New Year: New You or New Us?

I hope that your Christmas was enjoyable as our family's was. We enjoyed seeing so many of you for our CCR Christmas Eve Candlelight and Christmas Day Service. I trust that this Season has been one to find new traditions for our CCR family.

As the Christmas Season concludes we look to the New Year. For some it is the most exciting time of the year. Parties and fireworks will abound. In the next few days, the newspapers will begin a debate on New Year's Resolutions. Some will take the position that Resolutions are just a formality and nothing ever really changes. What has been is what will be. We all will continue to fall back into our old patterns no matter how good are intentions. Others will have a more optimistic view of humanity's ability to change and argue that Resolutions do matter.

For Christmas I was given a January 2008 edition of "Runners World" magazine. Its headline was "NEW YEAR NEW YOU." It took the position that change is possible and outlined ways that it could happen. I suspect that our presupposition about our belief or disbelief in personal change actually reflects how we sit on the continuum between fate and responsibility. Do we believe that we can make a difference or is life predetermined by fate?

Though I strongly lean towards the concept of personal change, I could not help but notice that somehow our community was left out of the process. Would it not be better to seek a NEW US IN THE NEW YEAR? Far too much time and energy is spent worrying about one's self and too little about one's neighbors, family, and friends. Jesus even told a parable about the detrimental effects of self absorption called the parable of the Good Samaritan.

This Sunday I'll raise the question of what will it take to bring about a New Us in the New Year. I won't pretend to have all the answers, but hopefully together we can find some good answers.

One of my prayers for our generation in Rwanda is that we will see a Second Revival began as heirs to the East African Revival that begin in Rwanda in the 1930's. A man that we will look at this week as we ponder the question of a New Us is Jonathon Edwards. He was a leader in the American frontier's First Great Awakening in the 1740's. He developed a list of 70 Resolutions that he used to examine himself each week. Historians have pointed out four of his Resolutions that seem particularly pertinent. They are:

Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

Resolved, never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.

Resolved, never hence-forward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God's.

Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

I hope to see you this week as we ask the question of what it will take to make a New Us in the New Year.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave

P.S. Besides joining us Sunday at 10:00 a.m. also you are welcome to join us for our CCR New Year's Day Thanksgiving Service at 10:00 a.m.

Home for Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching. It's that season where many of us long most for home. Something about the Season calls us to reflect upon the past and hope for the future. It is almost impossible to believe the claims of Christmas. God is not far away, but close. Instead of entering into our world with power and prestige He came with humility. At moments when we want life to make sense the impossible happens and we must ponder.

If there is one thing we need during this Season it is Community. We need to share the celebration and hope with others.

During the next few days I invite you to celebrate with us. We are planning out of the ordinary opportunities for our community.

This coming Sunday, we will look at the startling announcement that virgin school girl will have a child. At first the announcement caused fear, but as it was processed it was an announcement of anticipation.

On Monday, 24 December we will have a Candle Light Christmas Eve Service at 7:00 p.m. During this special moment we will symbolically discover the entrance of light into our dark world. Many are preparing beyond measure for this event and I anticipate it will be a service that will be a highlight of our first year together.

Then on Tuesday, 25 December we will have our Christmas Day Service at 10:00 a.m. I hope you can join us for this time as we remember the reason that we break from work and return to family.

I hope to see you this coming week.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave

A Refugee's Christmas

Sometimes the stories of Jesus become too familiar. The Christmas Season can be one of those times. We have established traditions - Read the stories of Jesus' birth, sing Christmas songs, go to church, take a few days of from work, exchange gifts, and celebrate with family and friends. We know the routine and recycle the traditions year after year.

Hopefully, the traditions cause us to remember the most important elements, but sometimes they make us feel too comfortable with the holy.

This week's sermon will focus up Matthew's story of baby Jesus being visited by wise men and then escaping to Egypt. Christmas tradition has the wise men with Jesus in the beautiful setting of a stable. I have seen these "Nativity Scenes" made in Rwanda with banana leaves.

However, in Matthew's story the addition of the wise men is full of political intrigue. In fact, this story is one that sounds far too familiar to students of history. A tyrant orders the murder of potential rivals and the new born king escapes to live as a refugee in a neighboring country.

I hope this year's Christmas will not have that type of trauma in your life. However, I know that for many Christmas is a time in which some of us must heal from the trauma of both our past and present. Jesus' story should provide us hope as we see that the Son of God lived through the worst situations that humans can inflict on one another. He is not a God far removed, but one near to us.

I hope to see you this Sunday as we celebrate the nearness of our Lord.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave

CCR Annual General Meeting

The end of the year brings moments of process. Some times these moments can be dull. Some times they are key. In the midst of our Holiday plans we must stop, reflect, and plan for the future.

This letter is being sent to inform our CCR members of our upcoming Annual General Meeting. Our first CCR Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday, 29 December at 3:00 pm in our church hall. In order to participate in the meeting one must be a committed CCR member who has signed our Membership Covenant.

Dave Jenkins

P.S. If you have not joined CCR, please disregard this notice; but remember we have enjoyed our friendship with you and look forward to further interactions.

Family Problems

Last Sunday we began the Christmas season by lighting our first candles and telling old stories about humanity's historic hunger. Even before Jesus was born humanity knew our need. A man named Isaiah spoke about and told people that they should never allow the past to determine the future. A new beginning was coming (Isaiah 9:1-7).

Traditionally we believe the Christmas season to be a time for family renewals. However, for many the Christmas season is the time in the year that they face with the greatest loneliness. The celebration of others reminds them of all they do not have. They gather and notice the tragedies of their own families. Their thoughts are full of missed opportunities, loss, and broken relationships.

A little over 2,000 years ago, a tax collector named Matthew wrote a story about Jesus of Nazareth. Matthew began his story by telling Jesus' family history (Matthew 1). It was not a pretty story. In fact, Matthew chose to tell all of the embarrassing stories in Jesus' extended family. He signaled out 5 different women to leave the audience thoroughly embarrassed. One was a deceiver. Another was a prostitute. The most socially respected was a foreigner. The most influential in society was an adulterous. The last was an unwed teenage mother. The family history was not the type that we like to tell when we need to impress people with our pedigree.

Sound familiar? Any stories in your life you would not like to be told in public? Do you ever just wish they would go away and you could get a new start?

Thankfully, Matthew continues and tells us that a child is born who changes it all. His very presence says that God will come near to us and give us a new start. No matter what circumstances we have found ourselves in a new beginning is possible.

I hope to see you this week as we continue the discovery of Christmas.

Imana ikurinde,

Dave