December 4, 2022

Nomofomo

• Our Advent giving emphasis this year focuses on gathering clothes for our partners at the Clothes Closet at Trinity Presbyterian. Trinity's Clothes Closet is now in serious need of jeans of all sizes, winter clothes of all sizes, and any baby and toddler clothes. Anything will help - Just please make sure the clothes have been cleaned prior to donating! You can bring your donations to us at the Ice House, to Sunday morning worship, or to the donation bin that will be at Merge Coffee by EMU now through the end of December.

  (Trinity's Clothes Closet started as a House Church missions program in the basement of a community member's home, and now it has grown to being open every Wednesday inside Trinity Presbyterian Church. Before COVID, UKIRK (the Presbyterian campus ministry) volunteered there every 3rd and 5th Wednesday of the month. Now that RISE and UKIRK journey together, we have continued that legacy and volunteer there every 3rd and 5th Wednesday. This is a way for students to get out of their "JMU Bubble" and experience the rest of the Harrisonburg community, and a key way some of our students stay connected!)

• Requests for care and/or prayer can always be sent via e-mail to cares@riseharrisonburg.org, texted to 833-803-0868, or submitted online via our RISE Cares form.

• Connect:

  • If you would like to connect more deeply with RISE, you can start by submitting this short form to Get Connected!

  • Sign up for texting services:

    • Text “RISE” to 833-803-0868 to join the primary list and receive weekly community updates and alerts

    • Text “RISEcares” to receive prayer requests, care needs, and community concerns and celebrations

  • Please continue to check social media/the website for all updates and information!

Song

Adam King

“O Come, O COme, Emmanuel”

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
And drive away the shades of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light!
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

Advent Wreath Reflection

Chris Zepp

Theological Exploration

Adam King
Amanda Miller Garber

• Today we’re exploring the power of touch. Why does touch matter? How are we designed to experience the world around us through this sense?

• Let’s name the elephant in the room. Why are we SO WEIRD about touch? It’s like we’re almost afraid of it …yet we long for it.

Let’s look at a text that is almost always read during Advent. It’s an image of a new creation, God’s dream come true…

Isaiah 11:1-10

1 A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
    a branch will sprout[a] from his roots.
2 The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him,
    a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    a spirit of planning and strength,
    a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 He will delight in fearing the Lord.
He won’t judge by appearances,
    nor decide by hearsay.
4 He will judge the needy with righteousness,
    and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land.
He will strike the violent with the rod of his mouth;
    by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt around his hips,
    and faithfulness the belt around his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
    the calf and the young lion will feed[c] together,
    and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze.
    Their young will lie down together,
    and a lion will eat straw like an ox.
8 A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole;
    toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den.
9 They won’t harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain.
    The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord,
    just as the water covers the sea.
A signal to the peoples
10 On that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a signal to the peoples. The nations will seek him out, and his dwelling
will be glorious.

• What strikes you about this passage? Where do you hear themes of touch or physical connection in this passage? 

• Think about other scriptures often read this time of year - when you think of them, what do they “feel like?” (Mary and Elizabeth, etc)

• When you think of “God’s dream come true” or a new creation - what do you imagine? What might that feel like (literally)? How could the sense of touch be used to help mend God’s creation?

Share YOUR questions or text them to 833-803-0868

Reading

Amanda Miller Garber and Abby Butler-Cefalo

~by Sandra Reisinger

We were created using the sense of touch. The book is Job tells us that God’s hands shaped us, molded us from clay, knit us together. The Psalma tell us the same thing. In Advent, we are waiting in expectation for the re-coming of God into the world in a shaped into a human body, a baby born like us, a baby who smells, hears, sees, touching and tasting the milk from Mary’s breast, this God touches the earth through Jesus’ feet, probably kicked a rattan ball down a Bethlehem street, got splinters in his hand in Joseph’s carpentry shop - he breaks bread, touches fish and cleans them, bumps up against crowds of people, touches water and turns it to wine, touches the unclean lepers, women bleeding, blind people, people who died. In Jesus, God touched all that we have touched, healing and bringing peace. Created in God’s image, we are made to do the same.

(Pause...)

God, we are waiting.

Longing.

The world needs healing.
We need healing. 

We can’t imagine
A wolf living with a lamb,
or a leopard lying down with a goat. 

Lions and calves together with a child
is impossible to comprehend.
​Lions touching them, children touching lions.
Not our infants near a cobra’s den
or our five-year old’s hand in a viper’s nest!
We can’t imagine. 

And yet
We long.
for peace when our hands touch fear,
when our hearts race hearing
of more gun violence,
and see a graph of statistics on climate change,
when we hear the name of another life lost
too young.
We want the courage to reach out,
And hope the other wants to reach out, too
and share Your healing touch.
To trust that in this touch no more
harm or destruction will come. 

So we wait.  
We wait to feel the healing touch of your hand.
We imagine
Warriors ending wars with clasped hands,
Guns reshaped into tools of peace,
Our own hands healing,
Spreading hope as we wait.
in expectation
For leopards and goats, lions, and lambs
And the children who will walk with and lead them.

COMMUNION

SONG

“Hold My Hand”

~Hootie & the Blowfish

With a little love and some tenderness
We'll walk upon the water
We'll rise above the mess
With a little peace and some harmony
We'll take the world together
We'll take 'em by the hand

'Cause I've got a hand for you
Oh, 'cause I wanna run with you

Yesterday, I saw you standing there
Your head was down, your eyes were red
No comb had touched your hair
I said "Get up, and let me see you smile
We'll take a walk together
Walk the road a while, 'cause"

I've got a hand for you (I've got a hand for you)
I wanna run with you
(Won't you let me run with you babe?)

Hold my hand
Want you to hold my hand
Hold my hand
I'll take you to a place where you can be
Hold my hand
Anything you wanna be because
I wanna love you the best that
The best that I can

See, I was wasted and I was wasting time
'Til I thought about your problems, I thought about your crimes
Then I stood up, and then I screamed aloud
I don't wanna be part of your problems
Don't wanna be part of your crowd, no

'Cause I've got a hand for you (I've got a hand for you)
I wanna run with you
(Ah, won't you let me run with you, babe?)

Hold my hand
Want you to hold my hand
Hold my hand
I'll take you to the Promised Land
Hold my hand
Maybe we can't change the world but
I wanna love you the best that
The best that I can, yeah

Let me run, won't you let me run?

Hold my hand
Want you to hold my hand
Hold my hand
I'll bring you to a place where you can be
Hold my hand
Anything you wanna be because
I, oh, no, no, no, no, no

Hold my hand
Want you to hold my hand
Hold my hand
I'll take you to the Promised Land
Hold my hand
Maybe we can't change the world but
I wanna love you the best that

The best that I can, oh
The best that I can

Final BLESSING

Abby Dotson

“A Benediction for Feeling and Sharing Peace”

Be people of peace and healing. 
Let peace live in your heart and share the peace of Jesus with all those 
whose lives you touch.
Act out of compassion and not fear.
Share peace that offers healing by listening to all sides of the story.
Pray for peace and healing for our world.
In this Advent season, we need to see, feel, and share peace.
Go, be a lion who plays with a calf,
Or a goat who rides on the back of a leopard,
Wherever you are, share this peace and hope with those you meet.
Amen.

Go in peace!!