This Week: November 21, 2020

EVERYONE SUNDAY WORSHIP We are continuing to assess the safety of our worshippers on a week to week basis. We are still REQUIRING all attendees to wear masks or cloth face coverings over the nose and mouth while in the church building. If you are uncomfortable with this, we understand and ask that you attend worship online. To help ensure we hold our worship services safely, we ask that you reserve a seat for you and childcare online at pcpc.org/reserve-seat.

If you or anyone in your party have had COVID-like symptoms in the past 7 days, we ask that you please worship online with us at pcpc.org/live.

YEAR END GIVING In order to comply with IRS regulations, Thursday, December 31, is the deadline for donations to be receipted for 2020. Other than offerings given in worship or online, you may mail checks postmarked by Thursday, December 31. For stock donation instructions, contact Cheli Conejo (cheli. conejo@pcpc.org). Please note that mutual fund donations can take up to one month to process. Thank you for your generosity in supporting all that God is doing at PCPC - pcpc.org/give.

Our Advent Daily Prayer Guide theme is “The Word Became Flesh”, and it will run from November 29-January 5. The daily readings for this season are drawn from various passages in the Old and New Testaments that outline the unfolding work of God’s grace in redeeming a people for Himself. These passages establish our need for a Messiah and celebrate Jesus Christ as our Redeemer and King. May the story of God’s Word fill us with a vibrant hope in Jesus Christ this Advent & Christmas season. We’ve made this Prayer Guide available through the PCPC app (download via Apple App Store or Google Play Store for free), so you can have access wherever you are throughout the day. We will have physical books for this guide.

VOL. XXXI, NO .23 | NOVEMBER 21, 2020 PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH TRICIA COTHRAN, EDITOR 4124 OAK LAWN AVENUE DALLAS, TX 75219-3152

pcpc.org/resources

BOXES OF BLESSING We regret to announce that there will be no Boxes of Blessing for 2020. We realize this is a big event that our church family looks forward to every year but due to health and safety concerns, we will not be having a big, open packing event as in years past. Listed online are other holiday volunteer opportunities with ministry partners in Dallas where you might serve this season. This also means PCPC will not be coordinating a corresponding can drive, however you can donate toward this cause on the Boxes of Blessing website who will be purchasing food to distribute to partners on a smaller scale. pcpc.org/volunteer

EMMANUEL - CHRISTMAS AT PCPC Saturday, December 12, 7:00 p.m. & Sunday, December 13, 4:30 & 7:00 p.m.

214-224-2500 pcpc.org facebook.com/parkcitiespca twitter.com/parkcitiespca

THISWEEK@PCPC

ADVENT DAILY PRAYER GUIDE

PCPC’s beloved candlelight Christmas concert features the Chancel Choir with symphony orchestra, presenting carols and music of the season to celebrate the wonder of the Incarnation. A free ticket is required for entry.

There will be no childcare for these concerts. pcpcconcerts.org

THISWEEK@PCPC

VOL. XXXI, NO. 23 | NOVEMBER 21, 2020

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES Celebrate the coming of Emmanuel and His marvelous light in worship this Christmas Eve with our Family Celebration Services at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. and the Candlelight Service at 7:00 p.m. with reservations.

THANKSGIVING Brett Bradshaw, Director of Spiritual Formation

W

hen I was a boy, Thanksgiving at “PawPaw and MawMaw’s” in East Texas was something like the miracle of the loaves and fish—the space on the inside of their home multiplied larger than the outside. It is still a wonder to me how all of my family fit into that small house, but we did more than just fit. We belonged. Every Thanksgiving MawMaw cooked enough food to feed the small army that was our family and anyone else from the community who “just happened to stop by.” Any visitor, and there were always visitors, received my grandmother’s

all. Perhaps the difficulty surrounding this Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to reflect on the heart of our holiday in a way we have never before. What kind of people give thanks even amid suffering?

With all of our modern traditions of feasting and football, it is easy to forget that Thanksgiving came at a great cost for the Pilgrims. Within weeks of their arrival to America, 52 of the 102 passengers were dead from what they called the “general sickness” or the “common infection,” words

OUR FAMILY

marriages • Grace Lee Tolson and Capt. Michael Allen LaFevre on October 31, 2020.

deaths • Patricia “Pat” Reeves (CC#17/Oak Cliff Parish) on October 30, 2020.

sympathies • John & Amy Shackelford (CC#22/Love Field Parish) on the loss of his mother, Betty Shackelford, on November 3, 2020.

