THIS SUNDAY
Traditional Worship | 9:40 am | Chapel | 11:00 am | Sanctuary | Dr. Tim Bruster
Children First | 9:45 am | Sanctuary | Mister Mark Burrows
Theme: “I Love You”
DiscipleChurch | 8:30 am | Chapel | Dr. Bill Longsworth
The Gathering | 9:30 am | Wesley Hall | Rev. Lance Marshall
eleven:eleven celebration | 11:11 am | Wesley Hall | Rev. Tom McDermott
More Ways to Worship
Live Stream | Join us live online on Sunday mornings at 9:45 am for Children First (first Sunday of each month), 11:00 am for Traditional, and 9:30 am for The Gathering, and at 11:11 am for eleven:eleven celebration.
WRR Radio | Listen to each previous week’s sermon and music on Sunday mornings at 7:30 am on WRR 101.1 FM.
Worship Bulletins
Chapel Communion | 10:35 am | Chapel | Dr. Len Delony
Connections | 10:30 – 11:00 am & noon – 12:30 pm | Garden & Wesley Hall
Sunday School Teachers & Topics
“The Gift of Peace”
Dr. Tim Bruster
Isaiah 11:1-11
Second in the Advent series: “We Have Gifts to Open”
We hold in our hands the same tools the prophets held: words. With those tools we also can paint images of peace that inspire the hard work that peace with justice requires.
This week as we continue our “We Have Gifts to Open” Advent worship series, we’ll open “The Gift of Peace” and examine together the biblical vision for peace and what that means for us today as people of faith.
To help us do this, the scripture for this week paints a powerful image of a peaceable kingdom — a wolf living with a lamb, a leopard lying down with a young goat, a calf and a young lion feeding together, and a little child leading them. What an image! But it doesn’t end there — a cow and a bear grazing together, the calves and the cubs lying down together, and a lion eating straw like an ox. What strange and wonderful images! How about this one? “A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole; toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den.” All of these images are surprising. Rather than the expected conflict and harm — even death — there is the very much unexpected peaceful coexistence and life.
Another image from this passage I want to spend some time on as we open and examine “The Gift of Peace” is the picture of hope we find in the shoot from the stump of the Jesse tree. This, to me, symbolizes our hope for peace and the role we each play in that. You see, I think we are the shoots of hope that appear upon deeply rooted, but damaged, even destroyed ideals of peace. And as these shoots of hope, we are signals to others, as we sing in that familiar song, “Let there be peace on earth — and let it begin with me.”
In what ways can we be peacemakers in our own circles, our own world? How can we reach out over the cobra’s den to make true peace? Isaiah ties this hope with what he calls “the knowledge of the Lord.” He says, “The earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the water covers the sea.” Surely this is what the Christ Child would learn and grow up to teach. As he approached Jerusalem for the last time and surveyed all the conflict, injustice, vengeance, and hateful words, he wept and said, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!”
In painting a vision for peace, the prophets use the tools that God placed in their hands: words. And with that tool they paint a very different picture of peace than the accepted Roman version of Jesus’ day. Rather than using violence to achieve peace — such as the Pax Romana, the 206-year period of peace in Rome hailed as a “miracle” by some, was peace of a sort, but peace enforced with brutality. So the mere absence of conflict is not peace in the fullest sense of the word.
We hold in our hands the same tools the prophets held: words. With those tools we also can paint images of peace that inspire the hard work that peace with justice requires. Edward Hicks, an American Folk painter and distinguished Quaker minister, became widely known because of his paintings. He painted more than 60 versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom” based on Isaiah 11. What picture of peace would you paint?
Grace and Peace,
Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor
Isaiah 11:1-11
A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse; a branch will sprout from his roots. 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. He will delight in fearing the Lord. He won’t judge by appearances, nor decide by hearsay. 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. Righteousness will be the belt around his hips, and faithfulness the belt around his waist. 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 together, and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young will lie down together, and a lion will eat straw like an ox. A nursing child will play over the snake’s hole; toddlers will reach right over the serpent’s den. 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. 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. On that day, the Lord will extend his hand a second time to reclaim the survivors of God’s people who are left from Assyria and from Egypt, from Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
ADVENT
2016 Advent Programs and Events
Welcome to Advent 2016: We Have Gifts to Open
The days leading up to Christmas are some of the most beautiful, exciting, and anxiety-producing days of the year. This season of Advent, intended as a time of preparation and anticipation, has become cluttered with so many distractions, “to-do” lists, obligations, and plans that many of us simply miss out on the very sacred opportunities present.
This season of Advent, even as our thoughts start to whirl around gifts, shopping lists, or our own wish lists, we as a faith community will also be exploring the gifts God gives us in the coming of the Christ Child. Examining passages from Isaiah together each week, we’ll be considering deeply what it means to receive and open those gifts.
