GRACE LUTHERAN. Hungry for the God We Recognize. In the spotlight

Transcription

1 GRACE LUTHERAN A U G U S T Hungry for the God We Recognize A fiddler on the roof wails heavenward, Tradition, tradition. The canvas draping a revival meeting tent billows as the choir belts out a favorite rendition of Give me that old time religion, it s good enough for me. When the formulas we have trusted fail us; when all we insisted was indispensable washes out like sand in the tide; when what we depended on collapses at the foundation; when an inconvenient truth bangs like a bungling thief at the door of our faultless household; when flames turn our monuments into ash; and when we are cast into orbit where we do not know how to live and where we hear voices we neither recognize nor welcome, then our hearts hunger for a day like a day we once knew, a day like it used to be. The chorus of voices around Jesus in today s gospel harmonizes anger and lament into a dirge in the key of woe, a reprise of Elijah s requiem under the broom tree in a hungry wilderness (1 Kings 19:4). Oh, for those good old days when there was enough bread to eat. With hearts hungry for a day like a day that used to be, those gathered around Jesus could not recognize the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or the prophets in the likes of Jesus, son of their neighbors Mary and Joseph. But it was the words he dared to utter, that one thing he said, I am, that threatened to starve hearts already hungry for the God they could recognize. It is the unsurprising shocker that God shows up in the ever diverse, always gracious face of Jesus, arriving in the everydayness of our upsets and convulsions, losses and longings. Jesus, concealed and revealed, gives the new song. You satisfy the hungry heart with gifts of finest wheat. Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat (ELW 484). In the spotlight Skippy Palmer is in the spotlight this month!!! She was born and raised here in Harlingen. She graduated from Harlingen High in After high school she went on to Texas Southmost College in Brownsville for 2 years. In her younger years Skippy enjoyed water skiing and snow skiing. She likes to bake now. Skippy worked as an Office Manager for McLaughlin and Russel for 20 years and retired last month!!! Skippy is married to Butch Palmer. They were married in Skippy did volunteer work at Valley Baptist Medical Center and also volunteers at the Church. She is enjoying her retirement!!! 1

2 Hungry for Meaning The account of Viktor Frankl s survival in Nazi death camps, written in his famous memoir, Man s Search for Meaning, tells about the relentless days of wretched suffering. But most remarkable are his words about finding meaning in a grim wasteland of loss, the discovery of something that gives life in an existence pulsing with cruelty and death. Few of us face such horrors, but many of us do know what it is to rise into mornings that drift into hollowed out nights, days of empty passages. During a long stretch of loneliness, the man paced vacantly through once joyful corridors that had become a maze of confused anguish. For anyone and no one to hear, he cried, shouted, This is no life! He wanted neither to live nor to die. Nothing shopping, traveling, eating, drinking, going, coming, playing, working, hoarding, shedding nothing had meaning. Today, Jesus speaks of himself as living bread from heaven, his flesh for food and his blood for drink. The Gospel of John offers no details of the Lord s supper, no instructions spoken over bread and wine, no Do this for the remembrance of me. Instead, here, Jesus invitation is to share in his way of abundant life, in a word, abide. Abide. You are not alone. Abide. Jesus is with you. Abide in communion with the one who hugs lepers, expels demons, breathes with the dead, rescues the far gone, goes to prison, wants the unwanted, loves the shamed, forgives the guilty, serves the servant, blesses the thieves, welcomes aliens, cancels debts, listens to children, gives the blind kaleidoscopes, the deaf symphonies, and the voiceless a song. May this be our prayer today: When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide with me (ELW 629). Ladies of Grace Activities : August 16th -Lunch New York Deli August 23rd Prayer Shawl Notes from the Office: No Council Meeting this month. We will be having a Noisy Offering on August 12th. Newsletter updates due August 27th. Sign up sheets for worship service are in the Narthex, please sign up if you are able to help serve. If anyone needs spiritual support or home visit please let the office know and we will have someone come out to visit. Save your pop tops!!!!! WELCA women are collecting pop tops for their convention in Sept. You can bring them in to the Parish Hall. Communion classes and confirmation classes will start in the fall. More info when it becomes available. We are collecting personal hygiene products for our God s work, Our hands Sunday coming up in Sept. Please bring donations to the Parish Hall. If you prefer to give money you can put it in the offering plate designating money to go to hygiene products, take money to the office or give to Jan or Rita. August 19th we will be blessing the teachers and students returning to school. Our condolences to Mike Lute and family and Suzanne. Their father died July 18th. Jim Werth 1 Mike Lute 10 Evie McCann 10 Gary & Charlene Albertson 15 Angelyna Guerra 16 Bruce & Pam Ramsey 22 Butch Palmer 23 Barb Lomelino 24 Edwin Brown 29 Gundy & Flora Gunderson 30 If we missed anyone PLEASE contact the office. 2

