Some Optimism for the New Year (part 2)- Sponsored Article from Person of the Planet

This is the concluding part of a Christian Science article on new developments that will make the world a better place. We have previously presented the first four of those developments, and here are five more, all of which will bring good for the environment, to briefly again quote the beginning of the article, the improvements in this list will

“... help make the world a safer, saner, and more prosperous place for the majority of us. Fueled by advances in electronics, software, and materials science as well as by the imaginativeness of researchers and inventors, a number of new technologies promise to help curb global warming and biodiversity loss, ease commutes, and stretch the planet's natural resources to feed and house the nearly 10 billion people who are expected to be sharing it by 2050. . .from rooftop fans that pull carbon dioxide from the air to 3-D printed homes to radical concepts in transportation...

5. Slicker Cities

In October, Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, the company that owns Google, announced that it will commit $50 million to redesigning 12 acres of waterfront in Toronto as a “smart city.” Rechristened as Quayside, the neighborhood will be carpeted with sensors; road design will prioritize pedestrians, cyclists, and self-driving cars; and construction will emphasize prefabricated structures built with eco-friendly timber and plastic. If all goes well, the company will expand the project to 800 acres.

Billionaire Bill Gates is getting involved in the city-of-tomorrow movement, too. The former head of Microsoft plans to invest $80 million in a smart city on 25,000 acres on the western edge of Phoenix. Called Belmont, the community will include 80,000 homes.

“Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs,” says Belmont Partners, a real estate investment group that is developing the land.

Another futuristic city that will soon be getting more visibility, when the Olympics open in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February, is the Songdo International Business District. The 1,500-acre site, built on land reclaimed from the Yellow Sea 45 miles southwest of Seoul, features energy-efficient buildings, electric vehicle charging stations, and pneumatic waste-disposal systems.

6. Printing Homes

3-D printing has been used to create everything from jet airliner components to custom-fit shoes. Many experts say the process of turning digital files into three-dimensional objects could ultimately usher in a new industrial revolution. 

One of the latest manifestations of 3-D wizardry: building houses. It’s an application that could transform construction practices that have remained unchanged for centuries. 

Using a swiveling robotic arm that extrudes concrete, a San Francisco company, Apis Cor, 3-D printed the concrete walls for a 400-square-foot house in Russia in less than 24 hours in early 2017. And researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have built a robotic arm and a vehicle that dispenses concrete for a 50-foot-diameter, 12-foot-high dome in less than 14 hours.

The technology could greatly speed up the construction of homes and reduce the waste. Construction refuse accounts for half of all solid waste in the United States. 

7. Purer Water

If you have a water filter in your refrigerator or on your kitchen faucet, you know it comes with one major drawback: The filter often has to be replaced.

Researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey have developed a way to clean water that may get around this problem: Infuse it with gas. It works by injecting carbon dioxide into a stream of water. When CO2 is dissolved in water, it creates ions that generate a small electric field. Because most contaminants have a surface charge, the electric field can split the stream into two channels, one carrying the contaminants and one containing clean water.

The researchers say that their method is 1,000 times as efficient as conventional filtration systems. They believe it could be useful in providing more sources of potable water in the developing world because of its low cost and low maintenance requirements. The technology could also find use in filtering water at desalination plants and water treatment facilities.

8. Wonder Wafer

Graphene has been heralded as the next wonder material. A form of carbon that consists of a single layer of atoms, it is stronger than steel, harder than diamond, lighter than paper, and more conductive than copper. 

It is currently being used in everything from electronics to high-tech tennis rackets. It may one day lead to smartphones as thin as paper that can be folded up and put in your pocket.

A team of physicists at the University of Sussex in England has for the first time combined silver nanowires with graphene to create a bendable, shatterproof touch screen. Because of graphene’s high conductivity, the screens could be more responsive and use far less power. They may be crucial to creating a new generation of credit-card-size phones.

9. Curbing Global Warming with Fans [last, but not least!]

Climate change is caused mostly by human activity emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Part of the solution may lie in extracting the harmful pollutants from the air – and then recycling them in useful ways.

That, at least, is what the Swiss company Climeworks is banking on. On the roof of a recycling center outside Zurich, Switzerland, 18 fans suck in the surrounding air. Chemically coated filters absorb the carbon dioxide. When they are saturated, the filters are heated to produce pure CO2, which is pumped into a nearby greenhouse where it helps vegetables grow bigger. Climeworks estimates that its fans are about 1,000 times as efficient as photosynthesis, which draws carbon out of the atmosphere and turns it into plant material.

Climeworks was the first to commercially capture CO2 from ambient air, but it is just one of many companies around the world pursuing carbon capture as a way of mitigating climate change. Carbon Engineering, backed by Bill Gates, is testing air capture at a facility in British Columbia. New York-based Global Thermostat has two pilot plants drawing CO2 from the air and power-plant flues.”

