April 23, 2011, Easter Vigil - The Reverend Carolyn Estrada

Romans 6:3 – 11; Matthew 28:1 - 10

I can imagine Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, walking to the tomb. They have waited for the first light after the Sabbath, and now, their hearts heavy, they make their way slowly along the path to where Jesus was laid.

What are they saying, I wonder?

Are their low voices exchanging the “would-a, could’a, should’a’s” with which we are so familiar?

You know:

• If only he had gotten more exercise…
• If only she had watched her cholesterol…
• If only he had quit drinking…
• If only they hadn’t gone out that night…
• If only…

The “Jesus variations” might read:

• If only Jesus hadn’t gone to Jerusalem…
• Couldn’t Jesus have just kept his mouth shut and followed the Law?! Why did he have to heal on the Sabbath or call Lazarus out of his tomb – or raise such a ruckus in the Temple?!
• Jesus should have fled the garden instead of staying there to pray…
• If only the disciples had insisted Jesus get rid of Judas – he never fit into their inner circle anyway, and nobody really liked him!
• Well, those guys certainly shouldn’t have fallen asleep! If they’d been awake they’d have heard the guards coming and could have alerted Jesus! Why, they could have fought them off, and Jesus could have escaped!

Human thinking! But – they – we – are human, after all, and grieving.

What they – we – long for; what they – we – miss and beg God to give back – is dead. So mostly we flagellate ourselves or others with “if only’s,” or ask the inevitable question: Why? Why?! as though the answer could somehow undo what has happened.

I read recently that the grief resulting from death is the sorrow that knows no remedy. That great 18^th Century English “man of letters,” Samuel Johnson, observed, “Ordinary desires, virtuous or vicious, contain within them the theoretical possibility of their satisfaction: the miser always imagines that there is a certain sum that will fill his heart to the brim, and every ambitious man, like King Pyrrhus, has an acquisition in his thoughts that is to terminate his labours, after which he shall pass the rest of his life in ease or gaity, in repose or devotion…”

But with death – well, we can’t yell loud enough, pray hard enough, work smart enough, to “fix it.”

Jesus is dead, and his friends and followers are grieving; they are suffering “the sorrow that knows no remedy.”

And so the Marys make their way to the tomb.

They know Jesus is dead – that he won’t “be there” – and yet, unable to let go of him, they want to be as close as possible to his body, to what remains of this person whom they loved, to hang on...

We hear what happened, of course: the earthquake; the angel; the rolled back stone and the announcement that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Raised from the dead?

How is that possible?! It doesn’t make sense!

Yet “How?” is the wrong question to ask about the resurrection, just as “Why?” is the wrong question to ask about death.

We should be asking, What does it mean, to be raised from the dead? Is it

• raised like Lazarus, who will only have to die again?

• Raised so that things can go on just as they were before? A kind of resuscitation, a breathing-back-into-life of what was, so that things continue after that inconvenient “blip” or hiatus of crucifixion?

Because, for many of us “the resurrection” is about restoring things as they were: The disciples can still wander through the countryside, eating and talking and healing in that camaraderie they have developed; we can still gather for holiday meals around the family table, with everyone there. We want to restore things as they were – or as we would like them to be! (Thus, the questions and comments we get about hoping that in the resurrection we will have our own teeth or wondering whether our bodies will be their aged selves, or a younger, less lived-in version of us…)

As in our response to death, so in our response to the resurrection: we do not think with the mind of God; we are limited in our thinking by our human and finite minds. But living in the past is impossible – we need to let go of the hope that Jesus will take us back to the way things were – or, perhaps, to an improved-upon version of what they were.

Just as the earthquake causes the solid and familiar ground to roll and crack and tremble under our feet, and caused the stone to roll away from the tomb, something shattered on Easter Day: the world as it was understood. The Resurrection breaks all the rules: life, the “normal” and the “familiar” are no longer the same.

Oh, things may look the same on the outside: we still have to do our laundry and pay our taxes! – but there is something different about the WAY in which we do these things, something different within us that shapes our priorities and animates us as we move through our lives. We see things through a different lens: the Resurrection changes our perception of reality.

So, what IS the reality of the resurrection? What DO we know about this world that was changed as the result of the rolling away of the stone on that tomb?

What we Do know is that that Easter morning, the Resurrection BEGAN with the empty tomb – but it did not end there.

