Holy Saturday: Unchurch Ordination to the Mutual Ministry of Misfits

 

You are invited to a Holy Saturday/Easter Vigil hosted
by the unchurch misfits of C2g/Z2G,

today at 5'o'clock PM Central Time on Google Meeting!

In addition to a full Holy Saturday liturgy with a homily 

by Bec Cranford (Wild Goose Festival, Candler Seminary, Gateway Center), 

a sort of Bishop of the Misfits in her own right,
we will also be ordaining the misfit ministers of C2G 

for whatever comes next in their misfit mission!

Join us for some or all of the proceedings at the above link at 5pm today!

Andrew 

for the collective

link -- ask from preacherandrewsmith-at-gmail-dot-com

#reclaimholyweek: Videos from 4.4 For All -- Rally, Repent, Reflect, Resurrect

These videos are from Come ToGather's last worship of its 2014-2015 season, a rally, march, and memorial, and a collaboration with the United Church of Cookeville. The call we put out is this:

This year Holy Saturday is on the Anniversary of the MLK Assassination. This is a call for all to join a special event. You are welcome to come to some or all of this.

Part One: Rally For Racial Unity
7pm – Gather on town square – music and speeches
730pm – Candlelight march – walk down Broad Street, circle the Drama Center & walk back to First Pres through Dogwood Park 

Part Two: Repent for Historical Racism & Reflect on Martyrs’ Sacrifices
8pm-ish – A Holy Saturday Service of Lament – First Pres Sanctuary; readings, music, contemplation 

Part Three: Await Resurrection & Liberation
9pm-ish – Fellowship Time in Fellowship Hall – Light Food 
10pm-12 – Contemplative DJ sets & Interpretive Dance until Easter Midnight, Chocolate & Communion

All Saints Worship at Cane Creek Park

Lydia Brown gave an amazing message & the shortest C2G sermon ever! Whitney Stevens sang some Pete Seeger! We remembered our ancestors! Sermon text follows videos.




 Today, we celebrate the Feast of All Saints and All Souls. I invite you to look around you on this beautiful day. Its beauty comes from a different direction than the vibrant warmth of summer or the timid chill of spring. The air is crisp but it will soon turn bitter. Flora is the color of fire, but will soon turn to the color of ash. The world is dying. 

 It is as natural to die as it is to be born. All life will die: the microscopic organisms, the plants, our animals, and us -- we are a link on God’s food chain. No matter where you step, something died on that ground. No matter where your thoughts spread or lie, something died there. There’s no running from Death. Death hunts the liquid measure of our steps, hungry for our laughter and our hot hearts. It is as natural to die as it is to be born. Our ancestors all over the world marked this reality with the changing of the seasons. The autumn and the harvest marked the human relationship with death, change, and rebirth. 

Death is our natural end and God’s great servant. Just as God is the Lord, the Giver of life, so can he take it. Perhaps Death is God himself, just another side of the face from which we are hidden in the cleft of the rock. Did not God smite the firstborn sons of Egypt? Did not God rain death and despair from the sky onto Sodom and Gomorrah? 

 But was it not also God who hung upon the cross, suffering and bleeding, only to fade and fall like all the world? This is the new and everlasting covenant we have in Jesus. Death is not the end, merely a door. A tollbooth at which everyone pays a high price without seeing the state of the road or where it leads. Life is a highway and we’re gonna ride it into the night. But the mystery of faith that Christ has died (past tense), Christ is risen (present tense), Christ will come again (future tense). And so will we. Just as Jesus said in the Beatitudes of Luke, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven.” Jesus has given us not only triumph over death but the hope of life not only again but also everlasting. No longer the prey of Death the savage hunter, we are both the harvested crops at the great feast of Heaven and attendants at that banquet. 

Today on All Saints’ Sunday, when we remember both all the saints and all the faithful departed, we are reminded of this promise Jesus has made. The saints are celebrated because their miracles prove to us that they are in heaven, reminding us of the promised land that awaits us through the doorway of death. We have heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus, and so we do not cease to give thanks for them and remember them in our prayers. Death is only a doorway that separates us from our brothers and sisters in Christ -- they call to us from beyond the grave to speak of the riches of Christ’s glorious inheritance and to enlighten the eyes of our hearts. We hear them sing of the bountiful harvest of souls and the feast of God’s love. 

 This feast of the Church is our time to die, to weep, and to mourn, but it is also our reminder that we will be resurrected, we will laugh, and we will be comforted, one day, after while.

Summer Book Group at various Cookeville Coffeehouses

Reading or owning the book is not required to attend. All are welcome. We will meet for 4 weeks & discuss a different book each week. 

Week 1. July 11. Rob Bell. What We Talk About When We Talk About God. Meet at Poet's on the square to discuss Rob Bell's new book. 
http://www.amazon.com/What-Talk-About-When-God/dp/0062049666/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372821463&sr=1-1&keywords=rob+bell

Week 2. July 18. Meet at The Corner. Christian Wiman. My Bright Abyss.
http://www.amazon.com/My-Bright-Abyss-Meditation-Believer/dp/0374216789/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372864989&sr=1-1&keywords=abyss+christian+wiman

Week 3. July 25. Meet at Perk Up. Jonathan Martin. Prototype. 
http://www.amazon.com/Prototype-Happens-Discover-Youre-Jesus/dp/1414373635/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372865048&sr=1-1&keywords=prototype+jonathan+martin

Week 4. August 1. Meet at Sweet Sallies. Cynthia Bourgeault. The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three: Discovering the Radical Truth at the Heart of Christianity
http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Trinity-Law-Three-Christianity/dp/1611800528/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372865091&sr=1-1&keywords=cynthia+bourgeault

Ash Wednesday & Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, which begins the time of prayer, fasting, & reflection called Lent. Ecumenical imposition of ashes, today 12 noon -1 pm at Tennessee Tech University, inside the UC lobby unless this weather lets up, then on the South Patio.

This Sunday night at C2G, Pat Handlson and Andrew Smith with co-preach on the meaning of Lent with a message called Sin To The Wild. 

Little Drummer Boy / Drumcircle Boyz

Jesus 4 President