News

Merry Christmas!

I trust that your holiday is going well. We are finally within the 12 days of Christmas and I want all of it. Today is St. Stephens Day, a day which honors the life of one of the first deacons in the early church. St. Stephen was put to death for his beliefs. I share that not to dampen the Christmas spirit, but to instead invite you to consider what this season really means for you. 

God came to us in the most vulnerable of human forms. I think it’s a reminder for us to pay attention to the most vulnerable in our midst, not just in this season but all of the time. 

If you plan to join us on Sunday, we’ll sing a few more Christmas hymns and I’ll offer a short reflection on some of what I think this season is all about. 

Rev. Liz and Josh are away on Sunday! But they still want you to join us in person or online. 

Merry Christmas to you, and your families. 

See you soon!

Thomas

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Confession: I’m excited. Excited about our Sunday worship service which will feature both of the sacraments of the United Church of Christ. I’m not sure that has ever happened in my ministry. And an infant baptism has not happened at Central in seven years. I’m excited. This is B.I.G.

My excitement also grows from loving our Advent resources from Illustrated Ministry, LLC, The Will to Dream. Thanks to Rev. Thomas, we have this comprehensive guide through the seasons of anticipation and incarnation that invites our full selves and every aspect of our congregational lives. 

In Advent, we remember the prophetic promises of the Old Testament that we usually only sing in Handel’s Messiah. (Well, that’s how I remember they are there at all; they come with music.) It’s a time when we actually listen to the voices of daring dreamers, messengers who speak the word of God to the people of God via the audacity of dreams; odd ones who cry out inviting us to commit to hope–for peace, not less–and joy and love. And to imagine that, with the help of God, we can participate in the shalomification of our world. Yes, that peace–wellbeing, thriving, justice, wholeness, dignity, and equality, to name but a few.

I want to be one of them, one of those odd personalities. But churches do not often look for us. Except, sometimes, in transitions when the comfort has already been disturbed. I can see that now, after ten years in that space. Mine is a voice for crying out in the wilderness, calling for a shift of mind, metanoia, or what Matthew 3:2 “repent.” It’s not so much from sin, as we most often think, unless it’s the sin of not paying attention and thinking that what we can see now is all there is to see, and what we know and sense is enough. Imagination is a daring thing. 

Which is why I always say, watch out! Pentecost is always lurking in the wings, from which the Holy Spirit might intrude, grab our hearts and minds, and make us sing and dance and speak languages we don’t know and see love where it is (merely) hope, peace and joy. Only if you can imagine it. As Toni Morrisson wrote, “if you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it.”

I said I am excited but ça suffit comme ça. Besides, Pentecost is all the way next year, when the Christian year shifts from “the story of Jesus” to “the story of us,” the people of God and how we have done in the “refiner’s fire” and “preparing the straight ways of God.” The Bible is truly a treasure; the gift that keeps on giving.

Sunday will be a busy day for Central. After last Sunday when there were children running in the aisles (be still by heart), I trust we will find the energy to stay a while for the Jazz Christmas Coffeehouse with the MetroGnomes immediately after 11 am service. There will be good music, good food, good fellowship–it’s a dessert potluck–and holiday cheer. What’s not to like? Join us, if you can.

Later in the afternoon, Central is invited to join the Service of Ordination to Christian Ministry of Amanda Edwards who was a member here during her preparations for ministry. That service is at 4:30 EST/3:30 CST in Wisconsin. Use this link to register! After registration you are going to receive the Zoom link for the service! ​

Come be with us on Sunday, Streamers and Gatherers, all y’all. It will be another great day at Central. You don’t want to miss it.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz 

Dear Siblings, 

I trust that your Thanksgiving gatherings were(or will be) a wonderful time to spend with family and friends. I have a “thing” about not singing certain songs until the church(liturgical) calendar gives the all clear. Joy to the World? It’s a wonderful song and best sung on Christmas Eve or later. Although, I have an exception for Jazz renditions… I’ll listen to that anytime. Angels We Have Heard on High? A personal favorite, and yet also one that fits very neatly into a specific window of time. Maybe you have similar proclivities. Maybe you don’t. 