What we DO know is that the Resurrection is about encountering the risen Christ – outside the tomb that morning; in Galilee where he has asked his disciples to go to meet him; in the Upper Room where Jesus encountered them, huddling together in fear; journeying on the road to Emmaus, barbequing fish beside the lake – and here, in the Church of the Messiah, on the streets of Santa Ana, in our own homes or workplaces, today.

Resurrection is our completion in God. It is qualitatively different from “life as we have known it.” It has nothing to do with having your own teeth or recognizing your long-lost relatives… all those things we’ve been concerned about, which are translations of our this-world needs/longings/desires. Resurrection is God gathering up our broken pieces and making us whole.

What does the Resurrection tell us?

That nothing we can do can kill God.

NOTHING we can do can kill God.

Nothing.

• Not our active hostility – the nails we drive into his hands and feet, or the abusive language we hurl as we try to force the fullness of life into a rational and manageable cognitive box, or seek to justify our ego-centric lives;
• Not our benign neglect – our being too busy or too stressed or too caught up in the many idols we make of drugs or work or electronics or opinions…

Because Jesus is here, risen and present, and wants to reveal himself to us.

Jesus is here, risen and present, and wants to reveal himself to us.

I heard someone once issue an apt Easter Day warning: The Risen Christ is on the loose. And he knows our names!

Imagine:

The Risen Christ is on the loose – and he knows our names!

What good news is that!

Amen.

April 22, 2011, Good Friday - The Reverend Doctor Ellen R. Hill

Today is a dangerously honest day for those of us who profess to be Christians. It’s the one day in the church year when we’re forced to confront our own pain and fear and anxiety about what life ultimately holds in store for us. And so this day we call Good Friday doesn’t really make us feel very good at all. In fact, it’s a day which steals our comfort from us because it reminds us that we’re also going to die and it does it in an incredibly graphic and material way. For this Gospel we’ve just heard describes Jesus’ physical pain in such minute detail that we almost feel as if we’re watching some gruesome newsreel. There’s just no way that you and I can escape the blood, the anguish and the hopelessness of this event that we remember today. That time when God allowed Jesus to be crucified and to die. For the reality is, it’s God’s will, not Pilate’s, not the Jewish religious establishment’s nor the pathetic disciples’ but God’s will which is done this day.

It’s that fact, and that fact alone, which causes you and me the biggest problem. Because it forces us to confront a deep...and very troubling question. Can this God of ours really be trusted? Is this the kind of God we can cling to when we feel utterly forsaken and afraid? The reason those questions surface in our minds is because we have to admit that the source of the great discomfort which Good Friday lays bare is the reality of the chaos in the universe. The witnesses of that first Good Friday were never able to convey in words what actually happened on that day. It probably was exactly the kind of experience which was most deserving of that expression we hear so often today, “You just had to have been there!” So it’s not so surprising that what this day communicates to you and to me, who weren’t there, is a sense of confusion and chaos which only serves to trouble our rational minds and hearts.

You and I are creatures of order and control. Most of us place a high value on having our lives under control and relatively hassle free and we work very hard to achieve that. So what do we do with this day? This day when God not only allowed Jesus to die but also allowed nature itself to run amok. The scriptures tell us that on that first Good Friday there were violent storms and an earthquake at midday which was followed by darkness that seemed to cover the whole earth. What makes us even more anxious, as we struggle with this issue of the trustworthiness of God, is the reality that this sort of chaos continues to invade our lives today. All that we know of rationality and normal human behavior defy our attempts to explain how God can allow can allow an earthquake and a tsumani to wipe out thousands of innocent lives as we just witnessed in Japan; or allow someone to gun down a young president on a bright November day; or a space ship and it’s crew, which represented the highest achievements of the scientific mind, to dissolve into millions of tiny fragments; or a mentally disturbed young man gun down an innocent 9 year old who had come to meet her congressional representative on a Saturday morning in January. Who can even begin to explain the complex mix of pain and shame and suffering those events brought to the people who were the closest to the victims or the ones who had the responsibility for their safety? What do you suppose the disciples felt like on that first Good Friday? What to do you think the staff and Secret Service agents felt like on that day in Dallas when John Kennedy’s brain was shattered by that bullet? How do you think the scientists and engineers who had designed that spacecraft felt as they watched it explode into millions of pieces on the TV screens in front of their eyes? Just think how the religious and political establishment felt in Jerusalem when they realized that while they had honored the letter of the law they had also in fact slaughtered the Spirit.