Please contact POP if you know about some more good developments in the works that will help our planet heal and thrive.

Faith is a Verb... Musings by Pastor Tony January 5, 2017

Cautiously we slide into the New Year, first dipping a toe into the cold waters of winter, testing to see how 2018 might affect us. In turning away from 2017 we leave behind memories, yet we take with us legacies of the year just past. In 2017, we finished the railing project along the outside wall of the sanctuary, providing more stability for those who walk that long walk each Sunday, we renovated the kitchen to a more modern look, and we replaced the stage curtains. In 2017, two small groups continued the work of the New Beginnings process started in 2016, creating the Person of the Planet and inaugurating a monthly speaker series on the nexus of justice and environmentalism.  As well, three long-term Council members, Ruth Robinson, Elena Caruthers, and Dorothy Streutker stepped off Council at the end of the year.

2018 brings three new Council members, Carol Lloyd, Linda Young, and Sara Laferte, and we are looking toward a Council retreat soon to get ready for this year. We have set a plan to redo our landscaping, with the generous donation from Jill Bryans’ Estate, as soon as the rains stop, and we are discerning the timing of redoing the patio, stairs, and deck outside the Social Hall. Meanwhile, the Person of the Planet team, working with the Board of Mission and Social Justice, are writing a Covenant statement to be part of the application to the United Church of Christ asking that ACC is designated a Creation Justice Church. The Covenant will also be used as a liturgical element periodically in worship as we welcome new members and celebrate who we are as a congregation. I have also asked the Pastor Parish Relations Team (Elena Caruthers, Barry Cammer, and Susan Yourd) to work with me, Council, and the congregation to evaluate all of our ministries at Arlington Community Church and how each of us connects to them, which I hope will lead to a frank discussion about my job description and duties.

Well then, that is a lot of stuff already in the works for 2018. Perhaps we are not just testing the waters of 2018, but moving from a shallow end to deeper waters. The waters we swim in surround us and hold us afloat. They are the waters of baptism, the water that makes up most of our body mass, and the waters that make up the bulk of the earth’s surface. The waters we swim in are the blessing waters of God, and they are part of the body of God. As we glide from 2017 to 2018, we see that we do not leave behind anything, because the pool we swim in is continuous from year to year. Our work is still in God, and our work is an extension of what we did last year. Even so, you can see that what lies ahead are some big tasks, and we can always use your prayers, your gifts, and your service to accomplish them.

On this the 12th day of Christmas, I wish you a blessed New Year, filled with the Epiphany Light of Christ.   

Peace, 

Pastor Tony

Some Optimism for the New year (part 1)

(from a Christian Science Monitor’s Dec. 30 article, "18 Leaps To Watch For...")

Sponsored Article from Person of the Planet- Shirley Lutzky

“The coming year will probably bring many surprises, but we can be confident in making at least one prediction: Technology will advance. And despite headlines warning of malevolent artificial intelligences, unscrupulous hackers, and greedy tech billionaires, many of these improvements will actually help make the world a safer, saner, and more prosperous place for the majority of us. Fueled by advances in electronics, software, and materials science as well as by the imaginative researchers and inventors, a number of new technologies promise to help curb global warming and biodiversity loss, ease commutes, and stretch the planet's natural resources to feed and house the nearly 10 billion people who are expected to be sharing it by 2050. . .from rooftop fans that pull carbon dioxide from the air to 3-D printed homes to radical concepts in transportation...

[Here are four that will contribute to the thriving of the planet. Part II will conclude with five more, in the next POP issue ]:          

1. Designer Solar

If you want solar panels, you don’t necessarily need to make your home look as if it’s covered with cereal boxes. Many companies are developing technology that lets homeowners integrate photovoltaic cells right into their houses’ existing architecture. Tesla, the electric car innovator, makes solar tiles that look like ordinary roof shingles. The company has installed them on about a dozen homes so far, including that of the company’s founder, Elon Musk, and orders for more are already sold out well into 2018. And...A team of Australian researchers has developed solar-powered paint. It works by soaking up water vapor from the air and then using the energy from sunlight to split the water into oxygen and hydrogen gas. The collected hydrogen is used in fuel cells.

2. Looks Do Matter

Facial-recognition systems have been used for everything from stadium security to unlocking a phone. But humans, it turns out, aren’t the only ones with machine-readable mugs: US researchers have developed a system that can reliably distinguish the faces of red-bellied lemurs - the furry primates with eyes like headlights that are among the world’s most endangered mammals.

The system, called LemurFaceID, could enhance wildlife conservation efforts by allowing biologists to identify and track the animals, found only in the wilds of Madagascar, without having to sedate and tag them. The technology works by identifying the fur on the lemur’s face, and its inventors suspect it could be used to monitor other species with distinct facial fur patterns, such as red pandas, raccoons, and sloths.

