Hello All:
I went back out the AMOS web site today (the organization we worked with in Nicaragua) and it was great to think again about their mission and what we experienced. It was amazing to work with this organization and I thought this would help you to see what we were involved with, and again, thank you for your support. Here is their website.
If you look at this video, the person you see there is Catalino, the Health Promoter in the village of Cumaica Norte we visited. He is doing such great work and along with the Health Committee is working very hard to improve this community.
This second video is a wonderful synopsis of the work of AMOS. It also shows pictures from our community and you will see Dr. Laura and Dr. David Parajon with whom we worked directly.
This third video also shows the needs with Dr. Laura talking about the role of the Health Promoter.
So, a great website to explore to get a feel for AMOS and what we experienced.
Thank you all again for your support and love,
Carol Harvey
January 22, 2012 - Dee Tucker, Senior Warden
I grew up fishing in Missouri in the creeks, the rivers, the man made lakes with my father, Jim. He loved fishing and patiently taught his two daughters to love the outdoors and the thrill of catching a fish. We started with poles and worms which we dug ourselves before setting out for a day on the bank of a creek. How exciting to learn how to put the worm on the hook, to watch the cork bob in the water and just when to jerk the line to set the hook to pull your very own perch to cook for dinner.
We never had a boat of our own, yet, we rented one….and with the 18 horsepower Evinrude motor we spent the day on the lake casting, trolling and enjoying the beauty of the Ozarks. There is nothing better than lying on the seat of a boat and watching the clouds float by…once in a way trailing your toes in the water.
Today we hear in Mark what the urgent call of the kingdom looks like. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees the two brothers Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting their nets in the sea. He calls them to follow, and immediately, in obedience, they leave their nets and follow him. The same happens with James and John.
Are you like me when you hear this passage about Simon and Andrew? To me it is striking that these four men would drop everything to follow Jesus if they did not already know him. Indeed, some scholars have speculated that they actually knew Jesus, or knew about him, before he called them into discipleship. Whatever the history of the relationship between Jesus and these four men may have been, however, the story gives effective expression to the urgency of the call to discipleship.
I know my father would drop everything to follow someone that would say anything about fishing. But what if we have been missing something critical in this passage? What if Jesus never intended fishing to become our main metaphor for evangelism? What if Jesus was only inviting Simon and Andrew to be “fishers of men” because that’s who they were — fishermen? Think about it. If Simon and Andrew had been carpenters, would Jesus have invited them to be “fishers of men” or might he have invited them to follow him and learn how to be “builders of the God Kingdom?” If they had been physicians, mightn’t Jesus have invited them to follow him and learn how to be “healers of people’s souls?” I think Jesus invited Simon and Andrew to follow him and join him in God’s work in a way that fit for them!
Now, if this is true, it suggests that Jesus calls us to follow him and join in God’s work in ways that fit who we are, too. We don’t have to become something or someone that we aren’t in order to follow him. Instead, he frees us to bring the best of who we are to him and offer it up as we join him in God’s work in the world. Whether you are a lawyer or retired, a nurse or stay-at-home parent, a teacher or supervisor, Jesus calls you to use the talents and strengths and knowledge and passions that we have to make the contribution to God’s kingdom that you alone can make. Imagine the freedom and purpose Jesus offers each of us by inviting us to join Jim by being who we are and investing this in blessing others?
Even when you are a fisherman you have many ways to choose to fish. As I mentioned earlier you can dig a worm, take a pole and sit on a riverbank. When we had a small boat on the river we tied ‘limb lines’ – a line with a hook and a worm from a tree that was arching over the water….then float to the next tree limb. And many, many times we heard a fish ‘hit’ the limb we just left! What a sound! Another way we fished was to ‘troll’ which means you have a rod with lots and lots of line – and you put a lure with a double hook, the line is let out many, many feet and you wait for a fish to ‘strike’, then you jerk to set the hook and you reel him in – patiently, as he has several tricks to throw off that hook – one by jumping out of the water…a spectacle sight! There are many, many more ways to fish…just as there are ways to do the work of God.
I am serving this year as Senior Warden for the Messiah vestry. If you are visiting today, that is like the President of the Board. As in all Episcopal parishes, the Vestry is the elected governing body of the parish. In addition to the Rector, the Vestry is composed of the senior and junior wardens and ten other members who oversee the work of the church. Today, following this service, our parish will conduct their annual meeting. We will hear reports from the Every Member Canvass/Stewardship campaign, the budget report of 2011 and the budget prepared for 2012, an update on the rector search process, reports from outreach activities and everyone will have an opportunity to participate and ask questions.
