COMMUNICATION VS. COMMUNION

The Word was delivered in the flesh, not via Gmail

Apple can do only so much.

It was my birthday. I was sitting at my desk at home, staring at my iMac. My mother called on the home phone plugged into the wall because that’s what older people do — call on landlines.

While we were talking, an iMessage popped up on my desktop from my daughter in San Antonio. It contained an embedded video from my two little granddaughters. Before I could open it, my wife’s iPhone rang. Our daughter and the girls were calling on FaceTime, so Kim brought the smartphone into my study and pointed it at the computer. I clicked on the video and watched the girls singing Happy Birthday to me and blowing out candles that their mother had put on a tray of brownies.

Meanwhile my mother in Tennessee listened on the landline and the girls in San Antonio watched themselves on my iMac while they were eating the brownies they had since rescued from the melting candle wax.

Two states, three cities, four generations and five technologies: all happening in “virtual” real time, if that’s not an oxymoron. When my mother was a child, her grandparents would have had to be in the room to wish her happy birthday in real time; otherwise it would have been a Hallmark card with a stamp from the post office. When I was that age, my grandparents might have called on a wired telephone. When my daughter was that age, it would still have been a landline.

Within the last thirty years, wow — we have had a communications revolution.

Or have we? We may have had only a communication device revolution. We have more ways to communicate today than at any time in the history of the world. And granted, we send more communiqués than every before. In addition to the abovementioned, we could include fax, Facebook, Twitter, Viber and all sorts of means of messaging.

But are we better communicators?

At the heart of faith traditions that derive from the God of Abraham is the claim that God has revealed God’s self to the world. God has broken through the sound barrier between heaven and earth and communicated with us.

At first it would have been a word that might have sounded like a gentle wind whispering sweet somethings of promised love in the ear of an unsuspecting lonely

Bedouin. It could at times have sounded to a prophet like the roar of an angry sea at the idolatry and injustice between and within coastal kingdoms. In time those hardly audible words were written down, and the writing itself was occasion for tidings of judgment or joy.

Christians claim that the climax of God’s communication strategy with the world came when the Word came to live among us. God didn’t create advanced technologies to send new signals; the Word came in the flesh to bring the word afresh.

And that’s because true spiritual experience is always more about communion than communication. Intimacy can be intimated by mail, or by the book, or online. Being there brings the message home.

Bodily presence is the mystery that seals our hearts in love and binds us as one. Which is why Christians talk about the real presence of Christ in communion. We’re partaking together of the divine life.

There’s virtually no substitute for that. Really.

214.560.4203

Anglican

ALL SAINTS DALLAS / 2733 Oak Lawn / 972.755.3505

Radical Inclusivity, Profound Transformation. Come and See!

9:00 & 11:00 am Sunday Services. www.allsaintschurchdallas.org

Baptist

LAKESIDE BAPTIST / 9150 Garland Rd / 214.324.1425

Worship — 8:30 am Classic & 11:00 am Contemporary

Pastor Jeff Donnell / www.lbcdallas.com

PARK CITIES BAPTIST CHURCH / 3933 Northwest Pky / pcbc.org

All services & Bible Study 9:15 & 10:45. Trad. & Blended (Sanctuary),

Contemporary (Great Hall), Amigos de Dios (Gym) / 214.860.1500

PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH / “A Church to Call Home”

Sundays: Bible Fellowship (all ages) 9:15 am /Service Time 11:00 am

12123 Hillcrest Road / 972.820.5000 / prestonwood.org

WILSHIRE BAPTIST / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100

Pastor George A. Mason Ph.D. / Worship 8:30 & 11:00 am

Bible Study 9:40 am / www.wilshirebc.org

Bible Churches

NORTH HIGHLANDS BIBLE CHURCH / www.nhbc.net / 9626 Church Rd.

Sunday: LifeQuest (all ages) 9:00 am / Worship 10:30 am

Student Ministry: Wednesday & Sunday 7:00 pm / 214.348.9697

Disciples Of Christ

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / THE TABLE Worship Gathering 9:30 am

Worship 8:30 & 10:50 am / Rev. Deborah Morgan / www.edcc.org

HIGHLANDS CHRISTIAN CHURCH (Lake Highlands) 9949 McCree Rd. 214-348-2805 / www.highlandschristianchurch.com

Sundays: School 9:45 am / Worship 11:00 am / Rev. Paul Carpenter

Lutheran

CENTRAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA / 1000 Easton Road

Sunday School for all ages 9:00 am / Worship Service 10:30 am

Pastor Rich Pounds / CentralLutheran.org / 214.327.2222

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH / 6202 E Mockingbird Ln.

Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

Methodist

LAKE HIGHLANDS UMC / 9015 Plano Rd. / 214.348.6600 / lhumc.com

Sunday Morning: 9:30 am Sunday School / 10:30 am Coffee

Worship: 8:30 am & 10:50 am Traditional / 10:50 am Contemporary

WHITE ROCK UNITED METHODIST / www.wrumc.org

1450 Oldgate Lane / 214.324.3661

Sunday Worship 10:50 am / Rev. George Fisk

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

LAKE HIGHLANDS CHURCH / 9919 McCree / 214.348.0460

Sundays: Classes 9:30, Coffee 10:25, Assembly 10:45

Home groups meet on weeknights. / lakehighlandschurch.org

Presbyterian

LAKE HIGHLANDS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / 214.348.2133

8525 Audelia Road at NW Hwy. / www.lhpres.org

9:00 am Contemporary, 9:55 am Christian Ed., 11:00 am Traditional

Unity

UNITY OF DALLAS / A Positive Path For Spiritual Living

6525 Forest Lane, Dallas, TX 75230 / 972.233.7106 / UnityDallas.org

Sunday services: 9:00 am & 11:00 am

TEXT “LH“ to 313131

Soup Supper 6:00 pm

Advent Vespers 7:00 pm Fellowship Hall

GLAD TIDINGS, a special Christmas music presentation by Brookhaven College Choral Society and Central Lutheran Senior Choir. Sunday, December 8 – 5:00 pm in the sanctuary.

Benefitting Klais Pipe Organ Project CHILDREN’S

Sunday, December 22 – 1:00 pm in the sanctuary following the Christmas Pot Luck at 11:30am in the Fellowship Hall. TRADITIONAL

Tuesday, December 24, 7:00 PM

Schools

Lake Highlands High School Band earned the highest honor allowed in the Region 3 UIL Marching Contest.

Lake Highlands High School has a Folklorico dance group. Founded as an afterschool club by teacher Suzanne McKown, Folklorico — which performs traditional Mexican folk dances at school and community events — is now a credited extra-curricular class.

Nonprofits

The Chi O Christmas Market, held each November at Fair Park, donated $35,000 this year to Healing Hands Ministries, a Lake Highlandsbased charity medical and dental health clinic.

The Lake Highlands Exchange Club and Jerry Allen, District 10 councilman, presented a $500 check to 8-year-old Donald Maiden Jr. and his grandmother. Donald was shot in the face while playing outside his Lake Highlands apartment last September. The accused shooter, Brian Cloninger, remains jailed at time of publication. Donald has endured multiple surgeries to repair his jaw. The $500, Exchange Club representatives say, is to help with day-to-day living expenses for the family.

The Exchange Club’s Character Counts October awardees included Detzany Gamez, daughter of Yolanda Gamez and Rubel Ghebermicael , son of Almaz Teckle Youth of the Month awards went to Elissa Barone, daughter of Susan and Mario Barone and Miles Wilson son of James and Rita Wilson.

Local Resources

TO ADVERTISE 214.560.4203

CLASSES/TUTORING/ LESSONS

ALL AGES: LEARN PIANO WITH WADE COTTINGHAM LakewoodPianoLab.com Since 1998. 214-564-6456

ART: Draw or Paint. All Levels. Lake Highlands N. Rec. Ctr. Jane Cross, 214-534-6829. Linda, 214-808-4919.

ARTISTIC GATHERINGS

Casa Linda Plaza. Art Classes & Drop In Pottery Painting For All Ages. 214-821-8383. Tues-Sat 10am-6pm

DRUM & PIANO LESSONS Your location. UNT Grad. BucherMusicSchool.com or call 214-484-5360, 469-831-7012

GUITAR OR PIANO Fun/Easy. Your Home. 11 Yrs Exp.

Reasonable rates. UNT Grad. Larry 469-358-8784

JEWELRY Making Parties at Art Gallery. BYOB & creativity. All else included! jewelrymakingparty.com or 1-855-254-6625

Childcare

LOVING, CHRIST-CENTERED CARE SINCE 1982

Lake Highlands Christian Child Enrichment Center

Ages 2 mo.-12 yrs. 9919 McCree. 214-348-1123.

JANUARY DEADLINE DEC. 4 CALL 214.560.4203

Sophomores for the win

of the class of

Characters on display

Kindergartener Zoie Pucci, dressed as Sofia the First from “The Perfect Tea Party,” marched alongside fellow Lake Highlands Elementary classmates for the Characters Live! parade. Students dressed up as their favorite characters and walked around campus for all the parents to see. Afterward, they headed inside to share book reports with their classes.