Rev. Joanne Swenson’s call sermon on Sunday, May 13, 2012, “Spring Cleaning with Basic L,” was a moving event. Our dear friend Peter Hanson captured the day on camera and has turned his photographs into a wonderful slideshow that can be viewed below. Enjoy!
The annual Concert benefiting the Mary Bradley Clarke Fund will be held Saturday, May 19, at 7:00pm in the Meeting House. A fun evening of light music, featuring Broadway, Opera, and Jazz selections, performed by our Section Leaders, Chancel Choir, Youth Choirs, and some special guests. A festive reception will follow in Smith Hall. All donations collected go to benefit the Mary Bradley Clarke Fund which provides guest musicians for worship services throughout the year.
Donations can be sent to: The Mary Bradley Clarke Fund, The Congregational Church of New Canaan, 23 Park Street, New Canaan, CT 06840. Checks should be made out to The Congregational Church of New Canaan
The May Newsletter is now available on our website. The newsletter can be accessed here.
This year’s HomeFront project will be on Saturday, May 5. We will serve at a home in Norwalk, helping the owner – a WWII veteran and Purple Heart recipient. Catch a little of the Mission Trip spirit, right here at home! If you are interesting in participating in this wonderful project, please contact the church office at (203)966-2651.
Pictures from the OG Mission Trip to Biloxi are now available on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CCNC1733
Our monthly newsletter for March is now online!
My Dear Beloved Mission Fish:
I hope this finds you well, beginning to grapple again with the challenges of life “back at school,” but still savoring the wonder and the beauty of what we experienced together on the mission trip. Perhaps, in odd moments, you are scratching your head and trying to figure out “What was that?” “What just happened to us?”
If you are, then you join a long line of Christians who found their circuits blown by an experience of God that couldn’t quite be contained or constrained or explained by mere human words or categories. They did their best to preserve the stories, the rituals, the beliefs they associated with the mystery they had encountered, but these explanations were always secondary to the experience itself.
Take for instance, the author of John’s Gospel. He recorded some of the most vivid stories and most exalted theology of the New Testament, yet his lived experience always remained paramount. Writing a letter to a little church he had founded, he began, “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. [1 John 1:1]
Do you see what John stressed? He didn’t begin his letter by appealing to ancient scripture, or by reciting ancient creed, or by constructing theological argument. John went right back to his lived experience, right back to what he had sensed: he declared “what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands.” This isn’t philosophical speculation – this is existential testimony. “Hey, listen up! This is something that happened to me, and it changed my life forever. I want you to experience it too.”
Then, in one of the greatest gifts of scripture, John points us to his deepest understanding of his experience. He points us to where we might have the experience for ourselves. John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. . . Beloved, since God loves us so much, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” [1 John 4:7-8; 11-12.]
Did you catch those bold-faced words: “God is love“? Think about how simple and powerful and consequential those three little words are. John doesn’t say, “God is loving.” He doesn’t say, “Love is one of the things God does.” He doesn’t say, “God is like love.” John says simply, directly, unambiguously, “God is love.” Martin Luther would emphasize John’s verse, saying, “God is nothing but love.” ["Lectures on the First Epistle of St. John" in Luther's Works, pp. 218-221.] When St. Augustine preached on this passage 1600 years ago, he turned the sentence around, saying simply, “Love is God.” ["Homily VII on the First Epistle of John."]
Yes, God is beyond our human understanding. Yes, the experience of God is ineffable, beyond human words and categories. Yet, I trust and believe that John got as close to the heart of the matter as humanly possible. What John experienced in Jesus the Christ, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in the love shared in his little church was the same wonder and power and mystery we experienced in Biloxi.
What was that?” It was the God who is experienced when we love. “What just happened to us?” We loved one another with a love that came from God, and, just because we did, we were “born of God” and “knew God.”
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
I give thanks to God, and to you, for allowing me to be part of it.
With you on the Quest,
Skip
The 2011 Annual Report is now available and can be downloaded in pdf format.
It’s difficult to imagine New Canaan as it was in 1733 — a remote parish surrounded by dirt roads, vast farmlands and only one church; our church, set high atop God’s Acre. Back then, parishioners were called by the ringing of the church bell, important announcements were made from the pulpit, and information was passed from one person to another through conversation. Now Smartphones awaken us, Google informs us, and Skype connects us to friends around the world.
Needless to say, much has changed in the past 279 years but one thing remains constant; our vision. Throughout the past three centuries Christians have gathered on God’s Acre as a community moved by God’s gracious gift of flourishing life, to share transforming spiritual, educational, and service experiences. The distractions to our mission have grown geometrically since the early days, but so have the opportunities. The revamping of our church website represents one of those opportunities; it’s an opportunity to communicate with you in a different way, to reach out to the community in a different way, and to showcase the many examples of how we continue to live out our vision here on God’s Acre.
The new governance structure that our congregation approved last October presents many opportunities for involvement and personal growth. It also demands a high level of communication between staff members, Mission Teams, and the congregation. To keep you informed, we will continue to use all of our current communication media, including our newsletter, weekly email blasts, special email notices, letters, fliers, etc. All of these efforts at keeping you informed will be enhanced by our new website and by this blog.
Come back to Our Blog regularly for insights, concerns, and celebrations posted by your Ministers, Deacons, Trustees, and program staff. We will post a new message each month. Even more frequent communication is our long term goal. Please visit next month for an update on our Mission Teams’ learning and successes to date.
With you on the journey,
Skip