Already, scientists have used facial recognition with fish. In 2016, the Nature Conservancy’s FishFace project received a $750,000 prize from Google to develop a smartphone app that could be used on fishing boats worldwide. The technology could offer a low-cost way to manage fisheries, allowing more precise monitoring of stocks and better tracking of declining species.

3. Digital Farming

Quick: Which country is the second-largest food exporter in the world behind the United States? Surprisingly, it’s the Netherlands.

The country has become a global produce rack even though it is 1/270th the size of the US and lies at the same latitude as Newfoundland. It has achieved this by being in the forefront of the “precision farming” revolution.

Around the world, farmers are increasingly tapping new technologies to increase yields. Drones and satellites provide infrared and thermal imagery that measure the photosynthesis rates of crops. Sensors embedded in fields relay moisture levels and allow farmers to remotely control their irrigation pumps from their smartphones. Even the farmer’s trusty water bucket has gone high-tech: The WatchDog wireless rainfall collector measures temperature and rainfall down to a hundredth of an inch - turning farmers into instant meteorologists.

All of this data can be aggregated to help growers divine when and where to plant seeds, spread fertilizer and lime, and spritz fields with pesticides. The monitoring reduces both labor costs and environmental waste.

4. A Soft Pedal

Electric bicycles have been around since the 1890s, but they have long had a reputation of being ungainly, expensive, and heavy. Now advanced sensors and control systems are reviving the e-bike’s image - and its practicality as a form of urban transport in an era of irrepressible traffic congestion. 

Superpedestrian, an e-bikemaker in Cambridge, Mass., has created the Copenhagen Wheel, which looks like a rear bicycle wheel with an oversized red disc as the hub. It uses data from sensors to estimate the torque, cadence, and position of the pedals to emulate the feel of riding a normal bike, only with far less effort, since the battery is doing most of the work.

“E-bikes will really get going when they start to feel like regular bikes, but the riders become superhuman,” says Assaf Biderman, Superpedestrian’s chief executive officer. “That’s when we know we’ve nailed it.”

The $1,500 wheel can be purchased as a replacement rear wheel for a standard bicycle. The company also sells bikes with the wheel built in.

Other e-vehicles are blurring the line between bike and car. The egg-shaped ELF, produced by the Durham, N.C., company Organic Transit, sports three wheels and an enclosed cab with solar panels on the roof. Retailing for about $9,000, it is powered by a combination of pedals and a solar-powered rechargeable battery. Two other bike/cars are plying roads in Germany - the Twike, a fully enclosed electric vehicle, and the four-wheeled Schaeffler Bio-Hybrid, which looks like a cross between a baby buggy and an all-terrain vehicle. It can be propelled by pedal power, batteries, or both at once.

The next article, Part II, will present 5 more promising new developments that give reason for some optimism.

Looking for Good News in the Environment: January 2018 From Person of the Planet by Ruth Robinson

A U.S. subnational delegation committed to keeping America’s Paris Climate Goals. 

In June this year, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the country would be pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. However, a rival coalition of U.S. governors, mayors, business and religious leaders paid for, and opened, an unofficial pavilion dubbed “America’s Pledge: We Are Still In.” This delegation, representing non-federal actors in 15 U.S. states, 455 cities, 1,747 businesses and 325 universities, proclaimed its commitment to the Paris Agreement on behalf of the American people. Governor Jerry Brown of California and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg led the delegation.

Pastor Tony's Sermon Christmas Eve, 2017

Mary was a shame.

She was a shame to her family.

She was a shame to her fiancé.

She was a shame to her village—or she would have been if they had known,

if she had shown

if she had grown

and given birth to her shame.

Mary was young and pregnant and also unwed.

If she didn’t know how that happened, everyone else did.

“Of course, a girl like her would end up like that. What did you expect?”

the villagers would say.

“Mary, tsk, tsk, tsk, what a shame!”

“She should have known better!”

“Where are her parents, anyway?”

Then someone decided how she should shun shame:

to keep pure and clean her family name

they would play an age-old game.

Before she began to show very much,

while her loose clothing still hid her baby-bump

and before the shame within her could grow

and show

just what kind of wild woman she really was—

they declared that she must go

away,

to the hills,

to her distant cousin Elizabeth’s distant house.

Elizabeth was pregnant, too, and the public play

could be

that young Mary

went to help her older cousin give birth.

Perhaps they might deliver on the same day!

“Oh, look. Twins!!!” “A blessing!” the gossips would say.

“A definite improvement in Elizabeth’s social worth.”

And Mary could return

unburdened by unwed shame

and, thus, she could shamelessly wed Joseph and take his name.