As we continue to journey thru transition – learning from Father Brad for most of 2011, praying for the Holy Spirit to join our process, learning to work with an interim rector - your elected vestry has been on a steep learning curve….realizing that saying goodbye to four vestry members who had worked and learned together would not serve Messiah well. Each vestry member made a loving decision last fall to extend their 3 year terms to 4 years. You, the church, voted to amend the by-laws in September at a specially called meeting. I personally thank each vestry member for their hours and hours of focus and intention in the work of Messiah. We, at Messiah, will continue the work of being ‘fishers of men.’
So, if Jesus calls us to invest who we are in serving others, it also means we can (and should!) quit focusing on what we don’t have or who we aren’t as an excuse for not ministering to others. I don’t have to be as rich as someone else, or as smart or as “successful” or as educated or as able to speak in public or as able to teach as anyone else in order to minister. In fact, focusing on what I don’t have is really just a way of avoiding my responsibility for making my contribution to what God is doing in the world. God has already equipped me to make the contribution that God wants me to make. Sure, I grow and learn as I follow Jesus, but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to be something or someone I’m not. It means that as I follow Jesus, as I offer up to him all that I am, I become more fully who God created me to be.
What if we quit making excuses and did these three things as disciples: “Be who you are. See what you have. Do what matters.” How would that free you from focusing on what you don’t have and free you to be a blessing to others?
Here at Messiah we have a pretty good track record of responding to the needs of others – we take food when someone is sick, we pray for each other, we respond with cash for advent giving project, the auction, coffee hour and numerous other needs, we support the Noah project and Hands Together, we bring food for Catholic Worker. Is this enough? Have we grown complacent? Patting ourselves on the back with our goodness? Are there still ‘fish’ waiting for us?
What if every person here heard Jesus inviting her or him to follow him being who they were and investing their amazing gifts and talents, skills and experiences, passions and knowledge to service others in His name? Imagine the impact that could have on people’s lives and on our community?
Jesus is walking along your shoreline today and calling you. “Be who you are. See what you have. Do what matters.”
January 15, 2012 - Father Mark D. Stuart
May I speak in the Name of God Who is: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our cherished history as a covenant people includes many experiences of those who seek God and in our sacred Scripture we hear how they discover Him in unexpected ways. Our Gospel lesson is one of those stories. We find enthusiasm, prejudice, and extraordinary insight all in one short narrative. Phillip’s encounter with Jesus was dramatic and life-changing full of extraordinary excitement and enthusiasm, so off he ran to find his friend, Nathaniel. But upon finding out where Jesus came from, Nathaniel’s response is not very promising, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” He is very skeptical that the Messiah would come from such an obscure a place (much like we might say, “Can any good come out of Pacoima?”) But Phillip is unperturbed by his friend’s lack of enthusiasm. “Come and see,” he says. He offers no defense of Jesus’ hometown, just an invitation to personal encounter.
Phillip risked rejection when he tackled Nathaniel. He risked embarrassment. Today, in our culture, he might be accused of being too evangelical or a fanatic, trying to force his religion on others. Yet Phillip seemed sure that if he could just get Nathaniel to meet Jesus, he would be convinced that even if this Jesus was the son of Joseph from Nazareth, he was also the person long hoped for.
Whatever Nathaniel’s thoughts are when he arrives on the scene, bewilderment replaces skepticism. Jesus sees him and makes this odd observation about him, “Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no deceit!” A stranger’s introduction does not usually include sweeping pronouncements about one’s life. Nathaniel is puzzled and says, “How do you know me?” With an explanation that probably leaves us as puzzled as Nathaniel, Jesus answers, “I saw you under the fig tree before Phillip called you.” Sort of like saying, “I’ve seen you around,” or “I had my eye on you. And that’s all it took for the skeptic to abandon his doubting posture; he proclaims, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” From where did this confession and insight come? Nothing but an encounter with the divine could explain this sacred recognition.
In I Samuel we are given another strange first encounter. Young Samuel is put in the care of the aging priest of God, Eli, by his mother. While being mentored by Eli, Samuel is attentive and responsive to Eli’s requests and instructions. So when Samuel hears his name being called out at night he thinks it is Eli calling him again and again and runs to him. Finally, Eli realizes that this is not just a young boy troubled by dreams, but a child whom God is calling. Samuel will be established as God’s prophet and as a child begins to learn under the direction of Eli how to listen and respond.