Imagine my surprise when I was humming “Auld Lang Syne” on my flight back from Phoenix last week. It’s November! And yet, that was precisely the song for the moment as I was also thinking about this Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent. It’s the beginning of a new church year. This is the first Sunday in Year A, as we call it.  So, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As a child, my parents would have us make a year in review in the last week of the year. It was part scrapbook, part journaling, and, as I’ve since learned, an easy way to keep us busy. It worked. 

I’m curious what you would include in your own Year-In-Review. What have you done? Who have you met? Where have you gone? What made you sad or angry? 

I’m curious too, what would a Year-in-Review for our church include? I’m serious, please send me your thoughts: What have we done? What should we celebrate? What would we want other people to know?

As we begin this new church year, we’ll journey within our Advent theme: The Will To Dream, which calls us to sit with the prophets and the present-day as we look toward a world that might one day be. Here’s a few things to know for this Sunday:

Advent Devotionals small group is back! They’ll meet at 10am in the Commons. It’s a fun, informal group that likes to explore the theme through a weekly devotional. If you didn’t get a paper copy, you can sign up to receive an email version right here.

Leo Thomasian will be our soloist on Sunday! You’ve no doubt heard his voice in the choir, but now you’ll get the chance to really hear it! He’s the first of several folks who are offering their talents & gifts in worship this Advent season.

Marion Clein is inviting us into a collaborative art experience for Advent. This Sunday, you’ll be asked to write one word to add to the canvas. Here’s the prompt: Write one word that describes defiant hope.

We’re starting the new year off strong and I hope that you’ll be a part of as much of it as you’re able to be!

See you Sunday,

Thomas

P.S. My peanut allergy is no more! I have already celebrated that over the past two weeks, but please share any peanut snacks, candies, recipes that you think I may have missed out on over the past 22 years. 

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Every now and then, I am paralyzed by choices and by the consequences of the choices I have made. So, when the Revised Common Lectionary gives me choices, I am not helped but slowed. For the Twenty-third Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 28, we have choices in the Hebrew Bible readings. Too many choices for focus. And, then, there it was. In the texts I neglected to read closely enough. Sigh.

“It’s JOY, silly. Of course it’s joy.” Before the Third Sunday of Advent is OK. Well, always AND the Third Sunday of Advent. It’s in all of these texts. It’s the core of the promises we rehearse in Advent, the prophetic voices we will focus soon. And all this week’s lections anticipate those prophetic promises and the fulfillment of the promises at Christmas. (No matter that we have been celebrating that season since Back to School in August.) Joy. How could I forget?

I’d love to find a way to get these texts in front of our collective eyes at least once a week. Got any suggestions? I always find them here and you can, too. https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu Here is this week: Isaiah 65:17-25; Isaiah 12/Malachi 4:1-2a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19. By now you know that the Bible is the library of narratives through which I find my way in this life of faith. They are deeply embedded in my family story, my story. Way-finding. Orienteering. That’s why I am a lectionary preacher.

With my feet tangled in the options this week, I found two pieces that helped me move from paralysis to movement. The first is an excerpt from Scripture & Discernment: Decision Making in the Church by Luke Timothy Johnson, my New Testament professor at Candler. This speaks to the choices I am committed to in ministry that often seem disruptive to congregations and just as often make me anxious. Anxiety is a kill-joy.

We must let go of any fantasy concerning the church as a stable, predictable, well-regulated organization. If the church is truly the place in the world where the existence of God is brought to the level of narrative discernment, the church will always be disorderly….We must let go of the desire for theology to be a finished product of complete conceptual symmetry. If theology is in fact the attempt to understand living faith, then it must always be an unfinished process, for the data continues to come in, as the Living God persists in working through the lives of people and being revealed in their stories.

He goes on a bit more and you can read that by following the link.