Chaos has been a part of our universe from the very beginning. The scriptures tell us that God created the universe from the void. From the formless matter swirling in space which is only one of the definitions of chaos that you’ll find in the dictionary, “disordered, formless matter, supposed to have existed before the ordered universe”. The other definition you’ll find in Webster’s is the one that seems to describe Good Friday, “complete disorder, utter confusion”! The issue of trusting God essentially means that we have to grapple with the question of what kind of God it is that you and I worship.
As many of you know a whole new science of chaos theory has been emerging for the last 50 years which has presented us with yet another definition of chaos. In fact, experts say that there are only three theories developed in the 20th century that have significance for the future: the theory of relativity, the theory of quantum mechanics and chaos theory. The new science of chaos theory defines chaos as “Lawless behavior governed entirely by law!” As a result of the development of chaos theory a conflict has arisen in the scientific community which is centered around the question of whether the universe, as Einstein believed, is governed by immutable laws of physics with no room for chance or randomness or whether there is, in fact, some order or some law within the chaotic and seemingly lawless behavior of the universe.
 
About 20 years ago a book was written for non-scientific laypersons which dealt with this issue. Some of you may remember it because it had the provocative title: Does God Play Dice? For what these scientists are proposing with their new chaos theory is that the real question isn’t whether God plays dice. In other words, whether God allows chance or chaos to affect the universe, but rather, how God plays dice. But it just might be that we’ll never find the answer to that question no matter how sophisticated our scientific theory becomes. Because we’re creatures of order and control, our normal pattern is to confront chaotic situations by analyzing and psychologizing them. In this case, however, the why eludes us because we’re still left with the reality of a dead Jesus, a dead President, a spacecraft in pieces, a nuclear reactor leaking radiation and a little girl from Arizona who’ll never celebrate her 10th birthday because the why lies beyond both our control and our understanding.
 
Ultimately what this Good Friday causes us to struggle with is whether we can trust this God of ours. Whether we, as faithful members of the Body of Christ, can admit that the God we believe in created all that we know from utter chaos and that throughout time events have occurred which defy our ability to explain or even understand them. So it’s probably for that reason alone that it might be very appropriate that we do call this day GOOD. For it’s good for us to stare into these chaotic messes which are so far beyond our control. It’s good for us because it reminds us of what happens when our designs, no matter how ingenious, prove to be inadequate. It reminds us that we’re never in complete control, even when we think that we’re operating at our highest level of intellect, creativity and order. For the reality is that we are the children of chaos. We were born as creatures created from it’s confusion. We were fashioned from it’s corruptible elements by God who shaped us from that mess into God’s own perfect creation.
 
The real lesson to be learned from today is simply trust. Jesus didn’t solve the age old problem of evil or why events like the crucifixion have to happen. But through the reality of what we’ll celebrate at the Easter Eucharists, Jesus has shown us that it’s possible to live through the chaos of Good Friday triumphantly. So we too shall live through the chaos of our individual lives not by obedience to institutional traditions or scientific theories but rather by trusting in our God and by following the example of Jesus and his ministry of forgiveness and unconditional love which was made possible by his secure faith in God. For if we are able to do that, then we too will be able to live through the chaos of our lives, because we’ll have come to understand and to trust, that if indeed God does play dice, the reality is that God always wins in the end.
 
AMEN

Holy Week Services - April 17 to April 24

Palm Sunday, April 17th

• 8 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Procession of Palms, Passion Accordong to Luke, and Eucharist. 12 noon Misa del Domingo de los Ramos 4 p.m. Blessing of the Streets. We join our friends at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church for this traditional procession through our neighborhood.

Tenebrae, Wednesday, April 20th

• 7:30 p.m. Tenebrae (from the Latin word for “darkness” or “shadows”): is a dramatic, candlelight service using the Psalms and Lamentations, and providing an extended meditation upon, and a prelude to, the events in Jesus’ life between the Last Supper and the Resurrection.

Maundy Thursday, April 21st

• 6:30 p.m. A simple supper of soup, salad, cheese, bread and wine in the Parish Hall. Bring a pot of your favorite soup to share. 
• 7:30 p.m. Choral Eucharist, washing of feet, and stripping of the Altar in the church (bilingual).
• 8 p.m. All Night Vigil keeping watch in the church. 