Samuel does not recognize God’s voice at first and Nathaniel questions the quality of a man of inauspicious origins. Both are portrayed as truthful, and the child-like innocence of Samuel is also reflected in the description of Nathaniel as an Israelite in whom there is no “deceit.” Both have a purity of heart that allows them to open their eyes to see God. Yet Jesus questions Nathaniel after the young man’s enthusiastic recognition, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these… Truly you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Nathaniel may have been surprised that Jesus recognized him at all, but then Jesus says in a manner of speaking, “You think that’s amazing? You ain’t seen nothing yet!” For us the idea of angel traffic between heaven and earth may seem quaint and sweet. But to Nathaniel, it was something much more profound since he was well aware of the story from Genesis of Jacob’s dream, where Jacob saw a ladder or stairway reaching to heaven with angels going up and down. This image of angel movement points to the connection between heaven and earth, the connection between God and us. However, the image Jesus uses does not include the ladder or stairway as the conduit for the angelic movement, but rather it is the Son of Man. He is the connection between heaven and earth, the connection between God and God’s people. This is very good news, indeed!
This the One we celebrate this season as our Emmanuel, God in man made manifest. This connection to God means we must always be open to “new-ness” that is to being renewed, to seeing anew every day the needs of God’s people around us, to being open to the new directions our spiritual lives may go if we but dare to open our eyes to the movement of the angels, to be a pilgrim people. The great classical Anglican divine, Richard Hooker, described all worship as our encounter with angels ascending and descending.
Jesus calls us to be “Nathaniels,” whose prejudice about others can be changed by a genuine encounter with the Lord. Such an encounter challenges us to engage people in the totality of their being, whatever their race, background, class, wealth, poverty, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else we use to define others. Encounters with God are often unpredictable. They catch us by surprise, interrupt our regular patterns and challenge our assumptions. Samuel’s first experience of God’s call and Nathaniel’s first encounter with Jesus are unsettling, but both open into promise of deeper relationship and greater vision. Skepticism and inexperience are not barriers when they are accompanied by truthfulness and transparency.
Perhaps Jesus had Nathaniel in mind when He later taught in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Amen.
Our cherished history as a covenant people includes many experiences of those who seek God and in our sacred Scripture we hear how they discover Him in unexpected ways. Our Gospel lesson is one of those stories. We find enthusiasm, prejudice, and extraordinary insight all in one short narrative. Phillip’s encounter with Jesus was dramatic and life-changing full of extraordinary excitement and enthusiasm, so off he ran to find his friend, Nathaniel. But upon finding out where Jesus came from, Nathaniel’s response is not very promising, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?” He is very skeptical that the Messiah would come from such an obscure a place (much like we might say, “Can any good come out of Pacoima?”) But Phillip is unperturbed by his friend’s lack of enthusiasm. “Come and see,” he says. He offers no defense of Jesus’ hometown, just an invitation to personal encounter.
Phillip risked rejection when he tackled Nathaniel. He risked embarrassment. Today, in our culture, he might be accused of being too evangelical or a fanatic, trying to force his religion on others. Yet Phillip seemed sure that if he could just get Nathaniel to meet Jesus, he would be convinced that even if this Jesus was the son of Joseph from Nazareth, he was also the person long hoped for.
Whatever Nathaniel’s thoughts are when he arrives on the scene, bewilderment replaces skepticism. Jesus sees him and makes this odd observation about him, “Behold an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no deceit!” A stranger’s introduction does not usually include sweeping pronouncements about one’s life. Nathaniel is puzzled and says, “How do you know me?” With an explanation that probably leaves us as puzzled as Nathaniel, Jesus answers, “I saw you under the fig tree before Phillip called you.” Sort of like saying, “I’ve seen you around,” or “I had my eye on you. And that’s all it took for the skeptic to abandon his doubting posture; he proclaims, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.” From where did this confession and insight come? Nothing but an encounter with the divine could explain this sacred recognition.
In I Samuel we are given another strange first encounter. Young Samuel is put in the care of the aging priest of God, Eli, by his mother. While being mentored by Eli, Samuel is attentive and responsive to Eli’s requests and instructions. So when Samuel hears his name being called out at night he thinks it is Eli calling him again and again and runs to him. Finally, Eli realizes that this is not just a young boy troubled by dreams, but a child whom God is calling. Samuel will be established as God’s prophet and as a child begins to learn under the direction of Eli how to listen and respond.