• Ginnie Woods (CC#22/Uptown – Turtle Creek Parish) on the loss of her former sister-in-law, Patsy Price, on November 7, 2020.

• Don & Cindy Lindsley (CC#22/Love Field Parish) on the loss of her aunt, Jack & Jennifer Lindsley (CC#22/Love Field Parish) on the loss of their great-aunt, Patsy Price, on November 7, 2020

• Terri Speicher (CC#21/Park Cities Boone Elementary Parish) on the loss of her brother-in-law, Jeff & Cara Speicher (CC#14) on the loss of his uncle, Gregg & Michelle Speicher (CC#14) on the loss of his uncle, Ben, Madeline, & Sarah Grace Speicher (CC#14) on the loss of their great-uncle, Drew & Elizabeth Speicher (CC#07/ Park Cities Hyer Elementary Parish) on the loss of his uncle, Annie & Hattie Speicher (CC#07/Park Cities Hyer Elementary Parish) on the loss of their great-uncle, Will Speicher (Former Out of town member) on the loss of his uncle, Jerry Satterwhite, on November 8, 2020.

• Angus & Betsy MacKay (CC#08/Park Cities Bradfield Elementary Parish) on the loss of her mother, Wills MacKay (CC#08/Park Cities Bradfield Elementary Parish) on the loss of his grandmother, Elizabeth “Betty” Oehmig Field, on November 11, 2020.

• Leigh Gathright (CC#22/Uptown – Turtle Creek Parish) on the loss of her father, Fallis Beall, on November 9, 2020.

• Rosemary Thornton (CC#13/North Dallas Parish) on the loss of her son, Mark A. Thornton, on November 6, 2020.

Care Clusters – pcpc.org/care/care-clusters

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57

welcome, “Get in there and make you a plate.” After the customary feigned reluctance, they gave the only appropriate reply, “Yes, Mrs. Neill.” Her dressing— “stuffing” as some call it—was for us the crown achievement of country culinary skill. The lightly-crusted brown cornbread, moistened by savory broth, mingled with aromatic herbs, crisp celery, melted butter, and devoted love to nourish us body and soul. There was MawMaw’s pecan pie too, a golden wave, crest and trough, encircling deep caramel roasted pecans atop the gently held sweetness below.

Yet, the nostalgia of these Thanksgiving meals meets the sobering reality of our times amid a global pandemic that has taken the lives of many and disrupted the lives of us

that take on renewed meaning for us this Thanksgiving. For all that, their hope was such that William Bradford wrote late in life: “Faint not, poor soul, in God still trust / fear not the things thou suffer must / for, whom He loves He doth chastise / and then all tears wipes from their eyes.” The people we look to as the founders of our holiday witness to the thanksgiving in all circumstances of those whose eyes are set on the Lord.

When we look at Jesus, we see His compassion toward the sick and suffering. When we look at Jesus, we see His tenderness toward little children. When we look at Jesus, we see tears in His eyes at the death of a friend. When we look at Jesus, we see the cost of love as He hung lifeless

general fund

budget

2020/2021 operating budget July 1—November 8, 2020 budget July 1—November 8, 2020 giving Budget Variance

$13,500,000 $3,543,574 $3,075,805 –$467,769

on a cross. When we look at Jesus, we see Him risen from the grave and our greatest hopes and deepest longings, once buried beneath the curse of sin and death, resurrected with Him in remarkable joy. When we look at Jesus, our lips confess and very lives cry out, “Thanks be to God.” However glorious my memories are of past Thanksgiving feasts, they are incomplete without PawPaw’s prayer before the meal. In the last years of his life, my grandfather would not make it much past “Heavenly Father, we give Thee thanks” before his voice choked, his words trembled, and tears rolled down his face. Tears do not come cheap to men from my “neck of the woods.” I see now even as I witnessed then that these were tears of love flowing in thanksgiving from that deep soul-spring of a heart looking at Jesus. Yes, Heavenly Father, we give Thee thanks this Thanksgiving, every day, and always. Amen and Amen.

The foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness.

BRENNAN MANNING