Good Friday, April 22nd

• 7 a.m. Liturgy of Good Friday 
• 12noon Stations of the Cross with special music. 
• 1 p.m. Liturgy of Good Friday: Passion According to John, homily, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion from the Reserved Sacrament 
• 6:30 p.m. Via Cruces: in the Latin custom, we take turns carrying a large cross to 14 stations of suffering and struggle in the inner city. We return to the patio for concluding prayers. (Bilingual).

Easter Eve (Saturday), April 23rd

• 7:30 p.m. The Great Vigil (in English). This ancient liturgy is the principal Easter celebration. We begin in the patio blessing a new fire and a new paschal candle. We process into the dark church bearing candles with the Christ light. We listen to the promises of redemption from scripture lessons. We baptize new members into the family of Jesus. With the Easter acclamation, we ring the bells we have brought, lights, incense and glorious music acclaim the resurrection of Jesus and we celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter with the Parish Choir and a Brass Quartet.  Festive champagne reception follows in the Parish Hall.

Easter Day, April 24th

• 8a.m. Easter hymns and Eucharist 
• 10:15 a.m. Festive Easter Eucharist with Parish Choir and Brass Quartet 
• 12 noon Misa de la Pascua

Upcoming Concert By Candlelight - May 1, 2011

Messiah Friends of Music Presents:  

Sunday, May 1, 2011, 7:00 p.m.
PETER SPRAGUE TRIO

Bossa Nova to Beatles

Enjoy Brazilian-style jazz, plus a few Beatles tunes, performed by virtuoso guitarist Peter Sprague, his brother Tripp on saxophone and flute, and bassist Gunnar Biggs, all world-class performers and recording artists.The trio combines a deep interest in Brazilian music and American pop and jazz into a style all their own.

April 17, 2011, Palm Sunday - The Reverend Carolyn Estrada

Mark 11:1 – 11a Psalm 118:19 – 29

Isaiah 45:21 – 25 Psalm 22:1 – 11 Philippians 2:5 – 11 Mark 14:32 – 15:47

Who doesn’t love a parade?!!

And we’ve just had a glorious one: Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Where was Jesus coming from, with all his talk about suffering and death and taking up one’s cross?

Why were we anxious about returning to Jerusalem, as though we were walking into our deaths?

Look at this greeting!

Whether we’re part of the crowds because we’re a follower of Jesus, or because we’ve simply gotten caught up in the excitement and love a parade, it’s a glorious day! Perhaps the kingdom really IS coming – we may yet get to sit one on his right and one on his left!

(And yet, as we know, the people on Jesus’ right and on his left wind up being, not favored disciples, but robbers, bandits, criminals, revolutionaries – sinners like you and me.)

Palm Sunday is a day of contrasts.

We enter in triumph: Jesus is king, and all will be right with the world!

We exit in despair: our expectations are casualties of Sanhedrin power and Roman control. The nails of the crucifixion pierce our hope, and never-ending darkness descends on the world as we know it.

What kind of Messiah – King – God – is this?

What kind of Messiah – King – God – is this who, as Yann Martel’s character Pi says (Life of Pi, p. 55 – 56), “goes hungry, suffers from thirst, who gets tired, who is sad, who is anxious, who is heckled and harassed, who has to put up with followers who don’t get it and opponents who don’t respect Him – what kind of a god is that? It’s a god on too human a scale, that’s what…

I’m sure that passage reflects some of the murmuring and distress of Jesus’ disciples on that Thursday night in Gethsemane, on that Friday morning of the crucifixion.

Is this just one more leader who turns out to be nothing but an empty promise?

I’m sure, if we really allow ourselves to think about it, to be in that despairing, confusing space in which the Passion Gospel leaves us, these same sentiments reflect some of our own questions and confusion. What sort of a god is this?!!

However, most of us look at the crucifixion through the lens of the resurrection, and for many of us there is a tendency to leap from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem of Palm Sunday to the resurrection of Easter, skipping over Good Friday as much as possible.

The crucifixion is too painful to bear, physically and spiritually, and we are afraid.

Like the young man following Jesus, we run off naked, leaving our linen cloth behind.

Like Peter, we try to protect ourselves by denying Jesus, by distancing ourselves from the painful reality of who he is – and what is going to happen to him.

We want the empty tomb – without the crucifixion, thank you very much!

.