Samuel does not recognize God’s voice at first and Nathaniel questions the quality of a man of inauspicious origins. Both are portrayed as truthful, and the child-like innocence of Samuel is also reflected in the description of Nathaniel as an Israelite in whom there is no “deceit.” Both have a purity of heart that allows them to open their eyes to see God. Yet Jesus questions Nathaniel after the young man’s enthusiastic recognition, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these… Truly you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” Nathaniel may have been surprised that Jesus recognized him at all, but then Jesus says in a manner of speaking, “You think that’s amazing? You ain’t seen nothing yet!” For us the idea of angel traffic between heaven and earth may seem quaint and sweet. But to Nathaniel, it was something much more profound since he was well aware of the story from Genesis of Jacob’s dream, where Jacob saw a ladder or stairway reaching to heaven with angels going up and down. This image of angel movement points to the connection between heaven and earth, the connection between God and us. However, the image Jesus uses does not include the ladder or stairway as the conduit for the angelic movement, but rather it is the Son of Man. He is the connection between heaven and earth, the connection between God and God’s people. This is very good news, indeed!
This the One we celebrate this season as our Emmanuel, God in man made manifest. This connection to God means we must always be open to “new-ness” that is to being renewed, to seeing anew every day the needs of God’s people around us, to being open to the new directions our spiritual lives may go if we but dare to open our eyes to the movement of the angels, to be a pilgrim people. The great classical Anglican divine, Richard Hooker, described all worship as our encounter with angels ascending and descending.
Jesus calls us to be “Nathaniels,” whose prejudice about others can be changed by a genuine encounter with the Lord. Such an encounter challenges us to engage people in the totality of their being, whatever their race, background, class, wealth, poverty, gender, sexual orientation, or anything else we use to define others. Encounters with God are often unpredictable. They catch us by surprise, interrupt our regular patterns and challenge our assumptions. Samuel’s first experience of God’s call and Nathaniel’s first encounter with Jesus are unsettling, but both open into promise of deeper relationship and greater vision. Skepticism and inexperience are not barriers when they are accompanied by truthfulness and transparency.
Perhaps Jesus had Nathaniel in mind when He later taught in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Amen.
Steps to Selecting a New Rector
- Parish Profile submitted to Diocese
- Job is posted/candidates respond to Diocese
- Candidate list given to Messiah by Diocese
- Discernment Committee reviews initial candidate responses
- Interviews in progress
- Visits by committee members to parishes of select candidates
- Final 3 candidates presented to Vestry
- Vestry calls the new Rector
Book Discussion Group
We’ll be discussing “The Country Under My Skin”
by Gioconda Belli
Potluck and Discussion
Wednesday, January 18
6:30 PM in the Parish Hall
2012 Annual Meetings
Sunday, January 22
After each Eucharist
After each Eucharist
- Pot-luck brunch: bring something to share: breads and cheese, egg dishes, fruit, salads.
- 11:30 a.m. Official Annual Meeting. Presentation and dialogue about 2012 Budget.
What is Stephen Ministry?
Our Congregation’s Stephen Ministry equips lay people to provide confidential, one-to-one Christian care to individuals in our congregation and community who are experiencing difficulties in their lives.
If you - or someone you know - could benefit from the care of a Stephen Minister or if you have any other questions about Stephen Ministry, speak with The Rev. Carolyn at coffee hour.
If you - or someone you know - could benefit from the care of a Stephen Minister or if you have any other questions about Stephen Ministry, speak with The Rev. Carolyn at coffee hour.
Supper Clubs!
Have you heard all the excitement? People’s comments about Supper Club adventures, meals, conversations; new friends made, acquaintances deepened?
Wish you had signed up for Supper Clubs?
Our sixth year of Supper Clubs is winding down, and it’s now time to join – or “re-enlist”! We will have our “Re-organizational Supper Club Brunch” at 11:30 on Sunday, February 12 at 11:30 a.m.
Our sixth year of Supper Clubs is winding down, and it’s now time to join – or “re-enlist”! We will have our “Re-organizational Supper Club Brunch” at 11:30 on Sunday, February 12 at 11:30 a.m.
Upcoming Adult Education Class
Episcopal 101
beginning Sunday, February 26 at 9 a.m. in the Parish Hall
beginning Sunday, February 26 at 9 a.m. in the Parish Hall
January 1, 2012 - Father Mark D. Stuart
May I speak in the Name of God Who is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
So here we are again, another New Year’s Day, another year about to start. Some New Year’s may be memorable, others forgettable. Remember the turn of the millennium when we all anxiously awaited the stroke of midnight at which time we were told all the computers would suddenly shut down and all global infrastructure, financial institutions, and communications would immediately cease?! Of course, nothing happened and that scare has to go down in history as one of the biggest scams of mass hysteria in modern times. Now they will be worrying us all year with the Mayan end of days 2012 prophecy… we’ll see.
