"beauty pageant"

Good morning friends,
The Book of Esther is another great story about God's people in exile. Interestingly enough God is never mentioned in the book, but God's presence and protection is evident just the same. The book begins with a royal feast. Drunk and eager to impress his guests, King Ahasuerus (AKA King Xerxes) calls in his beautiful wife, Vashti, to dance for the crowd. She refuses, so after consulting with his advisers she loses her position as queen. To fill the gap, Ahasuerus holds a beauty pageant (which seems from our passage to have a sexual component as well). The winner of the contest will become queen. We aren't going to follow the whole story, so suffice it to say that the plot thickens after our passage.

God bless,
Sam

Esther 2:5-17

⁵Now there was a Jew in the citadel of Susa whose name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite. ⁶Kish had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with King Jeconiah of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had carried away. ⁷Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter. 

⁸So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in the citadel of Susa in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. ⁹The girl pleased him and won his favor, and he quickly provided her with her cosmetic treatments and her portion of food, and with seven chosen maids from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her maids to the best place in the harem. ¹⁰Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. 

¹¹Every day Mordecai would walk around in front of the court of the harem, to learn how Esther was and how she fared. ¹²The turn came for each girl to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their cosmetic treatment, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics for women. ¹³When the girl went in to the king she was given whatever she asked for to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. ¹⁴In the evening she went in; then in the morning she came back to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines; she did not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name. 

¹⁵When the turn came for Esther daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had adopted her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was admired by all who saw her. ¹⁶When Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus in his royal palace in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, ¹⁷the king loved Esther more than all the other women; of all the virgins she won his favor and devotion, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.

comfort

Good morning friends,
I'd like to thank everyone who helped or stopped by to see the living nativity last night. We had a great time sharing the story of Christ's birth with our neighborhood. If you missed it last night, or if you saw it but want to play a part this time through, we'll be back in the manger on Friday at 6pm. Our passages today talk about community and God's amazing comfort for us. The Psalm talks about the beauty of Jerusalem, a city that symbolized for Israel the home of God's temple and the community of faith. The passage from Isaiah proclaims God's incredible forgiveness for Israel and for the world. God reaches out to us and calls us to come home. God also calls us to proclaim the good news of hope to others. With all our faults and failings, we are the ones who will share God's love with people in need of that good news. For whom might you be exactly the right person to introduce them to God's love?

Blessings,
Sam

Isaiah 40:1-11

¹  Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
²  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her
   that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid,
   that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³  A voice cries out:
   “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,

make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;
   the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
⁵  Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together,
     for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

⁶  A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?”
   All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.
⁷  The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; 

surely the people are grass.

⁸  The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

⁹  Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
   lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear;
   say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
¹⁰ See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him;
   his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms,
   and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

*Sunday

Psalm 122:1-9

¹I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"

²Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

³Jerusalem-built as a city that is bound firmly together.

⁴To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD,

as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

⁵For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

⁷Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers."

⁸For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you."

⁹For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

creation and calling

Good morning sisters and brothers,
Today we'll be worshiping in Christler Hall. Immediately after worship we will hold our annual meeting to elect officers for the coming year. I hope you will be there to support our new elders and share your opinion. Nominations from the floor are allowed also as long as the person you want to nominate is present and agrees to serve.

Our first reading is a beautiful Psalm praising God in wonder for the beauty of creation. As another beautiful day opens in Rochester, this Psalm feels very appropriate. The second lesson is Jesus' great commission to the disciples (including us). It's short, but there's lots going on, which we'll also talk about in worship. I hope to see you there.
blessings,
Sam

Psalm 8:1-9

1 O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!


*Sunday

Matthew 28:16-20
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

creation, part 2

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Please remember that our annual meeting is this coming Sunday after worship in Christler Hall. If you want to serve on session or have someone in mind who would be a great elder, feel free to let a member of the nominating committee know (you can email me or get in touch with Susan Dennis, Scott Fralick, Linda Marshall or Carolyn Rowell).

Today we read about the fourth, fifth and part of the sixth day of creation. Creation has become quite a controversial topic in public life. Some Christians feel that this story can't be reconciled with scientific stories of the Earth's beginnings like the Big Bang or evolution. I don't think that this needs to be a conflict. The purpose of the creation story is to remind us that God created the universe and that in the beginning the world was good. This wasn't written to teach science or history. There's no reason God couldn't have created the world through the Big Bang or developed animal life through evolution. This creation story reads like a poem; it is beautiful and orderly. It reminds us of the amazing beauty and variety of God's creation, and it reminds us that the source of all life is God.

God bless,
Sam

Genesis 1:14-25

14And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16God made the two great lights — the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night — and the stars. 17God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.



20And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.


24And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.