We have a number of needs for Winter Sanctuary. If you have not already done so, please consider signing up to work for a shift. We particularly need folks for setting-up from noon – 3:00 pm each day and for clean-up on January 1 from 6:00 – 9:00 am. Winter Sanctuary is a powerful way to celebrate the birth of God in an ancient alley by welcoming unhoused guests with hospitality and shelter from December 25 – January 1. Here is a link to make donations. Here is a link to sign-up for helping with a shift or a few shifts over the week. If you have any troubles with the Winter Sanctuary sign-ups, please contact Dorothy Lingren at [email protected].
We’ll gather after the 11:00 am worship this coming Sunday for an update on our efforts to partner with Opening Doors to welcome a refugee family from Iraq this fall. Jessie, Dorothy, & Mark will bring us up-to-date on our learning and we’ll also share more about how our church hopes to respond to the dramatic number of refugees set to arrive in Sacramento over the coming weeks. Please invite your Kitchen Table to join us this Sunday.
Please remind your Kitchen Table to bring wrapped gifts for Tubman House families to The Table by this coming Sunday, December 18. Finally, encourage your Kitchen Table to invite friends, family, neighbors, & colleagues to worship on Christmas Eve at The Table. We’ll have Candlelight Christmas Eve at 5:00 pm & 11:00 pm. We will ONLY have one worship service on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day…9:30 am only!
Take Me To The Alley
November 27: Watch (Matthew 24.36-44)
December 4: Turn (Matthew 3.1-12)
December 11: See (Matthew 11.2-11)
December 18: Dream (Matthew 1.18-25)
5pm & 11pm Candlelight Christmas Eve: Luke 2
9:30 AM Christmas Day & New Year’s Day (ONE WORSHIP ONLY)
Reflect on your own dreams. When have you experienced a transformation in your understanding through a dream? Share about your own experience with dreams with a trusted friend.
Read Matthew 1.18-25. Matthew writes, “[Mary’s] husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” Joseph and Mary would have experienced shame and disgrace for her pregnancy. This must have felt like a nightmare. Yet, into this nightmare of shame & disgrace, God comes to Joseph in a dream and calls him to go to the alley with Mary and their expectant child. What part of your own life might feel like a nightmare of shame and disgrace? What would it be like for you to experience God as coming into that shame and disgrace with a dream of Good News?
Immanuel, God with us,
surprise us as we prepare for Christmas.
Call us to the alleys.
Take us to the afflicted ones,
to the lonely ones.
Let us all hear you say
You are our friend.
All are invited to your table.
Amen.