To help you in this exploration, we’ve also created a Devotional Guide, in both print and digital formats, which offers a weekly theme along with daily devotionals that reflect back on that week’s theme. I hope you will set aside time in the busy days ahead to read each day’s devotional and prayer, re-read the scripture for the week, think about the gifts God offers to us and to our world: gifts of Vision, Peace, Song, and Presence.
Blessings to you and yours as we open these gifts together this Advent season!
CHURCHWIDE NEWS
Rockin’ Around the Chrismon Tree
Every year after Thanksgiving, FUMCFW kicks off the holidays with the decorating of our Chrismon tree in the Narthex. Tracing a centuries-old tradition, Chrismons are a variety of Christian symbols used to proclaim the birth of Jesus Christ. (The words “Christ” and “monogram” are combined to form Chrismon.) Read more.
Shop With a Smile
Did you know that Amazon is not only a quick and easy way to shop for just about anything, it is also a simple and automatic way to give to our church? That’s right. With each of your Amazon purchases you can also support FUMCFW when you shop — at no additional cost to you — through something called AmazonSmile.
As one of the largest retailers in the world, Amazon.com is a site that most of us have visited. Read more.
Count Our Blessings
With the help of 75 church volunteers, we were able to provide Thanksgiving meals to 950 families this year — 800 through our Thanksgiving Basket program, plus 150 more donated by the Tarrant Area Food Bank and distributed during our regular grocery services at the Mission. “I am always overwhelmed with how gracious our guests are when they come through to pick up the baskets,” says Linda Murphy, Director of First Street Methodist Mission. Read more.
MEMBER NEWS
HOSPITALIZATIONS
Davis Wagner
Dorthy Casten
Peggy Von Duynn
Susan Shannon
GIFTS & MEMORIALS
MEMORIAL GIFTS
Christmas Offering in Memory of:
Pat Conner by Kay Watkins
First Street Methodist Mission in Memory of:
George Sumner by Nancy Froman
Jack Speight by Pamela Barton
Jeffrey Duane Dodd by Billie & Duane Dodd
Jerry A. Howard by Yolonda Howard
General Memorial Fund in Memory of:
Barbara Moller by Leona & Thomas Fluker
Linda Porter Brandon by Judy House
Methodist Justice Ministry in Memory of:
Kyle Humphries by Kay Watkins
Music Ministries in Memory of:
Barbara Moller by Jean Kent
Jack Speight by Jean Kent
Peggy Maurer by Jean Kent
HONORARY GIFTS
First Street Methodist Mission in Honor of:
Soon to arrive grandbabies of Elizabeth Becker by Lou Friese
Soon to arrive grandbabies of Linda Murphy by Lou Friese
Thanksgiving Baskets in Honor of:
Deborah & Tom Sturdivant by Pat & Karl Alexander
Gayla & Blaine Scheideman by Pat & Karl Alexander
Genie Carson by Pat & Karl Alexander
Glenda & Jack Rattikin by Pat & Karl Alexander
Jane & John Freese by Pat & Karl Alexander
Jim Murray by Pat & Karl Alexander
Marilyn & Byron Baird by Pat & Karl Alexander
Marilyn Roach by Pat & Karl Alexander
Mozelle Jacks by Doris Jacks
Norma Loughridge by Pat & Karl Alexander
Pat & Arch Van Meter by Pat & Karl Alexander
WHO’S BLOGGING
A Gift to Give — and a Gift to Receive!
Robert Stovall
If your family is like mine, during the Thanksgiving feast and family gathering, we were able to enjoy everyone’s take on Christmas gifts. During our time together, we were able to discuss some unique gifts either received or given. We were able to recall stories related to why we gave certain gifts to certain family members or friends and, of course, the small children of the family had their “Santa List” ready for all to read and take note of. Read more.
Dates that have a 4
Mark Burrows
Hi Friends,
December is almost here! Over the next several weeks, if there’s a date with a 4 in it, we’ve got something planned. Read more.
The Gift of Vision: Playgrounds in Kurdistan
Kat Bair
We over at the Justin are following the Advent series “We Have Gifts to Open” and the first week is “The Gift of Vision,” based on Isaiah 2:1-5. The youth all know this, but in case you don’t, before I worked here at FUMC Fort Worth, I spent a while living in Northern Thailand working for a human rights organization. Read more.
In Search of Peace, Actor Jakie Cabe, and Run D&C
Rev. Tom McDermott
I saw a church marquis this past week announcing their Sunday’s sermon:
“We get to rest in peace. Why can’t we live in peace?” Read more.
Soul Vision
Dr. Len Delony
We can discover the “Gift of Vision” in countless ways. But such awakenings tend to happen when we experience our own vulnerability or experience compassion deep in our soul with others. Read more.