Archive for May, 2010

We, the people of Holy Covenant, are proud of our church’s long history of supporting social justice in all shapes and forms. During the month of June, we will celebrate our 20-year anniversary as a Reconciling Congregation, create a float for the Chicago Pride Parade, host an all-inclusive Prom, and hear from our own members and friends through the Reconciling Ministries Network’s Believe Out Loud campaign. Over the next thirty days, visit our blog to read posts from “Holy Covenanters” about their personal experiences, their hopes and fears, and reasons why they are proud to be a part of our church.

The BOL campaign is only part of the Reconciling Movements outreach strategy. RMN also distributes resources, works with local congregations, and equips individuals for denominational leadership. If you are interested in another facet of RMN’s mission, please visit www.rmnetwork.org.

At Holy Covenant our mission is to “Seek God, Love all People, (and) Change the World.” This Sunday we have a special opportunity to live out our mission by participating in the United Methodist Peace with Justice Sunday. This is a Sunday that United Methodists celebrate by taking a special offering that will go to support programs that advocate peace and justice at home and around the world.

Half of the offering collected by an annual conference is retained to fund local peace with justice programs. The other half of the offering is sent to the General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) to help fund U.S. and global work in social action, public-policy education and advocacy.

“The United Methodist Church declares that peace with justice will be celebrated when all people have access to adequate jobs, housing, education, food, health care, income support and clean water. Our church will further celebrate when structures and systems that reflect economic exploitation, war, political oppression and cultural domination no longer exist.” (GBCS)

This Sunday we will hear about one of the many programs supported by grants from this money as well as celebrate other ways that we at Holy Covenant are at work for peace and justice. So bring an extra dollar or two this Sunday and help bring peace with justice to our world.

Peace,

Monica

Brothers and Sisters of Holy Covenant-

This Sunday is one of our most musical of the year, our Hymnsing Sunday. This is the morning where “All Creatures of Our God and Light” “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” yes, “Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above” (those 3 would make quite a mashup, wouldn’t they?) . We sing lustily and with a good courage, yet we do not bawl or drawl. Above all, we do what our voices always do here at Holy Covenant; we have an eye to God in every word we sing. And once we get past my John Wesley quotes and paraphrasing, there’s a potluck and pie bonus!

Speaking of quotes, I came across some that I had gathered for a hymnsing several years ago. I thought, in prep for this Sunday, I’d share a couple of those with you here.

There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. –M. Aumonier

Great art is as irrational as great music. It is mad with its own loveliness. –George Jean Nathan

Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought. — E.Y. Harbug

Without music, life is a journey through a desert
–Pat Conroy

Music creates order out of chaos: for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous. –Yehudi Menuhin

All the sounds of the earth are like music.
–Oscar Hammerstein

Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite. –Thomas Carlyle

Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.
–Igor Stravinsky

We all have something to say about music; how it moves us, how it shapes us, how this most glorious of gifts from our Creator propels us through our lives at such a spiritual level that we often don’t even realize it.

I look forward to singing songs of the soul with you this coming Sunday. And thanks for voting!

Peace,
Andrew Collins
Music Director

Dear friends in Holy Covenant,

It has been my great joy and privilege to be a student intern and then on staff at Holy Covenant for the last two years. Especially since I have been unable to avoid dreaming about what’s next for this community, I am so glad to be staying on with you in the new position of Minister of Spiritual Formation.

The new position includes the work I’ve been doing this year as worship leader for the evening service and minister of small groups. Happily, I’ll have more time to devote to each! Additionally, I’ll be working with children and families. Even many of you who know me may not know that before I moved to Chicago for Divinity School I spent years working with children — from infancy through adolescence — at summer camps, in classrooms, and on farms. I can feel that my face still lights up when I start to tell stories about the children I’ve known. I’m excited to build relationships with the children and families in our congregation (and those who’ve yet to arrive!) and to include them more fully in the life of the church. I’ll also be available for things like meeting over a cup of coffee for conversation and prayer and committee meetings where I’m needed, and I’ll be preaching a little more too.

As for the “spiritual formation” of the job title: I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a people of faith. What makes us any different from what we were when we had no faith? I know that in my own life, I’ve recently found myself caught up in school, work, and church to the point that I’m not practicing my faith. I forget to lean back on the faith that I claim to have. I don’t make time to pray. I suspect that I’m not the only one for whom this is true. Lots of great things happen at church, but there are some things that happen only at church: things like learning how to pray, how to read Scripture, and what difference it makes to be a Christian in how we care for others and the world around us. My prayer for all of us is that we would experience a deepening in our spiritual understanding and practices.