The second piece, a poem by Lindy Thompson, reminded me where I find much joy in this life of faith, “I Go to Sing.” To make a joyful noise. That’s no surprise to you but it wandered away from my view for a minute. It’s kinda long so get comfy, or skip to the bottom where I hope you will join us for worship, Streamers and Gatherers.

I come to sing. Also, I come for the “we-ness.” You come, too. Come to worship on Sunday, 11:00 am, in our beautiful sanctuary. We will make joyful noises, with Ben Pierre as guest musician. Expect us to pray and “break forth into joyful song and sing praises” for the steadfast love and faithfulness of God, everything else notwithstanding. In case we forget.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

In our reading for Sunday in Luke 19:1-10, Jesus invites himself to lunch at the home of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. If this were happening today, as a government employee who has not been paid for some weeks, can Zacchaeus be sure there will be enough food to share with a guest? If his family has ever needed SNAP benefits, can he hope there will be enough for everyone next week or after? Trick or Treat, indeed.

This is the scariest thought I can think of this Halloween. No, I take that back. It’s even scarier that we can’t really see an end to the horror of food scarcity or any number of other frightening realities in our present world. There’s really no need for holiday decorations. I am sufficiently terrorized daily by the news. This is why I must pray more. One moment, please:

Please, God, have mercy! You have created us from love, for love. Help us to create spaces for love to grow, especially when pantries are empty. Stir our imaginations to find ways, invent new ways, take risks, innovate wildly, and experiment fearlessly. Remind us to hold to your unchanging hand, and to always hope beyond hope. Amen.

OK, I’m back with a quick word about Sunday. 

If you have to sing the Zacchaeus Song like Ron Joyner and I do whenever we hear this story, you won’t need the YouTube link below. As he and I confirmed last week, although we learned slightly different versions of the song, the story of the day Zacchaeus meets Jesus is embedded in our bodies. Thanks be to God for the Sunday School class, lo, these many years ago, where we learned it. Now, it will not go away. 

On Sunday, in the story part of the WORD FOR ALL AGES, we have to teach our children this story and this song. 

When I taught a Bible as Literature course to ninth and tenth graders, we made Zacchaeus an “All-Star.” This is a character everyone should know because he can show up anywhere, not just Sunday School and church. My son came home one day in high school, furious that he did not know a certain biblical all-star that came up in his Lit class and he blamed me for it!

There’s a YouTube video below so you can practice before Sunday, if you need to. And we should have words and music by worship time, in case we need that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIjQObYF1cU 

What would I do without you, our Central congregation and community, where I am welcomed to learn more about how the kin-dom of God comes near to us, and to struggle with how that might become part of my own living? 

Not waiting for Thanksgiving, I thank God for you now. And I hope to see you or be seen by you in worship, 11:00 am on Sunday, November 2 (already!), streaming together or gathering together. Together, all the same. Be there or be square. (Groan. That’s as old as the Zacchaeus Song. Sorry.) I’d better go now.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz 

PS When you read the passage, see if you can tell if the short one is Zacchaeus or Jesus. Personally, I like thinking about the latter. Can you think why? 

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Some of you heard me say that I do not pray enough. I heard myself. And it took me back to seminary days when, with the pressure of our studies and other life commitments, Roberta Bondi urged us practice prayer daily at all costs. She also taught us about prayer in the life of faith and even proposed we practice praying the Psalms. Which I did for years and years. And then I didn’t. Mea culpa.

Our reading for Sunday is Luke 18:9-14, which may be familiar to you as “the pharisee and the tax collector.” This parable follows the parable of “the unjust judge” from last week (Luke 18:1-8). Both are about prayer and are unique to Luke’s Gospel. (I may have known this once but probably not recently.) The first is about “the need to pray always and not to lose heart” (18:1), probably the disciples and others. The second is for “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt” (18:9), apparently the Pharisees. I was not expecting to identify with both groups!

