CCC Blog

Reflection from Michael

In the spirit of Ash Wednesday and the upcoming season of Lent, I am reminded of this story on the sacredness of sacrificial love.  Join us for Ash Wednesday services tomorrow (2/14) at 12 noon in the Chapel or at 6:30 p.m. in the sanctuary.  Blessings on your day…

Time before time, when the world was young, two brothers shared a field and a mill.  Each night they divided evenly the grain they had ground together during the day.  Now as it happened, one of the brothers lived alone; the other had a wife and a large family.  One day, the single brother thought to himself: “It isn’t really fair that we divide the grain evenly.  I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed.”  So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother’s granary to see that he was never without. 

But the married brother said to himself one day, “It isn’t fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age, but my brother has no one.  What will he do when he is old?”  So every night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother’s granary.  As a result, both of them always found their supply of grain mysteriously replenished each morning. 

Then one night the brothers met each other halfway between their two houses, suddenly realized what had been happening, and joyfully embraced each other in love.  God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, “This is a holy place – a place of love – and here is where my temple shall be built.”  And so it was.  The holy place, where God is made known, is the place where human beings discover the joy sacrificial giving.  For there, through love, they discover each other and themselves – for who they are and who they are meant to be.

2_8 E-Votional

February 8, 2018

Dear all,

This past Sunday our focus was Psalm 48 and we noted that the arc of that Psalm follows the flow of the worship we experience every Sunday.  First we gather.  We process into the worship space and festive music leads us in.  Psalm 48 is a Psalm of Ascent and would have been chanted (or sung) as worshipers climbed the hill on which the temple was built as a way of preparing for worship.  As they did this they offered Psalms of praise to God.  Next, we meditate on God’s Word.  Similarly, the heart of Psalm 48 is v. 9, which says that we “ponder God’s love in the midst of the temple.”  Once the worshipers arrived in the temple there is a different focus.  “Pondering,” or reflecting, meditation on, etc…  In our worship today we experience this as the anthem, scripture reading, sermon and communion.  Finally, Psalm 48 ends with the people being sent back out for the purpose of telling others that God will be our guide forever.  We, too, are “sent out” with a benediction at the close of each service. 

As our men’s bible study was reflecting on this Psalm again this past Tuesday, we noted that we do a good job of focusing on the first two of those three things – the gathering and the meditating.  But how well do we do the third?  The “going out” and telling others, in word and action, of the God we experienced inside the sanctuary?  We agreed that this “telling and sharing” of the greatness of God is the opportunity we are not taking advantage of as well as we could be.  

Children don’t have near the inhibitions that adults do.  This is a well-known fact.  Which is why we can usually learn something from them, especially as it relates to faith.  For going on six years now, I have helped lead weekly chapel services for the children of our preschool.  We gather for 15-20 minutes every Wednesday in the friendship center and Don and I lead them in singing and Tina or I lead them in an object lesson and prayer.  But we always – and I mean always – conclude chapel with a singing of “This Little Light of Mine.” 

There’s a beautiful phenomenon that occurs during every – and yes I mean every – singing of that song, no matter the week, season or year.  The song’s first verse (“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine”) starts out reasonably well.  Probably a mezzo-forte as the children are getting warmed up a bit.  Most of us are have our “lights” in the air (index finger pointing to the sky) and we’re starting to wave them back and forth while we sing.  But it’s the second verse that really gets things going.  The words are “Hide it under a bushel? No!  I’m gonna let it shine.”  As we sing this verse, we cup our off hand and place it over our “light” while we sing “Hide it under a bushel?”  On the word “no,” the cupped hand is lifted off so the light can shine again. 

Now… the amazing thing is that every – and again I literally mean every – we sing this verse, the children scream “NO!” as the uncover their light and let it shine again.  The word “No” resonates and reverberates throughout the friendship center.  They scream it with great gusto and all the energy they can muster.  It is a Pavarotti-esque fortissimo!!!  It is truly the high point of the song.  Week after week.  Season after season.  Year after year.  It’s as though the children instinctively know and understand the sending out portion of Psalm 48.  We are given the light of Christ in worship not to hide it inside our hearts, families and close circles of friends, but so the world may know and experience the love of God in Jesus Christ that we do.  The thought of not sharing it – of hiding it – is so antithetical to faith and discipleship that you simply have to scream “No!” at the mere mention of it. 

Michael E. Karunas, pastor

“In the Last Five Years…”

A lot has happened in my life in the last five years.  Since January 2013, in my immediate family alone, we have laid to rest two grandparents; witnessed my mother experience a health setback; moved homes within Decatur and changed high schools for one of our children.  Five years ago, I was blissfully running and exercising without complications with two years of continual back pain still two years off in the future.  And yoga, currently a twice a week discipline, was         another two years off in the future beyond that.   In the last five years, we have sold one car and purchased another one.  I started wearing glasses and had knee surgery as well.  Five years ago, our daughter had not yet begun to play soccer or volleyball.  Our youngest son had not started playing the piano and cello.  And our oldest son was six inches shorter than I (and not six inches taller)!!

