Every first Wednesday of the month, a group gathers in a circle at the front of the Sanctuary at Rainbow for a simple service of prayer and song, known as Taizé.
This is generally what you can expect if you come tonight, and I hope you do come tonight!
Prelude by musicians
2 Songs
Reading (scripture)
2 Songs
Meditation reading (usually not scripture)
Time of silent worship
3 Songs (with the encouragement to light a candle during this time)
Short Closing Prayer
Postlude by musicians
On Epiphany (January 5), the church celebrates new beginnings, revelation, light, wisdom, and the gifts brought my magi.
At Rainbow, Epiphany meant hearing Darin and Erica Penner reflect on new beginnings. Their reflection was a beautiful weaving together of tears, laughter, anguish, intellect, vulnerability, gifts, questions, and the search for answers, hope and love. They had the courage to reveal to us their own road with Jesus, a road that has included many bumps, uncertainties, some anguish and lots of love.
I know many people probably made a good decision and stayed out of the ice, snow and cold on Sunday. And to the many of you who came, I hope you didn’t have trouble. For those who didn’t come, I’m posting Darin and Erica’s reflection here, with their permission. If you would like for us to send you a link to a video of the service, please send an email to Ashton Wells, office manager.
We, the staff at Rainbow, wish everyone a happy 2014! We look forward to another year of working together toward our mission: To maintain a fellowship of believers who will strengthen and express our faith by corporate worship, study, and teaching of the Gospel, and who will seek to serve the spiritual and material needs of this and the larger community.
And here are the much-awaited answers to the staff quiz posted earlier.
1. Has gone sky diving-Ruth
2. Has won a game show-Rachel
3. Has a family member who dated Brad Pitt-Ashton (she’s also the one who put together that crazy staff Elf video.)
4. Has won multiple pool tournaments-Jim
5. Has watched Sound of Music in Basel, Switzerland-Rosi
And just for fun, here is one more picture of Rosi. Jesus has his eyes (and hand!) on her. It outta be a great year!
What our church looks like after dark
On Tuesday night, over 100 people attended our annual Christmas Eve Service. We sang carols, heard Scripture, and lit candles. At one point we sat in the darkened silence and let the words from John wash over us: In the beginning was the Word…
And then Caitlin Buerge came forward and offered this beautiful reflection that her father, Lonnie Buerge, recently wrote. With his permission, I will post this, along with the prologue that he provided.
PROLOGUE BY LONNIE BUERGE: Christmas is the only holiday that we are forced to celebrate even if we believe nothing about it. It is heralded by stampedes at big-box stores for supposed essential tools for our way of life. It is pervasive and omnipresent; a sort of cultural celebration of pure and holy aspirations with large doses of nostalgia and kitsch. We murmur “Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and Seasons Greetings” over and over in a cultural litany of good cheer. While considered to be an essentially Christian holiday, it has its roots in pagan celebrations and retains many of those elements. Even some Christians consider most of the stories to be myths; important but none the less mythical stories recited by bards and handed down over millennia. In the end Christmas takes over everything, makes us frantic, pretends to be important but can leave us wore out, financially stretched and disappointed. If we miss the point, it can seem to be nothing.
__________________
christmas is nothing
if it is not about Connections
be they friends or family;
those that touch us at the core
of our very being
and cause a lump to
rise in our throat.
christmas is nothing
if it is not about Beauty.
Songs or dance or art
created just for the
sheer joy of finding
new forms and
new views of old ones.
It is a Beauty that
lasts over years and thru change in taste.
It is not a fleeting image
of a fad or of lust
but a deep and abiding essence.
christmas is nothing
if it is not about a new Birth
a Birth within us to be more than
we are today; a determination
to add to ourselves what we have
been missing and longing for.
christmas is nothing
if it is not about Moments
moments that reach inside us
causing our hearts to swell
and our eyes to look up at our
world in wonder and love
times that echo over and over
in us in the coming months.
christmas is nothing
if it is not about Light.
light that brings warmth
and illumination of our path
that we are walking
christmas is nothing
if it is not about Mystery
a wonder and an awe at the
darkness that sends us
all of this.
When Sunday service is canceled the pastor….FRETS! Did she make the right decision? Will people think she didn’t have a sermon prepared? Then, her mind wonders to the Sunday morning offering that might have been (She keeps waiting for that December financial miracle she was told happens here!!!)
Then she stops to fret, renews her trust in miracles, makes a great cup of coffee, does a puzzle for the next four hours, watches the Chiefs play, and then frets some more because they lose.
Eventually, she reviews the bulletin and announcements for December 22 (She hopes you have too!) and reads through the hymn that Marjorie Jantz chose for the morning, Oh how joyfully number 209 in the Hymnal: A Worship Book.