Unlike the followers of Jesus, we know the end of the story, so our tendency is just to go there… to skip over the painful parts and into the joy of new life.

But there is a danger in such “skipping over” – without the reality of the crucifixion, the resurrection loses some of its power, some of its meaning.

The Passion Gospel today leaves us in a despairing place: Jesus is dead, his body wrapped in a linen cloth and laid in a borrowed tomb, sealed with a large stone; his followers scattered, wandering isolated, wrapped in cocoons of grief.

Can things be any worse?

Like Shelley, we cry out:

“Then black despair,

The shadow of a starless night, was thrown

Over the world in which I moved alone.”

This is not a “feel good” story.

We do not leave church with the same excitement with which we entered.

But we must resist the temptation to skip over this part of the story, to leap to next Sunday.

It is incumbent upon us to sit at the foot of the cross, to be in this place, to know the magnitude of the pain, the sacrifice, the confusion, the desolation and the disarray. For it is in the midst of this abject despairing place that the resurrection occurs, that new life is born, that, to paraphrase Blake, a “Heaven is built in Hell’s despair.”

We must first know this anguish in order to know the joy it births; this death in order to know that death, now, is vanquished, this entombed body in order that we might dance on the empty tomb.

No, today we do not leave church with the same excitement with which we entered it. We leave heavy, with the magnitude of the sacrifice which has been made for us.

But, if we allow ourselves to walk through this Holy Week, carrying the words of today’s Passion Gospel in our hearts, if we can go to the cross with Jesus on Good Friday, what an Easter awaits us!

For the love of Jesus, which has held in tension suffering and joy, death and life, greets us in the presence of the Risen Christ, in whom all mortal death is vanquished and all earthy despair is transformed.

May we live into this Holy Week, conscious that the love which sustains us is also the love which leads to Calvary - and the hope of the resurrection which lies ahead, at the dawning of Easter Day.

Amen.

ALL ABOARD!! - Church Auction, May 21

The Queen Mary is pulling out of the harbor on Saturday, May 21st, and you have a First Class ticket to dine and play the night away! We’ll be celebrating her maiden voyage at our annual Dinner & Auction Fund-raiser at the Tustin Community Center, starting at 5 PM with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. We’re having a great time planning the menu, photo opportunities, fabulous baskets, and amazing entertainment packages for your bidding pleasure. Wear your most glamorous ’30s attire (long gowns for the ladies, tuxedos or tails for the gents), and be prepared for a wonderful evening. This event supports many of our most important outreach ministries: the Noah Project, Hands Together, and Morning Garden are some of the programs that depend on the money we raise on this one night. You can help by donating items or events (see Janet, Claire, Paul, or Su for ideas), or funding the purchase of new items to fill out our basket creations. Buy your tickets today, after church or on-line at the Church web page... and bring a friend! Bon Voyage!

Paul Cook-Giles

April 10, 2011 - The Reverend Carolyn Estrada

Ezekiel 37:1 – 14 Psalm 130 Romans 8:6 – 11 John 11:1 - 45

We see the pictures of the devastation – earthquakes, tsunami, nuclear disaster! – in Japan and hear the cries, “Jesus, if you had been here, my loved one wouldn’t have died!”

Or watch the funeral of a young soldier, killed in Afghanistan.

“Jesus, if you had been here, my loved one wouldn’t have been killed!”

Or go home to an empty house, feeling simultaneously the silence and the memories of fifty years.

“Jesus, if you had been here, my loved one wouldn’t have died!”

How do we reconcile today’s Gospel lesson with the realities of our experience? If Jesus can raise Lazarus, what about fixing all these other things?!

The raising of Lazarus is small comfort in the midst of all the calamities of our world!

It might leave us wondering: where are you Jesus?!

It might leave us wondering: does God play favorites?

What does one have to do to get coinage with Jesus? To have him come to us and say, “Show me where you’ve laid him.” “Roll away the stone.” “Unbind him.”

The writer Annie Lamott reflects our own sentiments when she comments, “I don’t know why God won’t just spritz away our hardships and frustration!”

After all, we have expectations of God!

As Eugene Peterson wryly observes, most of us consider God not as a deity to be worshiped, but as a trusted and valuable assistant.” (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, p. 124) “That was your job, Jesus!

These global catastrophes are not going to look very good on your performance review!”