My new job begins July 1st. By then, the regular hours when I’ll be available to you will be figured out and made public. Until then, don’t forget to take a look at small groups! And consider visiting the evening service if you’ve never been – or haven’t been in a while. It’s a warm, intimate service that feels like the best parts of a family dinner. We sing songs in harmony; we pray for one another; we gather around the Communion table every week and are reminded of the truth that God breaks into our lives again and again.

In peace,
Rebecca Anderson

Sermon, Sunday May 9th 2010
Holy Covenant UMC
Rev. Kate Hurst Floyd
John 14:23-29

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Do you ever wish you lived in Biblical times so you could be a better follower of Jesus? Now, I’m sure nobody here would want to trade our ipads for parchment paper, go back to a time without cell phones and air conditioning. A time with rigid laws that deemed women the property of men…that’s not what we want to go back to. BUT, I DO get envious of the Disciples because they have Jesus right there and can ask him questions, learn from him close-up, watch and imitate his every move. Because 2,000 years later, in the city of Chicago, it can be really hard sometimes to be a disciple of Jesus. The path isn’t so clear, we want to imitate his moves but don’t know how…it doesn’t seem fair.

For if the Disciples had a question, they could ask and get an actual, bona fide answer: [WWJD?] Jesus, when you say love my neighbor, who is my neighbor? And he tells them that any person is our neighbor, especially those we ignore. Jesus, who should we be eating and hanging out with? And he invites them to a dinner with women and tax collectors and those with leprosy. If they wanted to know where they should go and how to get there, Jesus would tell them. He would lead them, in fact!
When we have a question, our answers aren’t so clear: Jesus, should I quit my job and go back to school to follow what I love? What should the future of Holy Covenant look like? Why did the floods in Nashville occur? The earthquake in Haiti? What should we do about immigration reform? (more…)

Dear Holy Covenant Community,

When Jesus shares the most important commandment with his followers, he proclaims: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27-28)

Jesus is clear: When we seek God, and all the love that God shares with us and the world, we will necessarily seek to love our neighbors. We, as Christians, must always be asking ourselves the question: who is my neighbor? Again, Jesus is clear: our neighbors are not only the people in our neighborhood (though we are certainly to love those nearest to us!). Our neighbors are all of God’s children: Chicagoan and Iraqi ; hungry and full; housed and homeless; child and senior; citizen, refugee, and immigrant; prisoner and free; gay, straight, transgender; and healthy and ill. At Holy Covenant, we strive to love our neighbor in many ways, which is why “love all people” is an integral part of our mission statement.

Loving all people will be the theme for our quarterly congregational summit, this Saturday May 8th from 9-12 at the church. All are welcome, and I especially encourage those of you who are committee chairs and leaders to make an effort to come. We’ll begin with pancakes (yes, pancakes!) and conversation from 9-9:30. Then, for the remainder of the morning, we’ll explore the questions: How are we loving all people at Holy Covenant? How can we strive to better love all people as we vision for how to build the kingdom of God? What can I do to love my neighbor? How can I partner with other Holy Covenanters to love all people?

Loving all people is a critical part of our call as Christians and our mission as the people of Holy Covenant. How can you participate in living out this Gospel call? In the words of Jesus, come and see! Join us from 9-12 on Saturday. All are welcome.

See you Sunday (and hopefully Saturday!) and think about who you can bring with you.

Grace and Peace,
Kate

Sermon, May 2nd 2010
Holy Covenant UMC
Rev. Kate Hurst Floyd
Acts 11:1-18

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Peter has a dream. A dream about food. Do you ever dream about food? During Lent, when I had given up sweets, there were multiple nights when I actually dreamt of eating chocolate and I awoke with a sweet taste in my mouth. I also, unfortunately, awoke with a craving I couldn’t satisfy…Well, Peter has a dream about all the animals that he can eat. God says eat any and all of these Peter….pigs and cows, reptiles, chickens, goats, animals that feed on other animals….eat some barbecue and bacon, have some sausage with your eggs, put some cheese on your chicken…God says kill the animals and eat, Peter, eat abundantly.

Now, I have to admit, that as a vegetarian, I’ve always had a really hard time with this dream. For here we have God, God, in the very words of Scripture, this sacred story, commanding us to kill animals and eat them. It hurts my vegetarian heart.

Peter has a hard time with this dream too. At first, it’s more of a nightmare for him than a gift. You see, Peter is Jewish and very faithful. He cares deeply about his identity and the identity of his community. And it’s important to him to keep the laws of his faith, the very laws that God commands….and this means keeping kosher, not eating four-footed animals, not mixing meat with dairy. Eating animals that are deemed clean by Jewish law and staying away from unclean animals. (more…)