Southpoint News December 6, 2016

Southpoint News: Week of December 06, 2016
The Threshold – Are We There Yet?

I spent my earliest years in Ohio. In the summer, we would make the long drive from  Columbus, Ohio to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the heat of summer. It was a ten hour drive without stops, with three kids in back, and no air-conditioning.
About half way through the trip, we would begin the refrain, “Are we there yet?”  It was born out of our frustration with the present moment – the cramped hot car, the lack of wiggle room, the prickly heat sticking our legs to the vinyl seats of our old sedan.  Our frustration also stemmed from our longing for the awaited future – that moment when we’d escape the confines of the car, run to the beach, sink our toes in the sand, and dive into the cool waves.
“Are we there yet, Mom?”  “No, not yet….”, she’d reply, then she’d pass out some snacks, break into “99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.” Or she’d cajole us  with, “I spy with my little eye something yellow,”  or…”Let’s play the license plate game!”  All cavalier and courageous ways of saying, “Let’s make the best of it! Let’s enjoy the journey to our destination, as uncomfortable as it may be, for just being together is sweet, and even being in a sweaty car driving the flat roads of Ohio  can be an adventure, if you look at it the right way.”
All my love of road trips came from these moments of hurtling through the dark, listening to the pounding of the tires on the pavement,  anticipating…
Last week, we looked through the threshold of space and time and anticipated the City of Peace depicted in Isaiah 2:1-5.  This week,  Is 11:1-10 provides us with a remarkably imaginative depiction of this creation reordered and remade.  Nobody is devouring anyone any more. Predators cozy up restfully with their prey, and the most vulnerable play freely with the most powerful without getting hurt, destroyed, or bullied. “Are we almost there, God?”  “How much longer?”
What will bring about this future that awaits us, according to Isaiah? A tender shoot, growing out of the stump of a tree, which symbolizes a new ruler growing out of the Davidic Dynasty.  The peaceable kingdom will flow from a just ruler. In this kingdom,  there is o destruction of the powerless to fill the appetite of the powerful. No rape. No child pornography. No pillaging of resources by first world countries. No human trafficking. No refugees fleeing from cities besieged and beleaguered. No presidents using power for financial game.  No peaceful protesters doused with freezing water and rubber bullets. No pipe line companies trying to railroad their way across native land.  No multi-national corporations manipulating the system so that self-interest drives the politics of the days…None of this “normalcy” exists at all. Instead, the weakest members of society are safe to curl up against the strongest members. And the ones with power – the lions, the bears, they will experience such profound conversion of desires that they will not hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain.  The earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.  ??”Are we there yet God? How much longer?”  No we are not there yet.  But God will not stop wooing and working in creation until every square inch of heaven and earth has been healed and redeemed.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.

OUR ADVENT CALENDAR

December 9th:   Youth Group @ Jen’s
“Books and Bottles @ Kingfisher Farm”

December 11th: SUNDAY SERVICE – Speaker: Anne Smith

December 18th: SUNDAY SERVICE – ALL IN NATIVITY PLAY

December 19th: Ice Skating Christmas Party – stay tuned for more details:)

December 24th: CHRISTMAS EVE COMMUNION and CAROL SING   @ Brooksdale Center from 4-5

December 25th:  NO SUNDAY SERVICE

Advent Thresholds   “Books and Bottles”

This Friday, December 9th @ 7

We all have spare books hanging around in our house that we no longer want, and we all have a favourite drinks.  Bring your books and a bottle to Kingfisher Farm this Friday night @ 7.  We’ll swap our books and share our bottles and hopefully find a few Christmas presents! All unwanted books will be sold to a second hand store in Lynden to support our missions fund or given to charity shops.  512 172nd Street, Kingfisher Farm, Shiloh Shelter (go past barn and look for a small one story building with lights on in the windows)

Contemplative Advent Experience

December 19th, Kingfisher Farm, 11 AM – 2 PM

Come prepare your heart for the coming of Christ through some quiet prayer time in nature. This will be a drop in sort of event that can be done alone or with your family. We will have several contemplative prayer stations set up outside for you to engage with. Find instructions at the barn.? Please come ready for any kind of weather!?

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman
Ove is a curmudgeon, whose mission in the world is to right all the wrongs that he dislikes, which is just about everyone. And everything. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse, all masking a deep sadness. When an Iranian woman enters the neighborhood, unfamiliar with Swedish cultural values of privacy, he finds his boundaries accosted, literally, as a trickle of strangers begin to cross the threshold of his front door. Herein lies the beauty of this book, and the slowly unfolding redemption of Ove. This book was part of the inspiration for our Advent theme “Threshold”. We bought four copies for your reading pleasure, a few are already circulating, but let Anne or Angela know if you are interested. As you read it, watch for the repetition of the word “threshold” and take notice of just how many times someone is crossing over into someone else’s “world”.

Joyeux Noel
Last year Matt Humphrey invited us to watch this remarkable true story of the Christmas Day truce of 1914, during which the French, German, and Scottish soldiers meet on the front lines and negotiate a cease fire, which leads to singing of carols, the sharing of the Eucharist, and a soccer match.  In a world of increasing hostility, this movie becomes a threshold through which we discover our common humanity and the exquisite power of peace. Here is the trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRrr-CDXijs??Preview YouTube video Joyeux Noel Trailer

Blood-Drive
Hospitals never close and neither does Canadian Blood Services.  They need donors throughout the entire month of December. When donating remember we are in the Partners for Life Program and our church ID is: THEC180665
Here’s a quick video to inspire you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wuXLGePDp4&feature=youtu.be