Ours is a culture that assesses blame – a modern, more secular version of the sentiments we heard expressed in last Sunday’s Gospel when Jesus was asked: “Who sinned, this man or his father, that he was born blind?!”

We assert:

• it’s not my fault I burned myself with that coffee while I was driving – Starbucks shouldn’t serve it so hot!
• It’s not his fault he got in trouble at school – those other kids led him astray!
• How were we supposed to know that was a bad investment? No one told us!

I can imagine it now: Mary or Martha calling Jacoby and Myers to see about filing a lawsuit against Jesus for wrongful death: If only he had been there, Lazarus wouldn’t have died!

Our litigious culture and our tendency to want to attribute blame, I think, creates a lens which causes us to focus on the wrong part of this Gospel story: it’s Jesus’ fault! “If you had been here…” we hear, admonishment in Mary’s voice.

George Everett Ross, clergyman and author, observes that, after more than thirty years of ministry, he has come to recognize that “there are two kinds of faith. One says ‘if’ and the other says ‘though.’ One says: ‘If everything goes well, if my life is prosperous, if I’m happy, if no one I love dies, if I’m successful, then I will believe in God and say my prayers and go to church and give what I can afford.’ The other says ‘though’”: ‘though the cause of evil prosper, though I sweat in Gethsemane, though I must drink my cup at Calvary – nevertheless, precisely then, I will trust the Lord who made me…’”

How do we move from the “…if-faith…” to the “…though-faith…”?

Not “…if you had been there…” but “…though you were not there…”?

Perhaps we should step back from the text a bit, and remember instead, that John also tells us that “Jesus began to weep.”

Jesus began to weep.

Imagine!

This is a God who is not at far remove!

This is a God who is vulnerable!

This is a God who is so close to us that he feels pain!

• Maybe he’s weeping out of grief for his friend.
• Maybe he’s weeping because his compassion is so great that he feels the pain of Mary and Martha as they grieve their brother.
• Maybe he’s weeping because already he sees his own fate, and the shadow of the cross which awaits him.

But he’s weeping!

His friend has died – and Jesus cries.

Here is a God who loves us enough to weep with us!

Can we put ourselves there, alongside a Jesus who cries with us in our tragedy?

Might the knowledge of that love help us to respond differently to the news of the devastation in Japan? Or Afghanistan? Or our own lives, our own losses and griefs, fears and anxieties?

What does it tell us about Jesus, this man, this God, who loves us enough to weep with us?

Reinhold Niebuhr points out that most of us experience life as a struggle between love and chaos, and how it is through Jesus that we discover that love at the center of things guarantees victory in every apparent defeat.

Through Jesus we discover that love at the center of things guarantees victory in every apparent defeat.

Even death.

Even death.

Just as Jesus’ footsteps have taken him this morning to Bethany, for the raising of Lazarus, and will then take him on to Jerusalem and his death, we Christians are nearing the end of our Lenten journey.

It is a journey that challenges us to find the love at the center of apparent defeat.

It is a journey that challenges us to move from “…if-faith…” to “…though-faith…” moving as we do into the solemn days of Holy Week, and the despair of Good Friday where we will witness another death.

Will we find Jesus there?

Not just the Jesus of the story – but JESUS!

Jesus.

More importantly, where will we be? Will we be there?

Not as observers – but will we be THERE?

As participants?

“…though he be crucified…”?

Will we be weeping?

Because it is his love for us – and our love for him – that guarantees victory in every apparent defeat.

Even death.

Amen.

Senior Warden Report

Dear Messiah parishioner,

The most frequently asked question these days is “How is the search for a new rector going?” The process is continuing although it may not be obvious. We want to thank you for your participation in the parish survey and the focus groups. There were 150 written responses, which demonstrate how many of us care about this place. The information gathered is being tabulated and will be shared with the parish at forums on May 1st at 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. At the forum you will also have a chance to share your vision for Messiah in the next five years. Please plan to attend.

The next step, which has already begun, is to compile the information into a profile of our church. After the profile has been approved by the Vestry, probably in May it will be submitted to the diocese. Our profile will be used to inform the diocese and prospective candidates about who we are. Diocesan experts will match prospective candidates with the profile, complete background checks, and verify the application information on each candidate. They will also interview the deployment officers from the applicant’s diocese. All of this takes time and ensures that we get a clean and workable list of qualified applicants.  