I easily recognized myself in the group that need to take heart. But I worried that, in all our concern for Christian Nationalists, I might not feel a bit “holier than thou” way down deep, buried in my heart. Do you ever worry about that?

All that to say this, I’m back to prayer. And happily revisiting my teachers over the years, including Roberta Bondi, Timothy Johnson, Howard Thurman, Mary Oliver, Luther Smith, the Taizé community—the list is long. And you can expect to hear about my discoveries in the months and weeks to come. (My copy of Bondi’s book, “To Pray and to Love: Conversations of Prayer with the Early Church,” came apart in my hands; I can hardly read it for all the highlights and notes.)

Please allow me to share two especially good nuggets from my sermon prep for this week: 

 For the desert fathers and mothers of the early church [third and fourth century BCE], the right answers to those questions depend upon the needs and personality of the person asking the question. Consider these very different images of prayer.

 Abba Macarius was asked, “How should one pray?” The old man said, “There is no need at all to make long discourses; it is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, “Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.” And if the conflict grows fierce, say “Lord, help!” [God] knows very well what we need and [God] shews us [God’s] mercy.

(Bondi, To Pray, p.7)

———-

The parables together do more than remind us that prayer is a theme in Luke-Acts; they show us why prayer is a theme. For Luke, prayer is faith in action. Prayer is not an exercise in piety, carried out to demonstrate one’s relationship with God. It is that relationship with God. The way one prays therefore reveals that relationship. If the disciples do not cry out…to the Lord, then they do not have faith, for that is what faith does. Similarly, if prayer is self-assertion before God, then it cannot be answered by God’s gift of righteousness; possession and gift cancel each other.

(Johnson, Sacra Pagina: Luke, p. 274; author’s italics)

 This is where some young people we know would say, “Busted!” I will keep at it. I will not lose heart. My mother cried, “Lord, help!” all the time. I know I can do that.

Come be with us in worship on Sunday where we can do our best together and encourage one another. You always encourage me whether Streamers or Gatherers, and you can tell how much I need that. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my prayers.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Our gospel reading for the coming week is Luke 18:1-8, a parable about prayer, persistent prayer. Joyce Myers-Brown introduced News This Week in Prayer and often shares the Friday submissions with others, as is her way. They have become my way to keep up with world events and to pray for the world without the overwhelm of news. I always need help and last Friday’s offering was especially helpful for me. It also seemed appropriate for today, the eve of No Kings II.

Come to worship on Sunday when our focus will continue on persistent prayer. Join us as Streamers or as Gatherers but do plan to be with us. Together in worship, we cultivate the courage and encouragement to pray and to pray without ceasing. At least, I think that’s right. Anyway, together is always better, I am sure of that. 

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

And now, here is a prayer for the week:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
–St. Teresa of Avila (16th Century)

One would think that nearly 25 years after founding World in Prayer, and hundreds of people trained during that time to encounter international news and respond with prayer, taking my turn at writing these prayers would always come easily to me. Oh, I’m a good enough wordsmith to be able to compile something resembling coherent prayers each time. But the prayers God prays in me are often wordless. The prayers of the clenched jaw, or knotted gut, the gentling hand or longing heart. Prayers of the helping checkbook, or the feet that want to run away. Prayers that speak in food prepared and offered, prayers that celebrate in awe-filled photography. Prayers embodied.

For the entire prayer, visit this page! 

Dear Siblings, 

This Sunday will be Pride Sunday in the city of Atlanta. Our usual decor will be hung in the Sanctuary, with thanks to Julie McBride’s creation of these pieces over several years.. There will also be the start of a new communal Pride banner in the Commons. This piece was inspired by Marion Clein’s vision for a “queer collage” and my vision of a physical representation of the “God of rainbow, fiery pillar.” I’m thrilled that nearly 20 Central folks will be part of the Pride Parade. A celebration that this year gathers under the theme “rooted in resistance.” But, of course, our service will not just be about Pride.

