December 6th, 2024 | Rev. Rachel Williams

Beloved Friends,  

I hope you were able to catch Pastor Charlie’s message this past Sunday as he discussed an audacious hope founded in our faith in Christ. Even as we go through disappointing and heartbreaking experiences where we feel our dreams are dashed, God invites us to lean into a hope that extends far beyond our lifetime through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You have heard that invitation in one way or another every Sunday when you attend worship or throughout the week as you participate in one of the many ways we share God’s love with others in the community. Now I have a request for you - make this a season of invitation for those around you.

We have a number of events happening here at Memorial in the next few weeks. I encourage you to invite everyone- your family, your friends, your neighbors, even the people you chat up in the grocery store line- to visit our church this season. Provide them with a friendly face to sit next to during the Cantata this Sunday at 8AM or 11AM. Offer them a way to ease back into the church world through the Alternative Christmas Fair on Sunday at 9:30AM.

Bring your people with children to our children’s Christmas nativity at 3:30PM on Christmas Eve (the bonus is you will be out in time for dinner!) or light the candle of someone you know is desperately needing to hear that Christ’s birth breaks into a darkened world to bring hope, peace, joy, and love.

In whatever way you worship with us this season, I hope you will let others know that this is a place where they are welcome and can worship as well. I cannot wait to see everyone who comes through these doors and into our digital spaces in the next few weeks! 

With Love and Peace,  

Pastor Rachel  

November 29, 2024 | Rev. Rachel William

Dear Friends,  

I hope that your Thanksgiving was restful and filled with good things to eat and drink. In my house, the day after Thanksgiving marks the time when we go into total decoration mode. The tree gets pulled from the attic. The ornaments are unboxed and placed one by one on the carefully fluffed branches. In all honesty, most of that was already done earlier than normal, but today is when we do the final transition from fall decorations into a Christmas wonderland.  

Just as we greened the church last week and decorated the house, now we transition from one church year into another with the start of Advent on Sunday. Perhaps you have your own traditions during Advent to mark this time when we prepare for the coming Christ child.

One way I hope you will join us this Advent season is through our church-wide study. This year, we’ll be discussing Rachel Billup’s An Unlikely Advent where we look at characters from the nativity stories that do not often get the same in-depth attention as Mary, Joseph or the infant Jesus. I find that these studies are an enriching way for the whole congregation to participate in this time of anticipation.  

Join the pastors Wednesday at 6 through Facebook Live. We will start by discussing Elizabeth and Zechariah and the ways in which their dreams were made reality through an unexpected encounter. Should you need a book you can pick up one in the Partin Center on Sunday or order one from your favorite bookseller. We hope to see you online!  

Wishing you a hope-filled Advent,  

Pastor Rachel  

November 22nd, 2024 | Rev. Dr. Mark Charles & Bishop Tom Berlin

As we move toward the Thanksgiving holiday, I was preparing some thoughts around what I would write to you all today. Then, last night, our Bishop sent his own Thanksgiving message to the Florida Conference. It is so good that it is worth sharing here with you all.

Even in turbulent times, we have much to give thanks for. As you gather with your people this week, may deep gratitude be your experience, and may it be a blessing to you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Pastor Charlie

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Dear Friends,

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, a time with family and friends, often with food we enjoy and time to create a celebration where we can take stock of what is good in life. I like Thanksgiving because it offers the opportunity for moments of personal worship to God, when I give thanks.

For decades our extended family gathered at the Outer Banks of North Carolina the week of Thanksgiving. We rented a large beach house where our families could all stay together. We had time to fish on the beach, play games, take walks and reconnect. Often on Thanksgiving Day I would stand on the beach and look up at the glass windows of the house. I could see the swirl of activity created by three generations. It always made me joyful, and deeply grateful. In that moment, I would offer a prayer of Thanksgiving, and if the beach was empty, sing one of the thanksgiving hymns that I carry in my heart. 

For many in Florida such an idyllic scene is not possible. Hurricanes have destroyed homes and disrupted neighborhoods, not just in our state but throughout the southeast. It is hard to ignore headlines of that remind us of wars in different parts of the globe, conflicts unresolved, injustices that the innocent endure and concerns for the future. How do we give thanks in such a season? 

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul tells a church facing persecution to "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus". I find an example of this practice in one of my favorite thanksgiving hymns, Now Thank We All our God. It begin:, 

Now thank we all our God,

with heart and hands and voices,

who wondrous things has done,

in whom this world rejoices;

who from our mothers’ arms

has blessed us on our way

with countless gifts of love,

and still is ours today.

It is a beautiful hymn written by Martin Rinckart (1586-1649), who endured the Thirty Years’ War and the plague, which took the lives of many at that time. Alissa Davis writes that as a musician and archdeacon in the city of Eilenburg, Germany, Rinckart was one of the last surviving ministers in the city. He spent his money in the care of refugees of the war and at the height of the plague, spent his time performing nearly 50 funerals a day.

  Rinkart and the church he served were living through an era known for a deadly pandemic, warfare that often took the lives and property of civilians, shortages of food that could lead to starvation, rulers that were far more focused on personal power than the welfare of their citizens, and the deprivations of life normative to the 16th century. In the midst of all this suffering, Rinckart’s understanding of the Christian life motivates him to teach his congregation to sing, 

O may this bounteous God

through all our life be near us,

with ever joyful hearts

and blessed peace to cheer us;

and keep us still in grace,

and guide us when perplexed;

and free us from all ills,

in this world and the next.

 Rinkart reminds us that not only can we give thanks at all times and in all circumstances, but it is also important, even essential, for us to do so. Our thanksgiving, rather personal or in the context of congregational worship, enables us to see the presence of God around us. It enables us to experience grace when we most need it, along with guidance from God when we are most confused. Thanksgiving frees us from our problems by reminding us that, with God’s help and the love of those around us, we will prevail. 

Last Sunday I met a woman whose home had been destroyed by Hurricane Milton. She has been living with various friends in the time since while filing insurance claims and arranging for the repair of her home. I asked her how she was holding up in such a difficult time. She said she gave thanks for her friends, for people who helped her clean up her house and for the presence of God in her life. She was practicing thanksgiving. Then she took her seat in the choir and began to sing songs of praise to the God who sustained her. 

Our annual conference theme this year is Come, Holy Spirit Come. I believe we uniquely experience the guidance and comfort of the Holy Spirit when we give thanks for the beauty and goodness that is present, especially in seasons that are full of hardship.

I wish you a happy thanksgiving, and hope that no matter what we are experiencing at this time, in Christ, we will have ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us.

In Christ,

Bishop Tom Berlin