Archive - TCC Flash

For so many reasons, Mother's Day evokes feelings of deep loss and sadness and, often, isolation. With God's love and the support of others, we are prayerful that those who are experiencing grief will feel embraced and not alone.

This community-wide outreach service will be held in our sanctuary THIS SUNDAY, May 5th at 7pm. Please help to promote this worship service by sharing the attached flyer or RSVPing/Inviting Friends through the Facebook event via this link.

As always, all are warmly welcome to attend. If you are feeling a sense of bereavement or if you wish to offer your strength and support to our church family and our community, please join us in this expression of care and comfort.

On this and every Communion Sunday, LOVE OFFERING envelopes are available in the pews for those wishing to financially support TCC's Market Basket Gift Card Program.

Members of our community who are experiencing financial stress are invited to meet with a Deacon on the last Tuesday of each month to receive a $50 voucher to Market Basket. They can return once every three months for support.

Typically 5-10 people benefit from this ministry on a monthly basis. This past month of April saw 12 families benefitting from this program, with two new families seeking assistance and counseling from our Deacons. The cards are funded through the monthly LOVE OFFERING and are not part of the annual budget.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration in supporting this TCC community support ministry.  We are indeed Tewksbury's outreach church.

Donna Clark was a faithful member of TCC and a dedicated nurse.  Upon her passing, the Clark Family established a scholarship fund in her name.  TCC members enrolled in an undergraduate nursing program are eligible to receive the Donna Clark Nursing Scholarship.  This application resides thru the Virtual Office link. TCC members are indeed allowed to receive both the general TCC Scholarship and to the Donna Clark Nursing Scholarship, as long as they meet the eligibility requirements.

Instructor: Elizabeth Kidd, RN, Founder of Place of Promise

Duration: 4 Hours

PLACE: TCC

DATES: May 7th and May 14th,  6 pm to 8 pm

COST: NONE

The social, legal, and health care systems are complex, confusing, and, at times, dehumanizing. Often, a multiply-injured person has to deal with a dozen or more providers of health care, mental health care, substance abuse treatment, social and financial services, housing, correctional services, and job training. This can be completely overwhelming to the one in need of all these services. The Systems Advocate is trained to help that person navigate through and make use of all the services needed for optimal healing and growth to occur.

Last Sunday in worship we looked at doubting Thomas, who always gets a bad rap for wanting to see Jesus and his scars before he would believe he had risen. A week later Jesus accommodated him and the first thing he did was show Thomas his scars. He didn’t berate or belittle him, he did as Thomas had asked.

You see, Thomas wanted to know if Jesus was real by his scars. The Resurrection doesn’t erase wounds or scars; they show us Jesus was one of us, one who knows pain, hurt and loss, but works through it and overcomes it.

In Luke 24:36-48, another one of Luke’s post-Resurrection stories (Read it. It’s really good!), Jesus shows up again, only this time in a room where the disciples were closeted away out of fear. Jesus’ first greeting is “Peace be with you”. He scared them out of their wits for they thought he was a ghost. Then he did the same thing with them as he did with Thomas. He said, “look at my hands and feet, see if I’m real, ghosts don’t have flesh and bone”. We don’t usually identify someone by their hands or feet.  If I’m scanning a crowd trying to find someone, I look for a familiar face. Jesus’ hands and feet bear unmistakable signs of his crucifixion, his defeat, and his vulnerability. They’re not mended and manicured; I imagine he winced when his disciples poked his fresh wounds.

Resurrection doesn’t guarantee a pain-free life, but it promises hope and power.  After Dietrich Bonhoeffer died (the Lutheran pastor killed by the Nazis for opposing Hitler), a guard found a scrap of paper in his prison cell which read, “Only a suffering God can help.” Indeed, only a God who knows the human condition intimately can save us. Resurrection doesn’t simply erase death, but Christ still carries his scars as a trophy—a sign of life’s ultimate and lasting victory.

The second startling thing Jesus does in this passage is ask, “Have you got anything to eat?” The last thing you’d expect from a man who had just died and was resurrected would be this. Then they hand him a piece of broiled fish and he eats it right there in front of them. It is such a simple act, but the mood in the room shifts. As Jesus eats, he starts telling stories and explains to them the scriptures that taught that the Messiah must suffer and die and be raised. Their job was to spread the word of repentance and forgiveness and to “bear witness to these things.”

The disciples now drop their guard and drew closer and listened. Jesus was then able to “open their minds to understand,” and at the end, they are no longer frightened. Simply by expressing hunger, inviting hospitality, and accepting nourishment, Jesus turns a meal into communion. He is as human as he ever was even as he was raised from the dead.