Indeed, worship is the glad response to God’s saving acts through history… a Pentecostal celebration in response to the Good News. Over and over and over again, our sacred texts and stories reveal a God who loves without end. Again and again, we encounter saving acts that make more real the promise of the Kingdom of God. Yes, on Sunday, we will dance and delight in that kind of good news. 

On Sunday, the heavens will be singing the glories of God. And our service will be starting promptly at 11AM. Yes, really 🙂 

After this Sunday, I won’t see you all again until November. Most of my time away has been for continuing education or the Next Gen Leadership Initiative. These next two weeks will be an actual vacation for me! I’ll be traveling through parts of Europe. 

If I see you Sunday, I’ll say farewell then. If I don’t see you Sunday, know that I wish you grace and peace in the weeks ahead. 

Be well,

Thomas

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

In our next worship service, we join with Christians across the globe for World Communion Sunday. Somehow, it feels especially important to remind ourselves of the unity we share in Jesus Christ. Probably because unity among Christians seems so distant right now.

As we approach the Communion Table on Sunday, we will enact what we dream of and what Jesus prayed for in John 17:21-23, the words we recognize as the motto of the United Church of Christ: “that they may all be one.”

You are invited to place a small item on the Communion Table that recalls to you of the far-flung communion of believers in this time and beyond time around the world. It could be a family treasure, souvenir, a photograph, a candle—whatever brings those distant siblings near in memory.

Additionally, there is a collection of bread recipes from around the world here.

A recent article in the UCC News by Donna Jackson (September 23, 2025) is very helpful to provide fuller information about the origins of this observance and its theological grounding in our faith traditions. Here is an excerpt:

 United Church of Christ congregations are heading into the Oct. 5 celebration of World Communion Sunday, with a sense of urgency. After all, if ever there was a time to reaffirm the oneness in Christ with its siblings near and far, it is now.

 “World Communion Sunday powerfully reminds us of what is always true when we participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion: at Christ’s table we are all one. In a nation and world afflicted with so much conflict, hatred and division, we need this blessed reminder,” said Rev. Shari Prestemon, Associate General Minister for the United Church of Christ and Co-Executive of Global Ministries, a shared witness between the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the UCC. “We are also compelled to demonstrate a commitment to building unity and peace in our lives every day,” she added.

 One Lord, one faith, one baptism

World Communion Sunday, held the first Sunday in October, was the idea of Rev. Dr. Hugh Thompson Kerr. In 1933, the Presbyterian minister wanted to lift the biblical reality that through baptism, congregations worldwide were connected to one another. Kerr often cited Ephesians’ “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” In 1940, against the backdrop of World War II, when division and discourse were ripping apart the seam of unity, the Department of Evangelism of the Federal Council of Churches — the predecessor of today’s National Council of Churches — embraced World Communion Sunday. It was soon adopted by many denominations, including the UCC.

 Today, though, unity is once again being pulled at the seams as political dissension grows, and U.S. government funding cuts threaten global aid programs. “In a time when more boundaries are set up — physical and psychological — World Communion Sunday is a time to celebrate the ways the Church is enabling the breaking down of the dividing walls,” said Dr. Peter E. Makari, Global Relations Minister, Middle East and Europe for Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ.

 Scripture on unity anchors resources

From liturgy to music to children’s sermon illustrations, Global Ministries has created a plethora of World Communion resources for 2025 highlighting the many ways in which the UCC and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) are strengthening the tie that binds God’s children together. As Makari points out, “we are all connected in many ways.” The resources are anchored in the following Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, where Paul talks about the Church as one body with many parts; Psalm 133:1, celebrating the goodness of God’s children living in harmony; and John 17:21-23, where Jesus prays that all believers may be one.

                                                                                                              © United Church of Christ 2025

 Come join us at the Table of World Communion on Sunday, either gathered at the table in the sanctuary or among the online Streamers (don’t forget to ready your bread and “wine”). If you are as much in need of refreshment as I am, we’ll see you there.

 Love and hugs,

 Rev. Liz