Every Tuesday 6:00-7:00pm in Room 210.
2BC NEIGHBORHOOD CAROLING
November 29th, 2005This Sunday night is our Second Annual Neighborhood Caroling Event. We will meet in the Worship Center at 6:00pm for assignment. You can make your own group (10-15) or come and be grouped. We will go out, carol, and come back for light refreshment. Help us minister to our neighborhood.
Ladies Readers Group
November 29th, 2005Will meet Monday, December 12, at Agua Java at 7:00pm. Bring your favorite book and share passages.
An International Christmas Tea
November 29th, 2005A Tea spotlighting India. Saturday, December 10 in the Fellowship Hall from 1:00-3:00pm.
On Second Thought
November 29th, 2005DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - FIVE WILD WOMEN IN JESUS’ FAMILY TREE
Rahab: The Oldest Profession
Matthew 1:5 / Joshua 2:1-21,22-25 
The Fox’s Den is a mare’s nest for mariners, Los Amigos is not sailor-friendly, and Q’s has been X-ed out by the USN. All of this by decree of the local Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board which has placed the Corpus Christi bars and strip-joints on its "off-limits list." The roster, which includes other local businesses, aims to protect Navy sailors and pilots from damage to their "health, morals, and welfare." Violations merit an Article 15 hearing under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and can result in confinement to base or being busted down a notch in pay grade.
Well, the tendency of military personnel to deal in rough trade on the wrong side of town is not new. It dates back at least twelve centuries before the birth of Jesus. Joshua, five-star top-kick of the Israelite army, sent two soldiers into town to do reconnaissance, and they wound up in what was probably a combination brothel and beer hall. Doubtless they would have said it was all in the line of duty, but the Hebrew original, loaded, laced, and larded with double-entendres, leaves the issue open to interpretation.
Whatever they sought, it is worth noting what they found. Rahab offers a bargain based on kindness (Joshua 2:12), a Hebrew word that means something like mercy, something like grace, and something like the agape love of the New Testament, love which remains loyal even when the deal goes sour. Perhaps for the first time in her life, she gives something up with no guarantees, pleading for genuine intimacy as the medium of exchange. Rahab, who followed "the oldest profession," made the oldest profession, "The Lord your God, He is God," and found the true meaning of love.
Advent reminds Christians that all around us are Rahabs in search of relationship. Encamped in a fallen culture, and perhaps expressing its worst extremes, they retain a distant notion of a God who loves first and asks questions later. And they want to be loved that way.
Donald Miller challenges our Pharisaism when he writes, "I suspect any lack of love or feelings of anger we have toward the culture around us are not feelings that come from God, but rather our souls arising again to cast rocks at women caught in adultery." We need to remember we serve a Lord who was always leaving the base to touch lives on forbidden turf. The Uniform Code of Religious Justice ultimately hung him from a yardarm, but the hookers and the hooligans flocked to his side.
Off-Limits,
Doug
Tamar: Identity Theft
November 27th, 2005Hanging of the Green
November 23rd, 2005“Hanging of the Green”: Tonight at 6pm we will gather for the “Hanging of the Green” service which will help us understand why we use certain things to decorate with at Christmas and also make our worship center beautiful. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to worship.
SPECIAL CALLED CHURCH CONFERENCE (BUSINESS MEETING)
November 23rd, 2005On December 4, in a called business meeting following the morning worship service, the Church will vote on changes to our personnel policies and job descriptions. Approval of the job descriptions will create new staff positions. The policy changes and the new job descriptions are available on-line or by calling the church office. Questions may be addressed to any member of the personnel committee.
During this meeting the church will also vote on the Child Protection Policies that were brought before the church during the Church Conference on Sunday, November 20. Copies are available by calling the church office. Questions may be addressed to any member of the preschool committee.
BUDGET VOTE
November 23rd, 2005We will vote on the budget proposal for 2006 Sunday, December 4, during the morning worship service.
On Second Thought
November 22nd, 2005SERIES: DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - FIVE WILD WOMEN IN JESUS’ FAMILY TREE
Tamar: Identity Theft
After white men tortured and murdered Emmett Till for whistling at a white woman, his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral. Mamie Till-Mobley explained that she wanted the world to see the face of racism. One of the thousands who viewed photos of the corpse was Rosa Parks. Three months later, she refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks struck the spark that ignited the civil rights movement; Emmett Till’s mangled flesh was the flint against which she struck it.
Sometimes, simple visibility delivers the soundest blow for justice. So, sometimes, does invisibility.
In a world where women had no power, Tamar could get nowhere by being herself. Yet her only hope lay in claiming her role as the next link in the lifeline which anchored Israel to God’s promised salvation, so she tarted up and covered up to seduce a patriarch into integrity. She sacrificed her identity, swindled him out of his, and advanced the world one generation along the road to Messiah.
This Sunday, we begin a series of Advent messages which examine the five women whom Matthew lists in Jesus’ family tree. Like the ladies of Wisteria Lane, they were desperate, but this was not the quiet desperation of pampered suburban boredom. For these women, survival was the issue and salvation was the prize. If they got a little crazy, they were no crazier than God, who chose to honor their questionable conduct with an unquestioned place in the lineage of our Lord.
As Christmas approaches, take time to ponder Tamar. What rights of rank must we crucify, what humiliation accept, in order to bring Christ one step closer to a clueless world? At what fork in the road do we wait, on what dire decision do we brood, what un-selfing are we prepared to endure to bring to birth in Bethlehem the matchless work of God?
Desperately,
Doug