It was a pre-arranged marriage, into King David’s line,

a path that was paved by paternal practices of the time.

Yet their masculine determinations were denounced and undone by the Divine.

While Men decreed, decried, declared, determined to dismiss and divorce,

and decided how to dominate her body,

the Divine said her body was sacred, and her baby was godly.

An angel appeared and said, “Mary, this may sound odd;

this baby’s not a shame; he’s the Son of God.”

Instead of shame Mary was given both grace and glory.

          --And now for the rest of the story.

She was sent away to bear her shame in an undisclosed location.

Elizabeth, her hostess, look at her and said, without hesitation,

“My God, Mary.  You shine. You glow! Your face!

You know, Mary, Mother of God, you are full of grace!”

Then Mary, the one who was newly pronounced graceful

Cried out with joy from the depths of her soul,

“My God, I praise.

Yahweh has saved me from shame.

Yahweh saves! Yeshua. Yes, Jesus shall be his name.”

And then, Mary returned to Nazareth full of grace.

A few months later as she neared her term, her husband-to-be

came to take her to a census and fulfill another man’s decree.

Other men shaking their heads, in mock apology,

 They said they couldn’t find room in their inns

Wary

of this young, pregnant Mary,

unwed, full of sins.

Perhaps an innkeeper’s wife peering through the door

didn’t see a girl, full of shame, destitute, and poor,

But rather

she saw a young mother--

 full of glory and with near-term desperation.

Then the innkeeper’s wife snuck out the back door,

and whispered, “Psst. Hey hon.

We’ve got a barn;

it’s not very pretty,

but, dearie, you look tired and worn,

and, for one such as you, I’ve got some pity.”

She led them to a respite from the crowded, loud city,

to a barn, a stall, a warm and dry space,--

yet, a straw-lined shed is a shameful place

to give birth to King David’s Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson.

Giving birth in a barn like a common cow?

Yet once again Mary’s shame, somehow

became a miraculous, angel-filled story of grace,

when short-shorn sheep

and shepherds who smelled like sheep

showed up to see the baby sleep.

And when they returned their flocks to their keep,

they danced and sang,

inviting, exciting,

rejoicing, reciting,

“God’s kingdom is come,

in great David’s Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson.

She, who was once called shameful, is now proclaimed Mary, Full of Grace

And unexpectedly, a manger is the Messiah’s birth place.

And now because of the birth in that crèche,

Those who are called shameful or worthless

are now full of grace, full of worth, and blessed.

and the Divine promise--

hope for the hopeless

joy for the joyless

peace for the warriors, the wounded, and war-torn

love for the lost, the least, the last, the lonely and forlorn

the promise was fulfilled when God was born.

The angels sing “Glory, Glory, Glory be!”

Shame has shed its shackles, Glory be!

For now has come the time

          for God’s grace and light to shine.

For you and me,

for Mary,

and for all humanity.

May Christ be born again in all of your hearts this Christmas Day.

Amen.

Pastor Tony's Sermon December 24, 2017

Luke 1: 26-38 & 46-55    12-24-17    4th Sunday of Advent   ACCUCC Rev. Tony Clark

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

What does it mean to bring a child into a world such as this?

I’m guessing that many parents wonder this as they find out they are pregnant, and I imagine Mary and probably Joseph asked that exact question. What does it mean to bring a child into a world like this? There is such profound beauty and such profound joy in our world, and there is such profound suffering and pain. Sometimes they are found in the same place, or the same person.

Mary and Joseph knew their world was created by God to be beautiful, to give pleasure, to move them to worship the Divine spirit flowing through all things. And they also knew their world to be defined by unrest in Jerusalem, high taxes for the poor and continued accumulation of wealth for the wealthy. It was a world that shamed women for what men do to them, a world full of refugees, and the mentally ill and homeless. What does it mean to bring a child into this kind of world?

For Mary, young, pregnant, unwed, she still can sing praise to God, name the profound beauty and the profound joy in this world, and proclaim that the profound suffering and pain has been removed by God.

Today, we are moved by her joy; Tomorrow we mark that a child was born into a world of both joy and pain. Today, perhaps many of us woke up to realize that little has changed. There still is profound beauty and joy. And there still is profound suffering and pain.

Today, nothing may have changed, yet we know that tomorrow, Christmas Day, is a day to mark a change. Tomorrow, Christmas, is a celebration not just of traditions and remembrances past, but a celebration of a turning world, a changing world, and God’s hopes for what is new.

 Tomorrow we mark that a child was born and, like all children, the child was beautiful, and bright and blessed by God. We even say that the child was God.

He was connected to the Divine and pointed to the Divine in ways that many of us lose as we grow up. As he grew up, that child lost neither the connection to the Divine nor the ability to point to God. That child pointed out God in the world, reminding the people around him of a different time when God brought change. The child pointed to change, and the child was change.

