11th Hour Preacher Party: It's the Pink Candle Edition

Hello again!  It seems like we were just here ... because we were!

Thanks to everyone for gathering yesterday here, and on Twitter, and in the RevGalBlogPal Facebook group.  It was good to be together and to share ideas and all those feelings and the questions.

We start off our Saturday party gratefully feasting off what was served up yesterday:

Thank you, Dr. Wil Gafney, for hosting a chat on Twitter to help preachers figure out what to preach and how to approach the scriptures.  Look for the archive at hashtag: #what2preach.  The chat was cross-posted on the Facebook group and on yesterday's Preacher Party.  You can follow Wil on Twitter at @WilGafney.

Thank you, Amy Peden Haynie, for posting the Twitter chat in our Facebook group. In addition to the re-cap of the Twitter conversation, there are a lot of comments and some links, even prayers, in the posts and threads. If you would like to join the RevGalBlogPals Facebook group, please go over there and let us know.

And I encourage you to take a trip back through yesterday's 11th Hour Preacher Party early edition. RevGals were generous with their thoughts, prayers, resources, and ideas.  At the end of the blog post, before the comments, there is a list of resources we compiled yesterday.

Last evening, at around comment # 89, Jennifer shared this prayer of comfort and hope while she was still struggling with finding sermon words. Thank you, Jennifer.  Let us pray:

Ever-present God, we pray that you would reveal yourself to us in this moment. Just this past week, we lit a candle for peace. How can it be that violence has ripped through this fragile peace once more, and children and their teachers have died in this attack? We don't know the details--and we don't need to know--but we trust that you were present there. We believe there were acts of courage, and we thank you for them. We are assured there were acts of comfort in the face of fear, and we thank you for them. We know there is great love, between parents being reunited with their children, and, yes, in the waves of grief that begin now for those who must face the loss of those most precious to them.

Our sadness runs so, so deep, but your love runs deeper still. Meet us in this present darkness, and shine a light for us to follow in the hours, days, and weeks ahead. Lead us to those places where we, too, might shine a light as individuals and as a community. Help us to hold up one another and to reach out for what we need.

In the name of Jesus, who came to earth as one of us, knowing hurt, knowing sorrow, knowing loss, and weeping for the death of a friend, Amen.

11th Hour Preacher Party: Where is the Joy Edition

We approach the Third Sunday of Advent known as Gaudete Sunday because the word for the day is "Rejoice" and "Joy" is traditionally the name given to the third (often pink) candle.

We wonder how to preach joy in the midst of tragedy.

The tragedy of super-storm Sandy is still fresh enough to spawn this week's super star benefit concert, and tomorrow seven New Orleans chefs will be cooking for hurricane victims and first responders.  We haven't gotten over that one yet.

There were two deaths in my congregation this week, a 93 year old matriarch of the congregation and a retired former pastor.  The tradition is to light a candle for them.

"In the midst of life, we are in death..." ... always ...

But when it's little kids and their school principal and the school psychologist (according to the latest reports) who have been gunned down in their "nice neighborhood" school . . . words fail.

But words we will find.

Let's figure it out together, friends.

You'll find here abundant coffee, chocolate and hugs to go with all those tears.

Here we are, together . . . again.

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Worship Resources suggested by RevGals and our friends (updating as we go):

TextWeek:  Worship and prayer responses to acts of violence

Song from Church World Service:  A Prayer for Our Children

Worshipping With Children:  What Do We Say to the Children When Kids Are Killed With Their Teachers at School?

Max Lucado:  A Christmas Prayer

Forrest Palmer, APCE President: A Pastoral Letter

From Christianity Today: A Round-up of Responses 

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