2024-12-21 Weekly E-News


Elgin Portland United Church Council

We have one important birthday this week, Wednesday is the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Sylvia French – Our condolences and prayers are sent to the French family. On Monday, December 16th, Sylvia left this earth, surrounded by her family. She now abides with her Lord. She was a friend to countless people and her gifts were at work here in the Portland United Church for many years. God’s blessing on Will, Pauline, and the extended family. Know you are loved.  The obituary can be found on Scotland Funeral Home website.

Pride, Arrogance or Humility? 

A Christmas message

It was a calm night, after a long day of travel, but they had arrived and were now gathered around the cozy fire pit to relax. Suddenly a strong wind arose with great clashes of thunder and flashes of lightning.  A figure resplendent in gold and jewels descended to earth. God had arrived!

Oh no, wait a minute, that is not how it happened. God came to earth in the form of the baby Jesus, not in a fanfare of glory and power, but as a child, born in a humble stable, to a lower-middle class family in a lowly town. Heaven came to earth, but when it did, it came in humility.  Wouldn’t you think that God would have displayed his power and glory, with a castle and riches in a city or country of prominence? Should he not have risen up, pounded his chest and declared, “I AM GOD”? Philippians 2: 5-11 speaks to this. This passage tells us that although Jesus was God on earth, he was also a man, a humble servant, obedient to God until death.

We are called to have the same attitude as Jesus. Say what?  Jesus knew who He was, yet He was willing to be a servant so He could serve others. This is a big part of the Christmas message. Jesus came to be our saviour, but also to show us the nature of God. A God who is benevolent and gracious and has shown us, through Jesus, we are to serve others. Yes, we serve God, we worship, but Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve.  Jesus knew who He was. He was God. He was also man. He knew who He was and willingly served as a man amongst men. He didn’t hold Himself up, regaling on His godliness. He went about serving others.

We can do this too, but first we have to figure out, “who we are”. We are children of God, He is our father, mother, dad, mom.  Once we truly accept and believe He is our parent, and we His children, we don’t have to spend our time showing off, vying for attention, trying to prove we are forgiven or accepted. We are children of a loving, benevolent, gracious God and nothing we can do today will make God love us anymore tomorrow, and nothing we do today will cause God to love us any less tomorrow. That is the security of having a Jesus attitude.

People need security, but without security in God, we bounce around vainly searching for it: in money, relationships, possessions, power, drugs and other things. This false sense of what we think is happiness/security frustrates us and makes us dependent upon others and requiring too much of others.  Security in God frees us up to look after the needs of others.

This Christmas let’s have the Jesus attitude in us. Let’s ask God to open our eyes, our hearts and our minds for the rights, the needs and the concerns of those around us. There are many who are old, lonely, distraught, homeless, ill and afraid who need a touch of love and the Christmas message.      

Clinton Halladay

This is the Service schedule for the duration of this year. Liz Church will be the speaker. 

Sunday the 22nd. Regular service and time in both churches. Christmas Eve the 24th. Portland Service at 4 p.m., Elgin 7 p.m.  Sunday the 29th. Joint service at Portland 10 a.m.

Sunday the 5th of January 2025 back to normal two services and times with Norma Wrightly in the pulpit.

Annette’s days of work over the holiday period are as follows: 

Christmas week: Annette will work Monday and Tuesday, the 23rd and 24th until Noon, to prepare for the Christmas Eve Services. She will also be in on Thursday and Friday, the 26th and 27th, to prepare for the service on the 29th. Annette will be off Monday and Tuesday of the New Years week the 30th and 31st but will work the Thursday and Friday of that week the 2nd and 3rd. …………Ted

Bible Discussion Groups will resume after the holidays on January 6th and 7th.  Info: Jim at ccjimbarton@gmail.com or  613-328-4089.

Advance notice JAN 25, 2025 – our Canadian Women in Song troupe plays at the Joshua Bates Centre, Athens. Get your tickets early. joshuabatescentre.com

Annual General Meetings are scheduled (PUC/EUC/OB) for Sunday, February 16th, 2025.  OB will be in Elgin.  General reports are due by January 20th, and financial reports are due by January 27th, for the Annual Report to be done. Please forward your reports to office@eppc-ucc.com.

 

Devotional Reflection

December 21, 2024

During this time of year, we use the word ‘WISH’ more often, I believe, than at any other time. I mentioned before that Sears called their Christmas edition of their catalogue ‘The Christmas Wish Book’. And for years children have made Christmas wish lists for Santa.

This got me thinking. Why do we call that special bone in a turkey or chicken a wishbone? What is the significance?

My friend, Doctor Google helped me out with these facts. I discovered a tradition that dated back more than 2,400 years, with very little variation in it. Before a chicken was cooked, the furcula (wishbone), was removed and put out in the sun to dry. Each person who walked by and saw it would take the opportunity to touch it, for good luck. The early Italians believed the chicken to be sacred and powerful. Therefore, their wish would come true. Of course, the law of supply and demand entered the picture. If you halved the wishbone, more blessings abound! Thus, two people would make a wish, and the bigger half got their wish answered.

Fast forward to the 1600’s and the arrival of the English to America. The tradition continued when it was discovered that turkeys had a similar shaped bone.

If you are really bored, you can also look up how to break the wishbone so that you always get the bigger half or how long it needs to dry out to make sure it breaks so that your wish will be fulfilled.

I also discovered another truth, with far more meaning for us as Christians. Coming back to the word ‘wish’. The most common form of “wish” in the Bible (Greek word, ‘thelo’) means to will, desirewant. Romans 10:1 Good News Translation has Paul saying these words:

My friends, how I wish with all my heart that my own people might be saved! How I pray to God for them’!

And we look further and see these words:

2 Peter 3:9 New English Translation – ‘The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because He does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance’.

From these 2 examples we see an important key to these wishes is that they come from the heart. Therefore, what better time than right now, during this Christmas season, to be reminded of why we celebrate the birth of Christ?

And this is a perfect time for me to say to all: My wish for you, my dear friends, is that this Christmas brings you into the Presence of the Most High God.

You are loved. You are blessed.

Liz Church, Director of Pastoral Care

Elgin/Portland Pastoral Charge