those things if we don’t pick up the Bible and read.

2.     Take it easy – It is easy to fill your day with activity.  Try scheduling and keeping time to do something you enjoy, simply for the sake of enjoyment.

3.     Remove the negative – This is a perfect time to remove from your life habits and other things that keep you from being the best you.  

4.     Add the positive – Removing negative elements from your life allows room for new, life-giving hobbies and pastimes.  Don’t be afraid to try something new or challenging.

Regardless of whether you make New Year’s resolutions, a New Year gives us an opportunity for new beginnings.  May God richly bless you in 2021!

Yours in Christ,

Thomas 

The Advent Season

Each year Advent and Christmas role around to bring us some of our most cherished traditions.  As surely as we put up Chrismon trees and light Advent wreaths, we look forward to the special worship opportunities Advent brings.  Even in the continuing challenges of being church in a pandemic, we continue to anticipate and celebrate the good news of Christ’s birth.  Our circumstances are unprecedentedly different, but we continue to celebrate this good news through worship.

This coming Sunday, December 6th, we will have our Service of the Longest Night.  People who are grieving or depressed may feel out of step or left out of the happiness everyone around them seems to be experiencing.  Coming near the longest night of the year, the Service of the Longest Night is an opportunity to bring that grief and pain to God in worship.  The service will be at 5:00 in the Sanctuary.

The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is another of Central’s great Advent traditions.  Since we cannot safely sing as we ordinarily would, we will have a virtual service of Lessons and Carols on December 20th.  Recording the service allows the choir to space out around the sanctuary and safely sing the carols we love to hear.  This service will be broadcast on YouTube and centralmethodist.net at 4:00 on the 20th.

Christmas Eve also brings challenges this year.  Nothing would give me greater joy on Christmas Eve than to hear the good news of Christ’s birth and sing songs of celebration in a packed sanctuary.  We simply cannot do this safely.  Packing the sanctuary risks our becoming ground zero for COVID cases in Florence.  On the other hand, if we were to limit the sanctuary to a safe occupancy level and ask people to sign up in advance for a specific worship time, we would likely need ten Christmas Eve services to accommodate last year’s attendance.  Even then, we run the risk of having to turn people away at the door.  With this in mind, we will have a virtual Christmas Eve service at 4:00.  This service will be replete with the music.  We will also have an outdoor in-person service at the porte chochere at 6:00.  This service will include Holy Communion.

Regardless of what is going on in the world around us, the good news remains the same.  God saw our human brokenness.  God became one of us and became part of our brokenness.  Jesus came to mend our brokenness, to take away our sin, to show us a better way to live on earth, and to ultimately live with him forever.  Advent and Christmas 2020 come with challenges, but this truth remains the same.  To paraphrase Luke 2:11, the Savior is born for you.  The Messiah is born for you.  The Lord of all creation is born for you.  Let us worship him!

Yours in Christ,

Thomas

A Very Special Sunday

This Sunday is a big one for Central. It is Stewardship Sunday. It is a very different Stewardship Sunday than in years past. If you haven’t already made your pledge, you can turn it by driving through the porte cochere between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM on Sunday. Even if you’ve already turned in your pledge, the Stewardship Committee invites you to come by the porte cochere anyway because… WE WILL HAVE FIRST SUNDAY DONUTS! We will celebrate our commitment to support God’s work through Central in this fun and delicious way. So come and join us for a donut!

This Sunday is also All Saints Day. To use words from the United Methodist Book of Worship, on All Saints Day we remember those we love but no longer see. This has been an especially hard year for our brothers and sisters who have lost loved ones to earthly death. COVID-19 has taken from us many of the ways we give and receive care. It has made grief an even more difficult burden to bear. Regardless, All Saints Day comes around each year as an opportunity for us to celebrate the love we still share with our loved ones who are now with God. Despite the unusual times in which we live, we will celebrate All Saints Day in worship. We will still call the names of our brothers and sisters who have passed away since last All Saints Day. We will thank God for their lives and the love we still share. God’s love is so powerful that it transcends the separation between heaven and earth. Whether we are alive on earth or alive with God, God’s love binds us to one another. We are still connected. And that is something to celebrate!

One of the ways we celebrate our continuing connectedness to God and to one another is through the Sacrament of Holy Communion. This Sunday, we will celebrate Communion under the porte cochere at 10:00 AM and 12:15 PM. By observing special precautions, we are able to safely celebrate Communion outdoors. The plan going forward is to resume celebrating Communion the first of each month in this way. This returns Communion to our worshiping life and adds a richness to our celebration of All Saints Day. Communion is our family meal. It is a sign that we are connected to God and connected to our brothers and sisters in Christ, both on earth and in heaven.

This is a big Sunday for Central. Whether you participate by worshiping in person, worshiping online, or driving through for donuts, I hope you’ll make Central a part of your Sunday.

Yours in Christ,

Thomas Smith

World Communion Sunday

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called the Sacrament of Holy Communion a “converting ordinance.”  Through Wesley, we Methodists have inherited the idea that Communion is means of grace, that in Communion God conveys grace to us.  In that way the bread and juice are spiritual food, giving us the grace we cannot earn and do not deserve.  As food fuels our bodies, grace fuels our souls.  Holy Communion is one of the ways God does both of these things.  The tangible bread and juice signify the intangible grace God imparts.

Out of an abundance of caution, Central has not celebrated Communion since March.  All that will end on October 4th.  October 4th is World Communion Sunday, an annual observance on which Christians across the globe traditionally celebrate Communion.  This Sunday we celebrate our essential connectedness to all Christians as the one body of Christ, the church, by celebrating the church’s shared meal.  I cannot think of a better time for Central to return Communion to our worshipping life.

We will have to celebrate Communion a little differently than we normally would to ensure everyone’s health and safety.  We will have two outdoor Communion services under and around the porte cochere following our regular worship services at 10:00 and 12:15. This will allow worshipers from the Well and both sanctuary services to participate.  Rather than the traditional common cup and loaf, we will use pre-packaged bread and juice.  This is not theologically ideal, but it allows us to safely celebrate the sacrament.

I hope you are as excited as I am and I hope to see you Sunday!

Yours in Christ,

Thomas Smith

This Long, Strange Trip - Tidings from Thomas

Dear Friends,

It continues to be a long, strange trip through 2020.  Months ago, I thought fall would see a return to normalcy.  With regard to in-person gatherings, Central’s issue continues to be one of space.  Simply put, our spaces pose a challenge for groups to gather while remaining socially distant.  Our challenge remains in finding ways to balance the need to care for people spiritually in a way that ensures everyone’s health and safety.  With this careful balance in mind, I am pleased to announce we are moving forward with plans to hold more in-person gatherings.

Over the next few days, classes, ministry teams, committees, and staff will be planning for a greater degree of in-person gatherings for children, youth, and adults.  Our biggest challenge remains one of space.  But, we are working on plans for smaller groups to safely move in and out of buildings at staggered times and to meet in socially distant environments.  This will allow us to see one another face-to-face while ensuring a healthy and safe environment.  This presents a logistical challenge, so be on the lookout for communication from your various groups’ leaders about ways to proceed.

As in all things, this path forward must remain grounded in our mission to follow Jesus by loving God and loving our neighbors.  We serve God in uncertain times, but we are nevertheless called to serve.  The words of Romans 8:28 have remained with me throughout these months, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  Please join me in continued prayer for Central, that we follow God’s guidance as we move forward together.

Yours in Christ,

Thomas