Yet the world is still full of profound beauty and profound joy, and it is still filled with profound suffering and pain. There is unrest in Jerusalem, taxes are going up for the poor while the wealthy continue to accumulate wealth, we are awakening to how we shame women for what men do to them, we are overrun by refugees, and mentally ill and homeless.

If nothing has changed, then what has changed?

Everything.

Little changed when Jesus was born. It took 30 years or more for his life to begin to have meaning, and another 3 years after that for his death to have meaning. The man brought change. The death brought change. The world turned. The world changed.

And maybe for a few years, or decades, or even centuries, there was a different way of living in the world.

There was still profound beauty and profound joy. And, yes, there was still profound suffering and pain. The change that this child brought was to remind us to bring beauty and joy where there was pain and suffering. He reminded us to bring love to the least, the last, the lost, and the lonely. He reminded us to bring peace where there were wars and warriors, wounded, and wandering, wondering minds. He reminded us to bring justice where there is injustice, fairness where there is unfairness, and equality where there is inequality. And for a while his followers seemed to do all of that.

What he reminded us was not anything new, but it was a bit different than what they were doing. The world had gotten weary, and worn down, and it was easier to follow a formula of faith and the letter of the law than to follow the initial intention of the faith. It was easier to celebrate with traditions than to trade them for true turning of hearts toward God.

It was a world much like today. There is weariness, and we are worn down. There is suffering and pain. There are people for whom beauty and joy are rare, hope is empty, and justice never seems to give them a break. Traditions have taken the place of the turning of our hearts. Formulas of faith take the place of initial intention.

Today, it seems the same. And Tomorrow, as Christmas dawns, this may still be the case; there may be nothing different. There may be nothing new in our weary, worn down, woeful world.

Or maybe there will be a turning, a transforming. Maybe there will be a change. Maybe tomorrow is the day for mystery, and mystique, and magic. Maybe tomorrow is the day of hope for the hopeless, and joy for the joyless, and peace where there is war and love for the lost, the last, the least, and the lonely. Maybe tomorrow, we will celebrate not just with traditions and remembrances past, but we will wake up and celebrate the turning toward God.

What does it mean to bring a child into a world such as this? Perhaps it will change nothing. 

Or perhaps, as that young, pregnant, unwed mother sang, it could change everything. It could bring hope to the hopeless, joy to the joyless, peace to the wars and love to the lost, the last, the least, and the lonely.

So Tomorrow, dear ones, may your hearts by turned. May Christ bring you beauty and joy if you are suffering or in pain. May Christ bring peace to wars and warriors and wandering minds. May Christ enter your hearts, that you might bring love to the last, the lost, the least, the lonely and the unloved. And as you celebrate with traditions, remember they not a trade-off for true faith; the traditions are intended to connect you with the Divine and point out God in our world.

Tomorrow, may you experience God in the child, in the change, in the turning, and in this world of beauty and joy. Prepare your hearts for the shining of God’s light. Amen.

Pastor Tony's Sermon December 17, 2017

John 1; 6-8, 19-27 (28-29)     12-17-17     ACCUCC     Rev. Tony Clark

Listen to This Week's Complete Sermon by Clicking Here.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then they said to him, ‘Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said,
‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord” ’, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, ‘Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’ John answered them, ‘I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.’ (This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!)

“Prepare! Prepare the way of the Lord,” cries the prophet.

Wait, what are we preparing for?

This is my question this time of year. In Advent we wait, we hope and dream, and we prepare. What are we preparing for?

We are preparing for Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and look toward the re-birth of Christ.

Yet, if we are preparing for a birth, we don’t act like it. There is no preparation of a nursery, no purchasing of diapers, no buying or borrowing car seats or cribs or baby carriages. Instead we put trees in our living rooms and string lights and ornaments on them.

If it is a birthday celebration we are preparing for, why don’t we buy gifts for the birthday boy? No other birthday celebration do we buy gifts for each other and get nothing for the one celebrating their birth. And there aren’t very many people for whom we celebrate birthdays after they’ve died, particularly after many centuries of death. Instead of buying gifts for Jesus or even Mary and Joseph, we buy gifts for each other.

We celebrate with presents and lights and gathering around for a big meal. The meal takes as much preparation as the decorating or gift buying and wrapping. Preparations for a feast came early in my family—“What are we going to have for Christmas dinner?” was the first question my Mom would ask. It went along with, “Where are we going to have Christmas this year?” because whoever hosted also got to choose what the main course would be. Preparing the meal became part of the preparation for the holiday, and even if you didn’t cook the main course, you cooked some part of the meal—the Jell-O® salad, the green bean casserole, the bread rolls, or the pecan pie.