3 AMONG THOSE FOR WHOM WE PRAY ARE: Congregation members: Sherry Brooks, Edna Gross, Chuck & Jody Bothwell, Mike Lute. Family members: Barbara Gericke, Corey Schiavoni, Connie Dawe, Mason Lomelino, A.B. Sonny Ward, Tanya Tyndell. Congregation friends: Jason McGinnis, Al Lundy, Cheryl Dear, Steve Smith, Luanne Ruffle, Mason Spradling, Carolyn Pierce, Donald Wernecke, Dakota Miller. Those who serve: Colby Crosser, Dustin Dunbar. PRAYER CHAIN 2018 Sarah Kennedy Marvel Devine Edna Gross Elaine Krueger Marie Sankey Barbara Lomelino Cell Jeana Lute Cell Phyllis McKee Sherry Brooks (W) Indicates our Winter Texans. When they return north, call the next one on the list. Choir will resume in the fall. Thank you to everyone who joins in the choir. Sunday School will resume in the fall. Cereal Flour PANTRY NEEDS Veg. Oil Lamp A lamp symbolizes the Word of God: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 119:105). It also may represent wisdom, based on Jesus parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13). Additionally, a lamp may symbolize the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and life itself. Canned Chilies Masa Harina Juice Bath Soap Body Wash 3

4 2018 COUNCIL MEMBERS Grace evangelical Lutheran Church ELCA Pastor Don Taylor E. Jackson St. Harlingen, TX Secretary Suzanne Sanchez Office: Deadline for the Sept. Newsletter is Monday Mon. Aug. 27, 2018 Please get all information to the church office, or the office mailbox. THANKS The Sept. Newsletter will be ready by Friday Aug. 31 and in the Narthex Sunday Sept. 2. Pastor Don Taylor Gray, Erica President Gunderson, Flora Vice-President Albertson, Charlene Secretary Morton, Bonnie Treasurer Lomelino, Floyd Morton, Ron Longoria, Betty Demro, Jan We re on the Web We are also on face book!! AU G U S T s e rv i c e s c h e d u l e August 5 August 12 August 19 August 26 Ushers Frank & Phyllis Frank & Phyllis Frank & Phyllis Frank & Phyllis Assistant MISSION STATEMENT God s purpose for Grace Lutheran Church is: Welcome to Grace, Welcome the Message. Principle Values: Jesus is Lord Everyone is welcome. All serve in different ways. Seek and share the message. God s love is life changing. Lector Acolyte Altar Guild Carol Heesch Carol Heesch Carol Heesch Carol Heesch 4

5 You ve got mail! What a wonderful thing is the mail, someone has said, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp. I remember the excitement of getting an aerogram from a grade-school pen pal in Sweden, or a letter from Mom when I was in college. How different from the instantaneous, typed messages we send today. Can you imagine, then, how meaningful the letters of Paul, Peter and other apostles were to early Christians? Painstakingly handwritten, carefully delivered by a courier or friend so different from s, texts and even postal delivery! Think how elated the recipients must have been to read warm greetings, news from afar, teachings, even reprimands and then words such as these: My love be with you all in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 16:24, ESV). The next time you read or hear a New Testament letter, imagine a time when such communication was rare and precious. Hear the writer s words which are also God s words to you from that perspective, and hold them fast. Heidi Mann Not healed, but whole While researching America s Prosperity Gospel movement, Kate Bowler was saddened by its implications namely that God is present in people s triumphs but not their suffering, and that every aspect of life is either your fault or your reward. When Bowler was diagnosed with stage IV cancer at age 35, the prosperityminded messages of well-wishers made cancer seem like a punishment. In Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I ve Loved), Bowler asks: What would it mean for Christians to give up that little piece of the American Dream that says, You are limitless? Everything is not possible. The mighty Kingdom of God is not yet here. What if rich did not have to mean wealthy, and whole did not have to mean healed? What if being people of the gospel meant that we are simply people with good news? God is here. We are loved. It is enough. Summer faith practices Be a gardener. Dig a ditch, toil and sweat, and turn the earth upside down and seek the deepness and water the plants in time. Continue this labor and make sweet floods to run and noble and abundant fruits to spring. Take this food and drink and carry it to God as your true worship. Julian of Norwich, Christian mystic (ca ) 5

6 PUZZLE PAGE Each day remember this: I am a child of God. That is how God sees me in Christ. 6