Agape' Metropolitan Community Church
This Week's News and Updates
December 04, 2019

To view last week's Worship Experience, click here .
What Kind of Rebel are You? 
From Rev. David Wynn

Rebel leaders, I want to invite you to engage The Rebel Test to go a little further in cultivating your Rebel Talents. Please use the link below and I would love to see your results, if you are comfortable sharing! Happy exploring! 


Agape' MCC Raffle
win a 65" 4K HD Smart TV


We are raising funds to replace our security camera system which sustained unrepairable damage when the outside cameras were stolen. We have a security professional, from our sister St. Anne congregation, who has volunteered his time to install a new system. All we need is to raise the $1500 to pay for the new cameras. Tickets are $10. Drawing will be held in December 15, 2019 during our Holiday Potluck.

You can use Zelle or SimpleGive to pay for the tickets!
Second Sunday of Advent

Return to God (Isaiah 11:1-10; Matthew 3:1-12)

One of my favorite biblical texts is from Isaiah, describing “Utopia.” By definition, "Utopia has no place;" but it is not something that does not exist, it simply "does not exist ... yet ." It is not now our reality, but it can become our reality. In fact, it wants to be and, as we can see in so many ways, it struggles to become so. And so, it will be. As Gerhard Ebeling said, "The most real of the real is not the real itself, but its possibilities"...

Utopian (Hope-full) thinking is an essential component of our Judeo-Christian journey, which has experienced the Sacred in history through faith, hope, and love in the call of a Love-Justice utopia. We feel and experience the utopian call of justice throughout history.

Love-Justice utopia is the DNA of our Christian heritage. In its call we experience and know that it will always be characterized by working for the poor – the “oppressed” at any level or type of injustice (economic, cultural, racial, gender, etc.). Sadly, today, such injustice for many around the world is becoming more and more ignored.

The prophet Isaiah describes Utopia, and shares the divine dream that inspires him: a beloved, corporeal world, without injustice or oppression; a world in harmony even with nature, which later (along with Jesus of Nazareth) will be called the “Realm of God”. When God reigns, the world is transformed: injustice yields to justice, sin to forgiveness, hate to love, and toxic human relationships are reconstructed over a network of love, mutuality, and solidarity.

Today, we find a world in constant tension and agony because of the many the issues of injustice that exist. Several Latin American countries are even now fighting in the streets for justice for all people as our uncompromising human right. Meanwhile, religious fundamentalism —making a perverse use of Biblical texts— wants to deny these rights, which we have obtained only minimally, and after so much struggle and the lost lives of those who dedicated their work for the cause of justice. Additionally, in the US, the same abuse of immigrants calls out for justice and demands from us a commitment to return to God to realize God’s domain in this world.

Advent is, par excellence, the liturgical time of hope. And hope is the «virtue» of utopia, the force that utopia causes, created in all people to wait with a confident, expectant, active hope. Advent is therefore, the best time to reflect on this essential utopian dimension of Christianity; and a time to examine whether our Christianity, our response to the call we have received over time, has perhaps forgotten or lost its essence – the vision of utopia and the active hope that comes from returning to God, crying out, and acting up to make justice happen for all people.

Rev. Elder Hector Gutierrez
PLEASE JOIN ME IN PRAYER

Quite sadly, we learned today that Rev. Elder Freda Smith had a stroke last week, has since developed pneumonia, and is now in hospice care. At this moment, we are asking you to pray for Freda and for her long-time spouse, Kathleen, as they go through this transition. Freda is one of the pioneers of MCC's early leadership as the first woman ordained and first female Elder in our fellowship. 

Freda has greatly inspired me and so many with the courage to demand change creatively, gracefully, and boldly. Our Founding Moderator, Rev. Elder Troy Perry has much to say about Freda; but for now, urges us to come together in prayer. Troy says with confidence, "I know God can touch her body."

Whatever your prayer practices are, please lift up Freda, Kathleen, and all of those who have been inspired and shaped by Freda's ministry these many years. We want to surround her at this time of transition, as she has surrounded so many of us.

In prayer,

Cecilia

Rev. Elder Cecilia Eggleston
Moderator, Metropolitan Community Church
December Birthdays
12/03 - Carol Boutwell
12/05 - Jim Simmons
12/09 - Dan Leaver
12/11 - Taylor Howell Wolfer-Stephens 
12/15 - Cassy Batts
12/15 - Trish Ashton 
12/15 - Randall Roberts 
12/20 - Linda Crear
12/24 - Johnny Price 
12/26 - Pat Kaiser
12/27 - Val McMullan 
12/29 - Jo Pierce
12/30 - Phyllis Sasser
Sunday - December 08, 2019

Call to Worship

Song of Welcome: "Follow the Light" Community

Words of Welcome and Greeting: Rev. David Wynn

Time with our Children: Rev. David Wynn

Contemporary Reading: Jan Richardson, Through the Advent Door - Carrie Wynn

Reading of the Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12 - Ward Thulin

Song of Response:  “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” Community

Time of Teaching: "John, The Traveler" Rev. David Wynn

Song of Centering: " Come and Find the Quiet Center" Community

Community Prayer: Rebecca McDonell

Response to the Prayer:  “Come and Find the Quiet Center”     Community

Bringing Our Gifts: Cassy Batts

Celebration of Holy Communion: Rev. Robert Myer

Song of Sending Forth:   “Angels We Have Heard on High”  Community

Announcements and Benediction: Rev. David Wynn

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Agape' MCC is a Reproductive Justice Congregation.
817-535-5002 / agapemccchurch@gmail.com / https:// www.agapemcc.com /