The preparation that goes into Christmas Day--the meal, the gift giving, the decorating—is supposed to remind us of what we are preparing for—the re-birth of Christ, the return of God into our lives, the light that the darkness of night cannot put out. God’s return is to be good news to the poor, release for captives, freedom for the imprisoned, so why aren’t we preparing for a river of poor that have newly granted purchasing power, or a flotilla of captives to land on our shores, or a flood of prisoners who are returning to society? Now that would be preparing for the birth of Christ!

Some Christians fear that Christmas is being taken away from us, and I agree with that. I disagree with them on why. Some  say that Christmas is being lost because store employees say, “Happy Holidays.” Saying, “Happy Holidays” is polite when we are in a multi-cultural multi-faith society; it recognizes that there are many celebrations near the winter solstice, and not all of them are Christmas. The meaning of Christmas has not been stripped away by other religions, or atheists, or even liberals or progressive Christians.

The meaning of Christmas has been stripped away over time because we’ve lost focus on what we are preparing for—the arrival of God, who doesn’t arrive with boxes and ribbons, trees and lights, and a meal of epic proportions. The stores simply support our mistaken notion of how to prepare for the return of Christ. Decorating, buying and giving gifts, and making a feast keeps us busy, distracted, from facing the depth and importance of God re-entering our lives. The return of Christ is so big an event that we have no idea how exactly to prepare for it.

We know pretty well how to prepare for a baby—diapers, a nursery, car seats. We know pretty well how to prepare for a birthday party—hats and streamers, maybe a piñata, birthday cake, and gifts. We know how to prepare for a family feast—turkey or ham, dungeness crab, Jell-O® salad, green bean casserole, or maybe tamales. We have recipes and decorator magazines and even retail stores to show us how to prepare these things.

Yet we don’t really know how to prepare for the arrival of God. The Bible isn’t much help—From Isaiah: make straight the highways, fill every valley and level every hill; or from Mark: repent! and be baptized; or From Luke: go visit your cousin Elizabeth, and go to Bethlehem to register for the census; or from Matthew: dream of angels. These are not very practical ways to prepare for the birth of God today.

So how could we prepare for God’s re-entrance into our lives?

First, I’d say, we must pray.

Second, I’d say, we must pray. Pray for strength and patience and compassion, because God’s return will be an upheaval.

Third, I’d say, train doctors and nurses, because there will be a wave of poor who finally receive health care; and I’d say prepare housing and jobs for the imprisoned who will be released. Graduate psychologists for the captives who have PTSD, and social workers for helping to get through the bureaucracy of life. Get churches and synagogues and mosques and temples ready for the influx of people struggling with their faith in the upheaval of all of society.   

Fourth, in the words of a famous Christmas Carol, I’d say, “let every heart prepare him room.” With the river of refugees, and the flood of prisoners, and the flotilla of captives, we will probably be frustrated. Language barriers, new holidays and food, not to mention cultural differences around how we drive, how we wait in line, how we celebrate life’s ups and downs, all of these may become points of frustration, and we will need room in our hearts for all of it. We will need to practice compassion.

Oh, and don’t forget the decorations, the gifts, and the feast. We will need lights to celebrate way into the night, and for the late comers to see their way in. We will need gifts to pass out, and extras for those who were released from captivity after the stores closed. We will need food to sustain us through the festivities and all that comes next. Prepare for a day of celebration--not merely a day off, not merely a day with family and friends and football, not merely a day for giving and receiving gifts, not even a day filled with traditions. Prepare for a day of Justice and Joy. Prepare for a season of health. Prepare for a period of affordable housing and an era where no one goes hungry, or lives in a tent under a bridge, or is addicted to opioids or alcohol or anything else to escape the misery and suffering of life. And prepare for people whose lives are suddenly changed, improved, filled with peace, and hope, and joy.

Prepare! Prepare the way of the Lord!!! For all people shall see the salvation of our God.

And that will be messy.

God, in this season of preparation, may we not forget the real reason for the season. May we prepare for your arrival and all that comes with it. May we prepare our hearts with room for you, with compassion for the prisoners that will be released, and the immigrants who will enter our communities, and the homeless who are already here. Amen.

This is Your Planet by Shanti Moorjani

Remember the patriotic song "This is Your Country" ...land of the free.  As a kid, when I heard this song I would get all puffed up with pride and the feeling of belonging,  proud to be an American.  This Christmas, I am not feeling so proud to be an American.  Instead, I would like to change the words of the song to "This is your Planet".   I am very proud of all of you that have expressed an interest and commitment to be Persons of the Planet.   I am happy that since our start in the Spring of this year 2017, we have had 2 movie nights, 2 great speakers, a green holiday bazaar and an article in the Kensington Outlook.  And, the outlook looks good for 2018, with more movies nights and an interesting range of speakers lined up. 