Here is Marjorie’s reflection that would have been shared on Sunday:
O Du Frohliche is a German Christmas hymn written in the early 1800’s by Johannes Falk, a German man who later founded an orphanage for children. I remember learning this hymn as a child in the old wooden original Mennonite church which previously stood on the current site of First Mennonite Church in Newton. We learned the hymn in German initially and I would like to sing one or more verses in German today. At that time, not only the hymns but the entire service itself was in German at the old wooden First Mennonite Church. I recall being more impressed with this hymn as a high school student when the words took on a more significant meaning to me. What impressed me most about this hymn then and still does today is the emphasis the verse places on praise of our Lord Jesus as well as the beautiful melody this hymn presents.
Hopefully we all found a way to praise our Lord Jesus on December 22. We don’t always need to come to church to do that! Of course, we DO hope you come to the Christmas Eve Service TONIGHT at 6:30 and December 29 Sunday morning worship. It will be a week of miracles to be sure: First, the virgin birth and then meeting our annual budget. Can this pastor get an Amen?
We had a delightful staff Christmas lunch this week. We also had some fun with the camera (thanks Phil Rhoades!) I thought I’d share the JOY that is our staff by posting these photos, as well as a friendly quiz.
First, meet the staff hard at work:
Second, here is the quiz:
I asked each staff member to tell me something about them that others probably don’t know. Here is what each of them said. Can you guess who said or who has done what? Five questions. Five different answers.
1. Has gone sky diving
2. Has won a game show
3. Has a family member who dated Brad Pitt
4. Has won multiple pool tournaments
5. Has watched Sound of Music in Basel, Switzerland
Answers will be provided at a later date. And there may be a prize if people get it right, so let us know what you think.
The Visual Arts Committee at Rainbow Mennonite has done it again! They have created a beautiful visual center piece at the front of the Sanctuary.
It’s not easy what they do, but thank God they persevere and stick with it!
Supposedly, Owyn Parsons, son of Carrie and Ken Parsons, walked into the Sanctuary last Sunday and noticed that the Rainbow was gone. Then he said, “Oh, I get it! The rainbow was like our church, and now the gold is like God coming to earth.”
Jesse and I traveled to Newton, KS, for Thanksgiving. We took a road into North Newton that had us go by Bethel College Mennonite Church (where I used to be associate pastor) and our old home (pictured here). I was surprised by the tears that started streaming down my face. It’s strange to be so involved in a community, so at home in a place, and then suddenly be gone.
During the 24 hours we were in Newton, I was sure I’d run into folks we knew. And I was afraid the tears would start again. One day we were walking downtown and sure enough, we did run into people we knew. However, the people we ran into were John, Heather, Justin and Addison Zerger, and they are from Rainbow!
Three weeks later, I was driving up to our new home in Kansas City and what should I see as I pulled into our lane? Our house lit up with beautiful lights. I didn’t expect this. So again, with the tears. This time they were tears of joy and happiness that Jesse and I are slowly making a new home together, with new friends and with another beautiful church community.
Final note to those from Bethel College Mennonite who might be checking up on me through this blog: Please know that the shells you gave me on my last Sunday with you are always near at hand, reminding me of the years we walked with God together.
And this pile of cards that you gifted me with keep a smile on my face. As the card on the top says, “I shore do thank ya’all.” Oh, and to my former colleagues at BCMC, I still sometimes try and log on to my office computer using BCMC login and password information:(
Yup, that’s me holding baby doll Jesus
My mom was often in charge of putting together the church Christmas programs when I was growing up. That means I’ve been in TONS of nativity productions, playing the part of Mary, Joseph (I had short hair most of my childhood), an angel, a shepherd, even a lamb down on all fours. At times it was fun, other times it was HUGELY embarrassing.
My mom, like Rosi Penner Kaufman (music director at Rainbow), made it a point to include as many people as possible in these projects and performances. After all, to get into the Christmas story, you need people to get into costume and character! (I WOULD NOT HAVE SAID THAT 25 YEARS AGO!)
I have never been to a Rainbow Christmas program. I hear that it is always great fun, creative and not at all embarrassing for ANYONE 🙂
So I hope that we ALL come out for what is sure to be an entertaining and worship-full night this coming Sunday, December 15, at 6:30 pm.
Oh, and here are just a few of our cast members/storytellers. They have all learned their lines. Now they just hope a large crowd shows up!
My good friend, Lisa, got us hooked on the television show, Pysch. One of the many, cool features of this show is that a pineapple appears in every episode. Sometimes I spot it, sometimes I don’t. Regardless, I look for it every time and it is rewarding when I see it, especially if I’m first to see it.
That is why I bought this lovely pineapple light. It sits on my desk reminding me to look for God’s love surrounding us every day, and in every moment. Even if we can’t always see it, it’s there…somewhere. It’s also a reminder of all the times Jesus had to remind his disciples to keep looking for the kingdom of God already here, among us. God’s love is sometimes hard to see, and sometimes it’s not as big and showy as we may want it to be. It is still here, among us, nonetheless.
On-going challenge for me: To use this blog as a way of looking for and witnessing to the many pineapples among us–those things that might seem hidden or ordinary, but that reflect God’s light. And if you spot these pineapples first, please do share!
over and around the rainbow 