Perhaps the changes in each of your lives over that same time span mirrors those in my own.  There may be ups and downs in your past when you look back over the last half-decade; additions and subtractions; changes of all kinds.  If so, they also mirror the changes in our church.  In the last five years we have undergone a significant renovation to our Friendship Center and West Entrance.  We’ve remodeled the Flewelling Chapel. We changed the times of our traditional worship services and started a contemporary one.  In January 2013, I had been in my position less than one year and none of the following people – Tina, Ashely, Yvonne, David, Vernon, Andrew, Lora, and Melissa – were on staff yet.  In the last five years we have baptized over 25 people and dedicated over 12 infants and children.  Yet we have also laid to rest over 50 members and  witnessed a dozen more moving away to warmer climates.

I share this exercise with you for two reasons.  First, as we said in worship on Sunday (basing our message on Psalm 48), the love of God is steadfast amid all of the changes of life.  Even though the conditions of our lives may change over time, the ever-present love of God never will.

Moreover, did you know that it has been five years since we last had a pictorial directory of our church compiled?  A lot has changed in our church family since then, as we noted above, as has the technology of church pictorial directories.  One goal we have for 2018 is to create an updated one. 

To that end, Kevin Miller (of the Public Relations department), Mike Munos (congregational president) and myself are looking to put together a team of people willing to work on this project with us.  Bear in mind, those on the team will not do all the work on this pictorial directory.  There will likely be many    other volunteers we’ll bring in along the way for very specific roles.  But for the time being, we’d like to find out who’s interested.  Over the next two weeks we will be putting the team together.  If you are interested in serving in this regard, please feel free to: 1) call the church office (428-4336); or 2) email  ; or 3) email me directly ( ) and let us know of your interest.  We’d love to have you help us on this important project. 

Blessings – Michael

“Opening the Door”

This past Sunday our theme in worship was hospitality and we focused on Hebrews 13:2 – “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  At the close of the sermon I told a  story from the Benedictine tradition about the need to open the door every time there’s a knock on the other side, for we never know when it might be Christ himself showing up for a visit. 

Throughout my ministry, people have always knocked on the door from time to time looking for assistance.  Usually they’re seeking financial assistance - help with a light bill, rent, gas, medicine but sometimes food as well.  Long ago I  copied Matthew 5:42 on a piece of paper - “give (something) to everyone who asks of you” – and kept it on my desk so that I would remember to make time for those knocks on the door and do my best to give “something” to them.  Sometimes that means directing them to MAX; or offering to pray with them.  And sometimes it is giving actual financial assistance. 

These drop-in visits are almost always an inconvenience.  I always have something I’m working on.  And the knocks on the door nearly always “disrupt” my schedule.  Even though I invite every single person who drops-in to join us for worship on Sunday, rarely in 20 years has this happened.  Moreover, some of the knocks on the door come from those who are somewhat regular. Persistently regular.  One woman comes to mind.  She came 5 or 6 times in one year. Sometimes the church I served gave her something, sometimes we didn’t.  But after a year of this happening, I sat down and I told her, “we can’t continue doing this.  Either you commit to becoming a member of the church and we can work with you on longer-term strategies – or we can’t help you in this way anymore.”  She said, “Yes, I understand.”  But she never came back.   

One day about 8 years ago, a man dropped in.  We sat in the office and he told me his situation.  He had a job lined up but wouldn’t get his first paycheck until after his rent was due.  He was trying to reconcile with his wife and children and having an apartment was an important part of this.  If he could just get $75, he could bridge the gap.  I talked with the landlord and verified the $75 deficit and decided to give him the “bridge grant” was looking for. 

A month later, he came back.  Of course I was in the middle of something and when I saw him I thought  “Oh no, not now.  I’m busy.  I just know he wants something else.  Didn’t I just tell him a month ago that $75 was all we had to offer at the time.  Why is he coming back?”  But I dragged myself up out of the chair and opened the door.  I was getting ready to offer my prepared speech about how we had just helped him and it was not our practice to give emergency grants more than once in a six-month period.  But before I could speak, he said,  “Pastor, I just wanted to come back and say thank you for the $75.  I was able to keep my apartment, I have a good job now, and my wife and kids have moved back in with me.”  Needless to say, I was surprised, but also inspired.  And thankful for the lesson he taught me about how the judgments we can make when there’s a knock at the door and how they are sometimes shattered when we answer it.

Blessings – Michael