Occasionally I wonder about the nature of time, how we count the seconds, minutes, hours, days… Since earliest civilization humankind has marked time to order life. Why do we consider a new day starting at midnight when the Jews considered it starting at sunset? What happens to the hour we adjust at daylight savings time… where does it go or where does it come from? And what about the news this week that the government of Samoa decided to move its time west of the International Date Line; on midnight Thursday it suddenly became Saturday – so, where did Friday go?! Time as we know it, is a human invention and probably only exists as a reality in the mind of God, for “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” Time is but a wink within the existence of God given on loan to a fading universe.
A strange phrase: “time to spare,” as though time were a commodity to be accumulated. All that ever seems to happen with it is that it flits past and we are only left with our memories… once we were young, our partners were young, and friends were young, once our children were young… Maybe many of those we love the most have left this earthly realm, now young and joyful forever in the land of light… and yet here we still are, trying to make sense of it all as we must confront another new year. When he was my age, my grandfather passed from a massive coronary. When he was my age, I thought my father was pretty old. Now in one of my more recent confrontations with age, the last parish I served as Interim, St. Augustine’s Santa Monica called a new Rector young enough to be my son, having been born the year I graduated from college. Oh well, “time marches on” as they say, like a ruthless army that shows no mercy. “It is time to seek the Lord.” That surely is the most crucial use of time. Our time on this planet is but a speck in eternity; it is quickly gone. Yet to seek after the Lord of this universe and find Him is to gain an eternity of endless time.
In contrast to civil observances of the New Year, some Christians seek to dedicate their observance to a more spiritual emphasis and understanding of the occasion. If secular culture has adopted the Christian Feast of Christmas, the Church has sought to claim the secular feast of New Year and then christen it as its own. Since all time really begins and ends with God, the faithful place the New Year under God’s dominion, since to God belongs all time. In the Catholic tradition New Year’s Day is celebrated as the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God; in the Anglican tradition it is celebrated as the Feast of the Holy Name. Both observances find justification in our Gospel Lesson appointed for today.
A new year is always a time when we are prone to consider new beginnings. Some people make New Year’s resolutions or make new plans or maybe even embark on a new adventure. I am happy to say I have experienced success with both of those endeavors in past years. Some people depending on the circumstances or their personalities approach new things with anxiety, others with enthusiasm. New things in our lives can certainly be compared to birth, something Jesus did with Nicodemus when he told him that one must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In the mystery of motherhood is the mystery of bringing forth and nurturing new life. As Mother of the Church, Mary’s role in bringing forth new life within the Church is always directed to the Church’s role in bringing forth new life in the world. To give and to nurture life means first and foremost to make way for peace; peace within and peace with others.
Even though the New Testament uses a variety of images in its reflection of Mary, that of “mother” is most fundamental. The historical fact that Mary gave birth to Jesus established her unique relationship to her Son, a relationship that serves as the basis for all other reflections about her. That simple fact is declared throughout the New Testament: Jesus did not just drop down from heaven; He was born of a woman. It makes sense in the octave of Christmas, that great Feast celebrating the Incarnation, God becoming one of us in the birth of His Son, that we should also remember the principal player in that taking place, namely His Mother Mary.
Our Gospel lesson for today is part of the famous nativity narrative from St. Luke in which it says, “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” I think of her catching every significant event, every holy moment surrounding her Son’s birth to treasure them. She doesn’t just notice them, or even just remember them, or take note of them…. She “treasures” them. She values and is enriched by them.
Do we ever treasure anything in our heart? Most of the ways people are used to celebrating New Years Eve do not aid in that. The drinking, partying, loud crowds can be quite a distraction to being at peace, contemplative, and treasuring things in our hearts. With all the ups and downs that we go through in our private lives and life together as a parish, a family, a community; we have “holy moments” to treasure in our hearts and reflect where God is in all of it, to be expectant of the births taking place in our lives. We must always be expectant, open to mystery, open to the labor pangs to which the Holy Spirit gives us from time to time. We must be, to use the second dictionary definition of pregnant: “rich in significance, meaningful,” so that our faith does not become still born, unable to give life to others.
As we begin the year 2012, we ask God that we may be blessed with the desire and the readiness to “treasure things in our hearts.” We ask that in dong so, we may enjoy the same peace that Mother Mary enjoyed, even in the midst of all the confusion, the weight of her responsibility, and the world’s distractions.
May the words of our first lesson from Numbers be yours this day and throughout the New Year: “The Lord bless you and keep you: the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace!”
Happy New Year!
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