What a wonderful Advent and Christmas at The Park! I am so very grateful for our staff, elders, deacons, flower guild and many others of you who worked so hard to make this a very beautiful and meaningful Advent and Christmas for all. Special kudos to Katherine Kinnamon, Paul Vasile and our worship team who planned and coordinated the worship services. Three services on Christmas Eve and they were all well attended and absolutely wonderful!

There is new energy and joy in our worship life at The Park. And it is so essential, for it is our worship and praise of God that gives wings to our work for God and for God’s people. I know that some of you have been somewhat concerned and maybe annoyed about the clapping of hands during the Sunday morning worship service. You feel that it is too much noise, that it destroys the dignity and solemnity of the service of worship and it reminds you more of an entertainment event than a worship service. I have heard that from some of you and I am very sensitive to it.

On the other hand, there are others of us and I must confess that I am among them, who see the clapping of hands as simply another expression of our worship and praise of God.

Like many of you here at The Park, I grew up in a small Disciples of Christ congregation where there was a warm loving fellowship and a very quiet and reserved service of worship. We never wanted to be like the Baptists where an occasional “amen” could be heard in the service, nor those “wild” Pentecostals who clapped hands, shouted and danced in the aisles. We prided ourselves in our quiet, reserved and rational approach to religion and worship. But over the years and sometimes to the dismay of my parents and the folks in that little Christian Church on Roosevelt Street in Indianola, Mississippi, I have come to believe that good worship must be both rational and emotional, cerebral and somatic. It must make me think something with my head, but also feel something with my heart and to ultimately to do something with my will.

I have come to believe that worship is giving God “worth-ship.” Giving God value, praise and adoration. And praise is always active, assertive, demonstrative, expressive, open. It is never passive, reserved, restrained, or secretive. It may be audible, vocal, quiet, loud, but it is giving God who is worthy, “worth-ship.” I have come to understand that there is no victory in volume as there is no salvation in silence. To clap your hands or not to clap your hands is really not the question. The only question is have we surrendered hands, head and heart to God? And it is only in the surrender of the totality of who we are to God that we discover the joy and power of worship.

Some of you will always be a little annoyed with the amens and clapping of hands during the service of worship. And others will always be a little anxious about how quiet everything is. That’s ok, just as long as we don’t give up on each other, just as long as we keep on loving each other, respecting each other and being open to the expression of God in that person who is different from you.

Diversity is the greatest gift God has given this congregation, but this gift will challenge and stretch all of us in ways we never thought possible before. Talk to me, let me hear from you and know that whatever you have to say to me, I can handle it and I can’t help but keep on loving you, I hope you feel the same about me.

A dear friend of mine from Memphis, Sonia L. Walker whom I call “Sista Woman” and she calls me ”Brotherman” wrote this poem for me for my birthday as she reflected on our work here at the PARK. And so I share it with you:

“Diversity brings
the delicious
the dirty
the delicate
the derelict
the different
the detoxed
the delightful
the divisions
the darlings
the dammed
the disciples
the despicable
DIVINITY.”

With a Shepherd’s Love,
Alvin Jackson 

This first video is a "highlight reel" of the beautiful voices and magnificent music by the Park Avenue Christian Church choir and instrumental ensembles that inspired us on December 22.

The Park Avenue Youth Chorale.

For the past two days, we hosted Gerald Charles Dickens -- the great-great-grandson of author Charles Dickens -- who presented "A Christmas Carol" in our sanctuary.

The performance here at the Park Avenue Christian Church was both meaningful and appropriate -- it was an authentic theatrical experience (presented as it would have been in the mid 1800's), held in an authentic space (our gothic sanctuary is 100 years old), and performed by an authentic Dickens descendant!

Please listen to an interview with Gerald Dickens that was broadcast on WQXR. More photographs and videos will be posted soon.

On this second Sunday of Advent, I'd like to tell you the story of an old couple living in the hill country of Judah 2,000 years ago.

