First, I want to let each of you know that we will have our annual congregational meeting on Sunday, November 11th at 10:15. I want to encourage each of you to attend. We will be voting on the budget for 2019, you will receive an update on the sale of the parsonage and we will elect Church Council, committee member and Synod representatives for 2019. It is important that each confirmed member make an effort to attend.

 

As we prepare for the meeting I would like each of you to think about few things.

  As we look at the budget you will again see that we are proposing to spend more than we receive in tithes and offerings based on historical information. The Church Council has struggled with the questions above. There are so many activities that we feel are important to the overall health of the church that is difficult to cut programming. We have cut every dime we can cut.

 

Please pray for the Congregational Meeting on November 11th that we can come to good decisions as we move into 2019.

Sights and Sounds Festival of Nativities, in its 5th year, is a seasonal self-guided tour/open house with sights and sounds to kick off the Christmas season. It is a gift to the community inspired by the Mepkin Abby Festival of the Creches, supported by families and friends of Reformation and others. It includes: beautiful decorations; at least 200 nativity sets on display including 12 Stations of the Creche; seasonal music; candlelight atmosphere with refreshments;   children's activities; a program guide for a self-guided tour to last as long as you like; Christmas carol sing the last 30 minutes of each day, welcoming volunteers. A special feature will be the first time display of the Barbara Burton Angel Collection donated to the church by the family. The 2018 event, as all others, is free with free-will donations accepted to support the WIS TV 2018 Year of the Veteran campaign. It is supported by Thrivent Financial Action Teams. The 5th Sights and Sounds Festival of Nativities is Saturday, December 8, 5 to 7 pm and Sunday, December 9, 3:30 to 7:30 pm at Reformation Lutheran Church.

 

This is a huge undertaking for Reformation. It takes many hands and a lot of people involved in a lot of different ways as we prepare for the open house and serve as welcoming hosts. Everyone is invited to help make it happen. Below is a list of ways you can be involved. We hope you will choose one or more and let us know how you will help. Review the list and let us know your choices. If you have questions or can respond by email, contact Dot Jeffcoat, Sights and Sounds coordinator, at 803-407-9375 or [email protected] .

Here's your chance, as well as a special invitation, to reflect on part of the Christmas story and be a "voice" of the nativity  characters and animals, sharing your reflection with others. There are no right or wrong answers. Prepare a short writing, between 90 and 150 words, and submit your writing in any form you like by Thanksgiving. Send your writing to the church office marked as "Voice for Sights and Sounds." It will be delivered to Karin Culp. Here are some quick teasers:

 

It is so quiet here at the manger, the only sound is that of the cow, chewing her cud. But if the cow could talk, what would she say to us? What is her impression of the sights, the sounds, in her stable? What would she want us to know?

 

The Shepherd, what is he thinking? It is not far from his field of sheep to the stable in the town, but on his way he has had time to think, to wonder. What would he tell us?

 

Take some time to look at those who have gathered in the place where Jesus was born. Take some time to sit in silence and listen for their voices. Then write, for us, what you hear. Share with us a voice from the manger.

On September 1, 2018, the Reformation Church Administrative Assistant, Mikita Showers was married to Immanuel Foxe in small family wedding in Helen, Georgia. Mikita met Immanuel who is Music Director at Little Zion Baptist Church in Blythwood and they dated about five years. It was a beautiful day in Helen for this special celebration. Mikita and Immanuel thank the Wednesday Group and others for remembering and celebrating this special occasion with them. We wish Mikita and Immanuel Foxe the very best as they begin this phase of their lives together.

Worship & Music Committee Meeting will be held Sunday, November 4 between the services. If you can't attend and want to give feedback on Worship or Music, please email or talk to Colleen Clark.

Congregation Meeting on November 11 between services. Come help decide our direction!  

A memo that has reportedly been circulating at the Department of Health and Human Services aims to narrow the federal government's definition of "sex" under Title IX - a change that could leave transgender people without a number of the legal protections that have become standard in recent years under the Obama administration.

 

The potential impact of the policies described in the memo, and the headline under which The Times ran its story - 'Transgender' Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration.

 

I don't understand this administration's want to divide and exclude. I know it's close to election time and there is a drastic need to rally their religious base, and throwing "red meat" of scapegoats is the easiest way to do that, and transgenders seem to be the sacrifice for this recent election cycle. I know the religious right will clamor and declare the president the messiah, but their declaration will be based on an incomplete reading or the Bible.

 

From the time of the prophets, to Jesus, through to the first century church, trans-gendered individuals were accepted, honored, noted, and baptized. Now, this administration's religious base may ask where?

 

In Isaiah 57 we learn that those who were considered sexually damaged in Deuteronomy because of removed or crushed testicles were now going to be honored and their names noted in the temple.

 

3 and do not let the eunuch say,

 "I am just a dry tree."

  4 For thus says the LORD:

 To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,

 who choose the things that please me

 and hold fast my covenant,

  5 I will give, in my house and within my walls,

 a monument and a name

 better than sons and daughters;

 I will give them an everlasting name

 that shall not be cut off.

 

So eunuchs were excluded from full community in society because of the Deuternomical laws, but by the time of the prophets, that all changed. They were not to be mocked because of their inability to add to the building up of a nation through procreation, but they were to be honored with their names in the temple.

 

Jesus will take this further when he uses his discussion about marriage in Matthew 19 to note the place of eunuchs in society. 10 His disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." 11  But he said to them, "Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. 12  For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can."

 

Jesus, in his conversation about one-sided divorce notes the relevance of eunuchs in his conversation of relational behavior. Some were made that way for various reasons, while others were born that way. In other words some are naturally born that way while others were surgically transitioned. So, eunuchs were the first understanding of a trans person, according to Jesus. And finally, as we read in the Book of Acts chapter 8, eunuchs were baptized into the church.

 

So from the time of the prophets trans-gendered individuals were promised a coming time when they would be welcome into the Lord's temple, and from the time of Jesus trans individuals were welcomed, and baptized into the first century church. So, this reported memo that is being pandered to the religious right is not biblically based, and this administration's attempt to "define them [trans individuals] out of existence" is actually the antithesis of the scripture. Jesus did not exclude!

To my Trans friends, parishioners, and even strangers, I say to you "You are loved and accepted for who you discover in your gender identity journey." You have been given "a monument and a name in the [Lord's] house". They will never erase you!

Peace,

Pastor Tim