Here is our upcoming list:

January 4

Craftism, Art, and Tides

January 18

Movie:   Rivers and Tides

January 25

Movie:  How Do You Dance

February 15

Speaker:  Jeff Kushner  of Litterati talking about litter

February 22

Marsela Pecanac  of New Resource talking about Green Banking

March 15

Andrew Gunther  Climate Scientist at UC Berkeley specializing in Marine biology.

April 22

 Earth Celebration and choir

April TBA

 Mike  from Berkeley Re-cycling

May TBA

Maya from Soul Flower Farms talking on natural living and gardening

Stay tuned to updates and mark your calendar.   Thank you for embracing our Mother Earth as she has embraced us.

Pastor Tony's Sermon December 10, 2017

Isaiah 40: 1-11     12-10-17     ACCUCC     Rev. Tony Clark

Listen to this week's sermon by clicking here

Comfort, O comfort my people,
   says your God. 
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. 
A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
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. 
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ 
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. 
The grass withers, the flower fades,
   when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
   surely the people are grass. 
The grass withers, the flower fades;
   but the word of our God will stand for ever. 
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!’ 
See, the Lord God comes with might,
   and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
   and his recompense before him. 
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.

The Advent theme, “Restore Us, O God,” leads us today to dreams and hopes.  We heard a scripture about a prophetic dream, a dream that brings comfort to a people besieged by war, imprisoned, and taken in Exile to a far-away land. It is a dream of a savior, who is both a Warrior that would protect the people that have been trampled like grass, and is also a caring Shepherd who will lift the scared and shaking sheep into Divine arms and offer them comfort. This scripture is comfortable and comforting to many of us, and it is linked in our tradition to predicting and preparing for the birth of Christ.

The passage focuses our attention on Jerusalem and Mt. Zion, the home of God. Jerusalem has never been far from the minds of the faithful, and once again it is a centerpiece to our holiday preparations. Fighting over control of the city goes back more than 2500 years, and it has been fought over almost all of that time. It is a story that has resonance with many places across the world; in many ways, the issues are similar to our own little North Richmond, except without the world focus on it. The issues are always the same: fences that isolate a minority population, rich owners of home and work places who make decisions to help themselves but not the poor who work and rent from them, security guards that cannot or will not work with the most oppressed, and limited access to culturally important sites. 

 Like current day Palestinians and residents of North Richmond, the ancient Israelites cried out; Restore us, O God.  Restore us, O God, and comfort us, that we may once again have dreams of peace and prosperity.

More than 2500 years ago, a prophet wrote a poem about Jerusalem, a place that had been under threat by various forces for more than 150 years. It finally succumbed to the Assyrians, in 587 BC, when the Temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, and most of the people were forced to march 500 miles east to Babylon. The straightest way from Jerusalem to Babylon was through the desert, which was harsh, waterless, and had very little food. The less direct way was through mountains and valleys where water and food was available, however, those roads came with their own dangers: valleys were dangerous because marauders would lie in wait around the curves, or above on the cliffs. Mountains were difficult to climb up and down. The city was demolished, the land was devastated, the people were demoralized, and they had been driven to a distant land. There they wrote one of the most poignant poems of loss and abandonment ever written, Psalm 137; “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”  Jerusalem, the home and people of God was demolished and demoralized, their dreams dashed.

For a moment, close your eyes and imagine a ceiling above you. It is covered in plaster, a blank canvass for painting dreams on it. A scaffolding is set up, and you are a master muralist, climbing the scaffolding to start work. You have been commissioned to paint the hopes and dreams of your people. What dreams would get painted there? What dream would you paint if you were a refugee fleeing brutal civil war or environmental devastation? What dreams would you paint if you were living in a place where police had to be paid off to offer any sense of safety? What dreams would you paint if your village was cut off from everything else by a strange consortium of fences, factories, and political forces? You paint a dream of hope; what does it include?

Now imagine that it begins to rain, the roof leaks, and the plaster flakes and falls to the ground. The hopeful dream is dashed, and the people cry out, “Our dreams, painted on a ceiling of plaster, are dashed. The painted plaster has plunged to the floor and scattered and shattered in bits of matter in the Great Dream Dust Plaster Disaster. We sweep shattered dreams that fell from the ceiling with a long-handled broom and a frank feather duster and dump the dream dust in the dusted-dream dumpster.”

 Jerusalem’s Dream Dust Disaster was the destruction of the Temple and the Exile, and a prophet took paintbrush in hand to repaint a poetic dream for his people. This dream of restoration, painted in bold beauty, was to comfort the people.

A hopeless, dreamless people, yet the prophet dreamed that God was with them through their demolition, devastation, and demoralization. God heard the people’s cries, and called together the royal court for counsel, and the prophet was invited to observe. The pantheon of all the local gods of the region gathered to give Israel’s God good advice, and to discuss their response to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Exile of the people. At the opening of the proceedings, the God of Israel rose and spoke to the Council, “Give comfort to my people. Speak tenderly to them. They have been through enough.”