His name is Zechariah. Her name is Elizabeth.

They have no children, and that was something of an embarrassment in that time and place. In fact, there was a name for it, a cruel, harsh word: barren, a word used exclusively for childless women.

Elizabeth and Zechariah had prayed for years for a child. Not having a child, an heir -- in Zechariah's case, a son to inherit his priestly responsibilities -- was grounds for divorce.

Luke tells us that these are good people. They have stayed together. They love each other. And now, over the years, they have adjusted, accommodated, accepted the status quo. They still say their evening prayers together but by silent, mutual agreement they no longer pray for a child.

But a miracle of miracle happened and an angel came to Zechariah one day and said what angels always say in the Bible:

"Fear not; don't be afraid. Something important, something new and wonderful is about to happen: Elizabeth will conceive. You're going to be a father! Furthermore, God has work for your child to do. Call him John and he will prepare the way for God's own son. And, by the way, he will be the source of great joy and gladness for you."

The sermon this Sunday will be the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth and the hymn of praise, theBenedictus, that Zechariah sang:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people. He has raised up a mighty savior for us."

After the birth of John, Zechariah's first words included a little understandable boasting about his son:

"You child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, And you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways… The dawn from on high will break upon us."

I invite you to read the hymn of praise -- Luke 1:67-79 -- and join me in celebrating this beautiful hymn. 

A colleague of mine recently shared the story of Mildred.

Mildred was a fine lady. She was 64 years old when the doctors discovered that she had terminal cancer. She was in and out of the hospital several times receiving her treatments, and each time she seemed to be a little weaker than the time before.

Mildred was married to one of the roughest roughnecks in Oklahoma. He was a big, burly man, and one look at him told you that in his younger days, he was the kind of fellow who didn't step aside for any man.

However, around Mildred, he had become quiet and almost gentle. Every time she was hospitalized, Bill practically camped out at the hospital. He would arrive early and stay late.

It was obvious that 42 years of marriage had created a bond, a closeness between the two. Mildred summed it up one day when she said, "Although we were not blessed with children, we were blessed with each other."

Mildred was the religious one in the family. She had grown up going to church and when she wasn't too weak or too nauseated from her treatments, she still made Bill take her to church.

Bill had never been much of a church-goer, but he was willing to take Mildred when she felt up to attending. On one occasion, she said, "The only thing good to come out of my illness is that I'm finally getting Bill to church."

On one of my colleague's visits to see Mildred in the hospital, he began to talk with Bill about making a commitment to Christ and the church.

At first, he said he thought he was wasting his time. Bill's response to his inquiries was often anger. He couldn't understand why Mildred, who had lived such a good life, was having to suffer.

But, little by little, his attitude began to change. One day he looked at my colleague and said, "Robert, there seems to be a lot of rules to follow and a lot of beliefs to comprehend. Can you make it simple? Can you give me a thumbnail sketch that will explain religion in a nutshell?"

My friend thought for a moment. How can you explain the beliefs and the doctrines of our faith concisely? Other than just making a long series of statements, how can anyone possibly deal with the complex and essential doctrines of religion in brief? He could recite one of the creeds, like The Apostles' Creed, and say this is what we believe. As a matter of fact, the early creeds came into existence because people were trying to give a short statement of what was important in religion.

However, he thought the creeds might be a little too much for Bill to digest and understand. So, he said, "Bill, you have asked a very good question. It is a question that people have asked for centuries. In fact, it was a question that was put to Jesus. So, the best response I could give to you is tell you what Jesus said.

He said: "... Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength ... and love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Bill must have understood it because a few weeks later, he walked down the aisle of the church, and confessed his faith and was baptized into the faith.

We live in a world that has become complicated in many ways. Times have changed and people have changed. But the response that Jesus gave to the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" is still clear and uncomplicated. For Jesus, religion in a nutshell was loving
God with an undivided heart and loving your neighbor as you loved yourself.