If you’re watching online from home; or if you’re attending in person, but prefer your phone to paper, you can just click the link below.
Link: https://bit.ly/3WTVjZp
Anonymous Letters
This morning in the mail we received an envelope addressed to College Avenue United Methodist Church but without a return address. It was also unsigned. So we’re ignoring it. I want to make sure everyone knows that’s the policy.
Upper Room Daily Devotionals Online
We’ve run out of The Upper Room daily devotional booklets. If you didn’t manage to snag one, you can still read them online here: https://bit.ly/3jDxnv5.
All you need to do is click the link in the words “Click here” of the header “ Looking for today’s Daily Devotional? Click here to read it.”
Riley County Resource List
Our very own intrepid Anna Kozak has created a list of resources for those in need in Riley County. Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3vpjnHP
2022 Christmas Offering Results
The College Avenue UMC Christmas Offering this year (2022) went to the Flint Hills Breadbasket, a non-profit food pantry. Together, we raised $1052.04 to help further their cause. Please see their mission statement below.
Flint Hills Breadbasket – Our dream is that there is no one in need among us. Our mission is to provide reliable access to healthy food, build connections with community partners, and empower neighbors to meet their basic needs.
You can learn more about them at: https://www.flinthillsbreadbasket.org/
Christmas Eve Worship — December 24, 2022
Here’s the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/Sk2l65MwFqg
The bulletin is here: bit.ly/3jn6oUn
Looking for a previous service? Here’s the College Avenue United Methodist Church YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/caumcMHK
The Really Scary Thing About The Incarnation
N. T. Wright gets straight to the scary and stupendous part of the incarnation:
This is the really scary thing . . . not that Jesus might be identified with a remote, lofty, imaginary being . . . but that God, the real God, the one true God, might actually look like Jesus. . . . a shrewd Palestinian Jewish villager who drank wine with his friends, agonized over the plight of his people, taught in strange stories and pungent aphorisms, and was executed by the occupying forces. What does that do to Christian belief? The Christian doctrine is all about a different sort of God — a God who was so different to normal expectations that he could, completely appropriately, become human in, and as, the man Jesus of Nazareth. To say that Jesus is in some sense God is of course to make a startling statement about Jesus. It is also to make a stupendous claim about God. [1]
[1] N. T. Wright, Who Was Jesus? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1992), 68.
Christmas Eve Bulletin
As with our regular Sunday morning service, tonight’s 7:30 Christmas Eve service is in person, but it will also be available online. We’ve made the Christmas Eve bulletin available for those of you watching from home.
Bulletin Link: bit.ly/3jn6oUn
Streaming Link: bit.ly/3vcil1Y
The Meaning of Salvation
While reading for the sermon I found this quote from Justo Gonzalez about what it means to proclaim that Jesus is savior:
“The meaning of the word “salvation,” both in the New Testament and in the common usage of the time, is much fuller than we often imagine. Salvation means healing, liberation, freedom from the bondage of sin, promise of eternal life, and several nuances of each of these themes. Thus to say that Jesus is “Savior” means that he frees the people from all evil, including sin, eternal death, disease, oppression, and exploitation. If we do not see all of this as yet, it is because the work of Jesus has not been completed —the reign of God has not yet come to its full fruition.” [1]
[1] Justo L. González, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 36.
Friday Office Hours
The College Avenue offices will be closed tomorrow morning (Friday, December 23, 2022), but we will be open from 1:00 until 4:00 in the afternoon. Please plan accordingly.
- Our Christmas Eve Service will be on Saturday, December 24, at 7:30 p.m.
- Our Christmas Day Service will be on Sunday, December 25, at 10:30 a.m. There will be no Sunday School.
Please remember that there will be no childcare for either service, but the service will be available via Closed Circuit TV in the comfort room just north of the Sanctuary.
This Week’s Newsletter
Here’s the Link for this week’s Newsletter (December 25, 2022):
Additions to the Nativity Scene
The beautiful outdoor Nativity has three new pieces that were added this year in memory of Ramona Woodhouse. The standing Wiseman, the oxen, and the camel were purchased using funds from the Woodhouse Memorial Account. Ramona loved Christmas and was instrumental in starting many of the decorating traditions here at College Avenue that are still in use today. She worked closely with Mildred Odom Bradley to design and coordinate the decorations for the very first Service of Decoration. The Chrismons used on our tree were all made by Ramona and other volunteers. We are pleased to be able to add these new figures to the Nativity in her honor.