In response, in gratitude for God’s desire for comfort, following a trumpet fanfare, a voice cried out -- perhaps the voice of another god on the council, “Prepare for our God and King’s arrival!! Make the road smooth, fill in the potholes, lay out the red carpet, put on your best clothes, and decorate with flowers! Clean up the mess from the Great Dream Dust Plaster Disaster. The heavenly court approaches.”

God’s people have suffered, and God will pay for the cost of restoration, and for the loss to the people. What was demolished will be cleaned up, what was demoralizing will be gone.  And to celebrate, the One God Above All Other Gods will make a royal appearance, to tour the new building projects and bless the people.

Another voice on the council says, “Cry out!” and the prophet asks, “What shall I cry?” The answer is, “Tell the people that the ancient covenant between God and the people stands forever. Go up to a high mountain and tell them that this is their God-- One who comes in might and yet is also as gentle as a shepherd carrying a lamb.” This ruling God will not enslave you, nor take you in Exile, nor show power by demolishing and demoralizing you. This God will lift you up, hold you like a Shepherd holds a lamb, and restore your dreams. This is your God.

It is a truly prophetic dream. A dream of hope, of comfort, of restoration. It is a dream for a river of refugees. It is a dream for a hoard of hungry and homeless. It is a dream for those fenced in by factories and political forces.

It is a dream that all of heaven will restore what is demolished and destroyed, and the heavenly council will unite to comfort God’s people who are demoralized. Dreams will turn from nightmares to happy hopeful dreams. Difficult roads through dangerous valleys will become smooth and safe. Mountains you are made to march over become molehills. The hungry will be fed, God will grant voice and vote to the poor, immigrants will be treated as neighbor, racial divisions will be no more.

It is a dream that Jerusalem, North Richmond, Syria, Myanmar, and so many other places could use right now. It is a dream for us all, a dream of restoration to something more than we can imagine.  

[pray] Restore us, O God. Restore the dreams and hopes of the people who feel mowed over, the people who walk on rough roads and travel in scary gullies and canyons, and the people who struggle with every step. Restore us, O God, and restore the dreams of the prophets, that even in war, in Exile, in hunger and poverty, your glory may shine for all to see. Amen.

Faith is a Verb... Musings by Pastor Tony December 8, 2017

In this period of Advent, as we read scriptures from about rough places being made smooth and a light in shining in the darkness, I cannot help but think of North Richmond. North Richmond is known for its crime, poverty, and its separation from all that surrounds it. It is a rough place. It also has one of the highest concentrations of undocumented workers in the region, and because it is unincorporated Contra Costa County, they are prone to deportation initiated by the Sheriff.

On Thurs Dec 7, six of us from ACC toured North Richmond. We started at the Neighborhood House (now called the North Richmond Multicultural Senior Center) by giving gift cards to Ms. Corrine Sain, and then went on a self-guided tour of the North Richmond Farm that is run by Urban Tilth, and ended with a tour of the Shields-Reid Rec Center and a conversation with the director, Troy Porter, and County Supervisor Gioia’s assistant, Robert Rogers. These places are definitely lights shining through the crime, poverty, separation. Shields-Reid has after school programs for more than 70 kids; most receive free lunches at school, about half are African-American and half are Latino, and many do not speak English or have English as their second language. The Multicultural Senior Center offers a comfortable place for people to gather, play bingo, eat some lunch. The Farm is beginning to plant natives, vegetables, and it is working toward an orchard, a farm stand, and model kitchen as it becomes not only a garden but a center for education. In the rough places, these agencies make the living smoother, better, more beautiful.

As a pastor of a justice-seeking church, I am interested in making sure people of all ages, races, and economic positions have access to the basics: food, water, housing, education, health care and family. I would add in access to beauty and a clean environment. In North Richmond, many of those are difficult to find. Part of what makes North Richmond isolated is the industry surrounding it, which contributes to air pollution, and the waste management facility on the Bay, which encourages illegal dumping along the roads leading to the dump. Most kids in the schools are reading 2 years behind their grade level and they lose approximately 6 months each summer. Gardens are rare, and often kept behind high wrought iron fencing. That is why I am grateful for the places we toured on Thursday, and for the people who are dedicated to changing North Richmond for the better.

I hope to arrange more tours in order for us to touch the problems, to see the waste, and to also hear the hopes and dreams of a place long separated from the advancements of the surrounding region. In this time of Advent, as we restoration of our hearts, I also pray for restoration of places like North Richmond. May the rough places be made plane.

May God restore your hearts this Advent, so that you may receive the Christ-light in a newly renovated place of welcome.  Peace, Pastor Tony