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Doug Brendel – Storytelling: Sun, Dec 19 @ 4pm

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Calendar, Home, Outreach

Author, minister and humanitarian Doug Brendel comes to Jackson to tell original Christmas stories!

Any donations offered will support the work of his family’s nonprofit New Thing (https://www.newthing.net/), which assists individuals and households in Belarus, formerly part of the USSR, and also be put to work locally through Way Station (waystationnh.org), which serves Mt Washington Valley’s homeless and housing-insecure population.

Daily Advent Devotional: WEEK of LOVE

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , ,

When we love another heart

And allow it to love us,

We journey deep below time

Into that eternal weave
Where nothing unravels …

  • John O’Donohue (excerpt)

Daily Advent Devotional: WEEK of LOVE: Day 22- Sun, Dec 19

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
— John 13:34

In the same way, let your light shine before others.
— Matthew 5:16

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Love glows bright as the focus of this week’s reflections. As you light four candles, prepare to welcome holy love into your home and life.
            Can you imagine a love more determined than the one that chooses to show up in our messy and imperfect world? To be born human?
            It takes a stubborn love to move toward us, because we cannot ever quite reach that love itself. That is what our holy stories translate to us. Love chooses to be with us and among us in this season. And every day.
The holy love narrated in our scriptures points toward agape. Agape is a love greater than ourselves. It is different than erotic or passionate love, larger and deeper than love for friends or family.
            Agape gives of itself. And part of that giving begins with movement. Holy love has turned to us and returned to us, chosen us over and over, meeting us where we are, coming to this world and time in which we live. Love shines out as the final light of Advent: until the arrival of the Christ light.  — Rev Gail

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When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.  ― Fred Rogers

When you possess light within, you see it externally. – Anais Nin

Meditations on love for the fourth Sunday of Advent

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!— Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Love is the bridge between you and everything. ~ Rumi

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return. – Natalie Cole

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. – C.S. Lewis

SONGS about LOVE:

PRAYER
Be for them, Lord, a defense in emergency, a harbor in shipwreck, a refuge in the journey, shade in the heat, light in the darkness, as staff on the slippery slope, joy amidst suffering, consolation in sadness, safety in adversity, caution in prosperity, so that these your servants, under your leadership, may arrive unharmed … — Christian prayer from a liturgy for those setting off on pilgrimage, — The Missal of Vich, A.D. 1038

BLESSING — Kundalini Yoga farewell blessing  
May the long time sun
Shine upon you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on.

FIVE PRECEPTS (Reiki principles)

  1. Just for today, I will not be angry.
  2. Just for today, I will not worry.
  3. Just for today, I will be grateful.
  4. Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
  5. Just for today, I will be kind to every living thing.

INVITATION— Mary Oliver

Oh do you have time
to linger for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air
as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine
and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.

COMMENTARY ABOUT LOVE

Where there is love there is life. – Mahatma Gandhi

The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. – Dalai Lama

Love is more than a noun – it is a verb; it is more than a feeling – it is caring, sharing, helping, sacrificing. – William Arthur Ward

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ~ Rumi

… But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it! ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Nothing God ever does, or ever did, or ever will do, is separate from the love of God. — A.W.Tozer

… the action and behavior produced by love is distinctly countercultural. … In a society where so much is presented in terms of “self”—self-awareness, self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-image, self-realization—to present a way of existence in which a person lives for the other in a life of loving self-sacrifice will be highly provocative. Following the one who gave his life as a sacrifice for us will be humbling and undoubtedly costly in terms of human recognition and progress in life as secular society defines it.— zondervanacademic.com

DANCE— Wendell Berry
… And I love you
as I love the dance that brings you
out of the multitude
in which you come and go.
Love changes, and in change is true.

I Did Think,
Let’s Go About This Slowly
— Mary Oliver
I did think, let’s go about this slowly.
This is important. This should take
some really deep thought.
We should take
small thoughtful steps.
But, bless us, we didn’t.

OF LOVE

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.  – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In the end we discover that to love and let go can be the same thing.— Jack Kornfield

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. – Rumi


You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like there’s nobody listening, And live like it’s heaven on earth. – William W. Purkey


Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. – Martin Luther King Jr.


Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.  – Washington Irving


Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third. – Marge Piercy

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. – Zora Neale Hurston

The chance to love and be loved exists no matter where you are. – Oprah Winfrey

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. – Charles Dickens, Dr. Marigold

Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of JOY: Day 21-Sat, Dec 18

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , ,

Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. — Psalm 47:1

… when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. — Micah 7:8

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On this final day of lighting three candles, culminating in joy, each light flickers at its own height, since each candle has burned at longer or shorter intervals. Together, they weave a net of radiance that spans the distances and gaps between them.

            Kindness and compassion, offered as you are able to share them with others, serve as external expressions of gratitude and mindfulness. Kindness recognizes opportunities to say or do something that acknowledges and thanks another person for their presence and their service in the world. It honors people’s humanity.

            When you give out positive energy in ways that create an impact or affect change, you cultivate joy. Your acts of kindness may occur within day-to-day encounters at work, play, service, or study. At other times, you may plan a specific opportunity, by volunteering, for instance, to extend kindness to others.

            Kindness can also be focused inward: toward oneself. Sometimes you need as much generosity and gentleness as others to whom you offer it. Sometimes, when your inner critic is dominating, you cannot be gentle with yourself. At such times, you might try to invert the situation. If someone else was going through whatever experience you’re having, what advice would you offer? What comforting words would you share, to ease the stress? Now can you offer those same words, out loud, to yourself?

            As a spiritual practice, kindness is an empowering approach to life. It identifies your competencies and capabilities, and reminds you that you have choices. It affirms your value and purpose as a human being and helps to acknowledge others, also.  
            Being kind and being of service enlarge personal perspectives. They alter the understanding of others’ circumstances, thus allowing you to recognize your own blessings. They cultivate appreciation for your own individual agency and the ability to be helpful to others. With kindness and service, through small acts or major forms of participation, you renew your internal sense of fulfillment and joy.

            Joy rises as the light flares. Let it touch you and change you, as you change others with the light you offer. — Rev Gail

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The most beautiful moments in life are moments when you are expressing your joy, not when you are seeking it. ― Jaggi Vasudev

Scatter joy! ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Light is to darkness what love is to fear;
in the presence of one the other disappears.
— Marianne Williamson

Christmas Week 2021: Sun, Dec 19 – Sun, Dec 26

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Advent & Christmas, Calendar, Home, Music, Worship

WORSHIP SCHEDULE


Sun, Dec 19: INTERFAITH GATHERING

• 8am – Poetry, prayer and reflection (meet at old red library or on zoom)

Sun, Dec 19: ADVENT 4 – Love WORSHIP

Sun, Dec 19: CHRISTMAS STORYTELLING with DOUG BRENDEL

  • 4pm – JCC Parish Hall
  • Light refreshments
  • Listen to Christmas stories written and performed by Doug Brendel: author, minister, performer and humanitarian.
  • Any freewill donations support A New Thing nonprofit in Belarus https://www.newthing.net/ and local Mt Washington Valley families in need through the waystationnh.org

Wed, Dec 22: ADVENT BOOK STUDY: The Redemption of Scrooge

Fri, Dec 24: OUTDOOR CHRISTMAS EVE

  • 5pm – Outdoor Service of Scripture, Songs & Candlelight (non-zoom) – start with mulled cider or hot cocoa, walk the stations of the nativity, sing favorite carols, listen to scripture, share candlelight

Fri, Dec 24: Virtual Christmas Eve

Sat, Dec 25: CHRISTMAS MORNING – PAJAMAS, BELLS, STORY & CAROLS

  • 10:30am • Pajamas, Bells, Story & Carols (in-person & zoom) – Come in your pajamas, bring bells or ring the ones we share, listen to a story, sing carols (in-person & zoom). Live music by Sue Titus Reid. Storytelling by Rev Gail Doktor.
  • Contact church for link and password: jcchurch@jacksconcommunitychurch.org

Sun, Dec 26: WORSHIP & CAROL-SING

  • 10:30am • Carol-Sing & Scriptures (in-person only, no zoom). Led by deacons, carol-sing live accompaniment by Alan Labrie.
  • Contact church for link and password: jcchurch@jacksconcommunitychurch.org
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