Meanwhile, the Vestry has approved the Search Committee with Nancy Whitehead as chair. The Vestry and Search Committee will have a joint working retreat in June to prepare for the important work ahead. Then the Search Committee will meet regularly during the summer to assemble information packets, formulate interview questions, and talk with other churches that have completed the process. As soon as the Diocese provides names of potential candidates, the actual search will begin, probably in the fall.

You may wonder what you can do to support this process. First, you can pray. We are in a prolonged process that might challenge our patience, yet we know the Holy Spirit walks with us. Pray for clarity, wisdom, and faith. Secondly, continue to be engaged in the work of Messiah so that our community will remain strong even after Fr. Brad leaves. We are the Church.

In my own life I have noticed lately so many things are changing rapidly. It is crucial for me not to fear in the midst of all the change, for having fear keeps me from being awake and open to the God of love that is giving me everything I need in this moment. So I invite you to join me in this prayer for our journey ahead:  

O most loving Father, who wills us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee who cares for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, so that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which have made tangible for us in thy Son Jesus. Amen.

Yours in Christ,
Dee Tucker
Senior Warden

Junior Warden Report

Dear Messiah Parishioner,

2011 is a very important year for this congregation as we prepare for Father Brad’s retirement in October. As part of that preparation your Vestry is focusing upon six broad areas: Finance, Facilities, Church Growth, Christian Formation, Parish Life, and Transition. Here is an overview of those areas and special emphases for 2011, with names of Vestry members who are working to achieve those goals.

Finance goal (Glenn Howard): to increase our financial resources and assure their effective stewardship. This area includes not only Stewardship and Planned Giving but this year also a close look at Messiah’s financial practices and procedures to see that they are up to date and accurately followed. In the fall we will also need to fund a search for a new rector and to pay for both an interim rector and our current Associate Rector, Carolyn Estrada.  Your generosity in the fall stewardship campaign will be essential.

Facilities goal (Jim Sperber, Peggy Patterson, Nancy Whitehead; Lorna Adkins, Columbarium): to ensure regular and long-term care of our physical plant, including this beautiful historic church with its old-age creaks and leaks and need for constant patching. This year it is also Fr. Brad’s hope that we will complete our Columbarium fund drive (we’re over halfway there!) so that the planned Columbarium at the back of the church will be underway before he departs.

Church Growth goal (Mark Hendrickson, website; Cécile Whiting, Ken Kawamura): to develop an awareness of Messiah in order to draw people in. Only thereby can we ensure the future vitality of this parish. A crucial component of that goal is the redesign of Messiah’s Website, which will go live in April. Not only will our website be an easy way for newcomers to find us and to know who’s who and what’s going on here, but it will allow for on-line payments and donations and will have links to outside resources such as a lectionary and Bible browser. This website will also be an important way for prospective rector candidates to recognize all that Messiah has to offer. 

Christian formation goal (Larry Budner, adults; Stephanie Miller, children and families): to facilitate programs for the spiritual formation of adults and children. In Adult Education the 2011-2012 outline of programs to be held between or after Sunday services has been developed. In addition to Sunday School, the emphasis for children and families will be the incorporation of special children’s activities at all parish events and the creation of a series of family events. We need to continue to make Messiah family-friendly, for young families are Messiah’s future.

Parish Life goal (Isabel Mata, Peggy Patterson): to oversee parish events, including the procurement of event chair (person s and communication of job description/needs. In order to keep up a full calendar of those parish events we all enjoy, we need each of you to step forward to help. In return the Vestry is working to see that you have a current “job description” for your event.

Transition goal (Dee Tucker, Sr. Warden; Lorna Adkins, Jr. Warden; Ken Kawamura; Nancy Whitehead, Rector Search Committee chair): to develop (and utilize) written systems with authority and accountability to increase lay leadership. Accordingly, the Vestry committee members are painstakingly reviewing the office Policy and Procedure Manual and all other written guidelines, procedures, and policies that a new rector or an interim or a lay leader will need to know. We don’t want the entire how-to’s that are stored in Fr. Brad’s head to remain there and to leave with him when he retires! In addition, we are working hard to find lay leaders to take responsibility for areas often left to the clergy so that Messiah will remain a stable community during the coming period of transition.

Together WE are the church here at Messiah, where “all are welcome at God’s table.” Your Vestry invites YOU to share your time and talents in the challenging year ahead.

Sincerely,

Lorna Adkins, Jr. Warden