What if practicing hospitality is practicing resurrection?  What if welcoming one another as well as the stranger, “the other,” is a sign that Jesus is alive? When the disciples fed Jesus, he fed them in return. When we feed others, we feed Jesus. When the disciples chose generosity over distrust, their eyes were opened, death fled the room, and the resurrected Jesus came alive to them.  And notice this. Belief didn't come first. Food did.

Scarred and hungry.  This is how God comes to us.  This is resurrection.  This is the Word made flesh.  May we be witnesses of these things.

Keep Practicing Resurrection.

Calling all Secret Sisters to attend the Secret Sister reveal.  This Sunday, April 28th, we will once again host the Secret Sister Tea at 11:00am in the Vestry.  At that time you will find out who your Secret Sister is!  Tea and light refreshments will be served. If you cannot attend please contact Trisha Keddie @ 978-677-6013.  Thank you to everyone who has participated.

See you soon!

Our church family looks forward to Bob's "Where Are We Headed?" message during worship this Sunday, April 28th.

Thank you, Bob, for your leadership whilst Reverend Baxter, Christina and Lainey enjoy some well deserved vacation time with family in Alabama.

On this and every Communion Sunday, LOVE OFFERING envelopes are available in the pews for those wishing to financially support TCC's Market Basket Gift Card Program.

Members of our community who are experiencing financial stress are invited to meet with a Deacon on the last Tuesday of each month to receive a $50 voucher to Market Basket. They can return once every three months for support.

Typically 5-10 people benefit from this ministry on a monthly basis. The cards are funded through the monthly LOVE OFFERING and are not part of the annual budget.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration in supporting this TCC community support ministry.  We are indeed Tewksbury's outreach church.

We’ve got several ways that you can support our Heifer International campaign this year:

1 – Sign up for our 2nd Annual Heifer Walk!  This is an easy 5K walk through the walking trails on the State Hospital property here in town.  Your missions committee will sponsor each walker with a $25 donation to Heifer.  Last year we had 30 walkers who showed up to walk despite an afternoon of steady rain!  Many walkers also chose to collect sponsorship amongst their family members and co-workers.  Along the walking route, the kids learned how the support we give will help families around the world to pull themselves out of poverty.   This year’s walk will be on Saturday, May 11th at 3:00 pm.  See Joanne Kenney for more details.

2 – Heifer envelopes will be available in the pews on Heifer Sunday, May 12th.  Because this is also Mother’s Day, and some families may be foregoing church for a Mother’s Day brunch with their favorite ladies, we will keep the Heifer envelopes in the pews on the following week, May 19th.  Please make checks payable to TCC, with “Heifer” in the memo, if you forward it without an envelope.

3 – We decided this year to bring back the Heifer Mother’s Day cards that we have done in the past.  The cards are lovely, and we will have five designs from which to choose. Please visit the table in fellowship hall during coffee hour for the next two Sundays, if you would like to put your card orders in.  This is a fabulous idea for the mom who has everything!  She will receive a beautiful card, she will learn about Heifer International and the great work that they do, and she will be assured that a donation was made in her honor!

If you are newer to our congregation, you can learn more about Heifer International at www.heifer.org! 

Your missions committee thanks you for your years of Heifer support!!

Hello all - please plan on joining us for the final season gathering of Chattering Crafters on Tuesday evening, May 7th at 7 PM in the Vestry.  We will be working with coffee filters making flowers (I can't seem to grow the real ones) and a centerpiece with candles.  The cost is $7.00 per person - please let Sue Henderson know if you plan to attend so we can make sure there are sufficient supplies for everyone.  Hope to see you there!

Poor Thomas always gets a bad rap as the doubting one in sermons the first Sunday after Easter. That is because his back story isn’t well known in the West. In an essay by Debie Thomas, an Indian Christian, in the blog Journey with Jesus, she shares that Indian tradition calls Thomas the “The Apostle of India” and his memory is preserved in a rich oral tradition of songs, ballads, and dances. The story goes that Thomas sailed to the east coast of Kerala in A.D. 52, intending to preach to the Jewish colonies settled near Cochin. After seeing many Jewish and Brahmin people convert to Christ, he followed the coastline south, winning hundreds of converts in villages along the way.

After establishing eight colonies along the waterways, he crossed the subcontinent to Mylapore, on the west coast near Madras.  There his preaching provoked the hostility of devout Brahmins who became jealous of his evangelistic success. They speared him to death in A.D. 72. His remains now rest in Italy. South Indian Christians, however, still venerate Mylapore where he was martyred as the apostle’s official resting place, and many hundreds make pilgrimages to his death site each year.

There are countless stories about Thomas’ sojourn in India. One is that Thomas met the Magi on his way to India, and baptized the famous wise men himself.  Other accounts describe miraculous healings, exorcisms, and ecstatic visions, even crediting the dust in Thomas’s grave with potent healing powers. According to oral tradition, some Christian communities in South India teach that the apostle literally lives among them as a patron saint, healer, and protector. Many still call themselves “St. Thomas Christians.”

According to John’s Gospel, Thomas had to wait for a week in suspense and uncertainty after his friends told him they had seen Jesus. Did he think his grief-stricken friends were delusional? Did he really doubt, or perhaps he wanted to see his Risen Lord first hand, in person? He wanted to see Jesus’ wounds. Maybe that’s how he would recognize him, not in his glory, but in his woundedness, by his scars. Then he would know Jesus’ was really alive, really among them.

What is quite startling is not that Thomas doubted, but that he did so publicly. He didn’t feel guilty or fear repercussions about his uncertainty. He was willing to be honest and vulnerable about wanting to see for himself. What is delightful about Jesus’ response is that he meets Thomas where he is. He says to him touch my wounds, touch my pain, even as I touch yours.

If nothing else, Thomas assures us that faith doesn’t have to be always unwavering and secure. This business of accepting the resurrection, of living it out, of sharing it with the world, is difficult.  It’s okay to move slowly and with caution. It’s okay to wonder if it’s all true. Before us we have the doubting disciple.  The holdout.  The latecomer to the Resurrection. The one who became the “Apostle of India”.  

This is the enduring power of the living Christ.  This is what happens when we insist on seeing and knowing God for ourselves.  The story becomes our own, the story becomes true.  And then it spills over to bless the world.

Blessings!

Please join us tonight for the Tenebrae Service at 7:30pm in the sanctuary.  This is a somber service of readings and the extinguishing of candles, and it is a meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ.  If you've never participated, we think that you'll find this worship experience particularly moving and we warmly encourage you to attend.

The Gospel John 20:1-18 says "it was still dark" that first Easter morning of history.  Just three days earlier, Jesus had died on the cross.  Of course it was "still dark."  Nobody knew the tomb was empty yet.  

Do you enjoy a great sunrise?  One of my favorite places to see a good sunrise is St. George Island in Florida.  Yes, it is a struggle to get up early to see, but when you do, you see a great miracle of God.  The sun comes up out of the water and begins to paint the landscape.  Darkness disappears quickly.  

"Dark" always sticks in my mind when I think of the John passage.  Rev. Debie Thomas reminded me in her devotional, I Have Seen the Lord, that John's account of the Resurrection is that Easter started in the dark.  She goes on to say that Easter began with "fear, bewilderment, pain, and a profound loss of certainty."  Most of us like to jump to the happier parts of Easter.

Mary Magdalene would go to the tomb that first Easter morning in the dark.  Yet when she got there, the stone was rolled back and she thought that Jesus had been taken away.  She runs to tell Simon Peter and the other disciples and they run to the tomb.  They found it empty too.  

Then things really get interesting.  Two angels visit Mary as she was crying outside the tomb.  They console her as she cries and then Jesus shows up.  Mary thought He was the gardener.  But after Jesus says her name she finally realizes that it was Him!  And just like a sunrise changes the landscape, so did Mary's reality.  It would not be a reality of fear, pain, or loss.  Mary would see the world in a new way.

When I think of Resurrection Sunday I think of something that can never be taken from us: Hope.  People who see the world through Easter don't focus on what could have been, they focus on the endless possibilities through God.  For us, we do not have to stay in a mindset of loss, death, and defeat.  We know that because of Christ anything is possible.  We see the world differently.

Henri Nouwen saw the world through Easter.  These words of his I would like to share:

"When everything is dark, when we are surrounded by despairing voices, when we do not see any exits, then we can find salvation in a remembered love, a love which is not simply a recollection of a bygone past but a living force which sustains us in the present.  Through memory, love transcends the limits of time and offers hope at any moment of our lives."

The first Easter morning story "transcends the limits of time" and offers us perpetual hope and love.  It is not just a day in history but is the cornerstone of a Christian's faith.  It is the unbridled hope that through the "dark" moments of life that resurrection can occur.  We see the world with hope and always believe that something good could happen.  

Maybe in the future, if you find yourself in a dark place, remember that Easter started in the dark.  I will pray that you and I look at our life and world through Easter.  Like a sunrise, may Easter continue our lives in the beautiful light of God.  For the tomb was empty that day and so is ours!

He is Risen!

Rev. Baxter