Sunnyvale First United Methodist Church 535 Old San Francisco Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 March/April 2019 April 14, Palm Sunday 9:00 a.m Early service 10:30 a.m Main service Legend of the Donkey Legend tells us that the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday followed Him to Calvary. Appalled by the sight of Jesus on the cross, the donkey turned away but could not leave. It is said that the shadow of the cross fell upon the shoulders and back of the donkey. A cross marking found on many donkeys today remains a tes!mony of the love and devo!on of a humble, li8le donkey. April 18, Maundy Thursday 6:30p.m Communion Service Holy Thursday, as it is also commonly known, marks the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his apostles prior to his betrayal, trial and crucifixion as portrayed in the Chris-!an gospels. The name Maundy Thursday is derived from the La!n word mandatum meaning commandment. April 19, Good Friday Service at Noon The Legend of the Dogwood At the!me of Christ s crucifixion the dogwood tree was a large and strong tree. Chosen to serve as the cross, the tree was greatly distressed. Sensing this, Jesus determined that the dogwood tree would never again grow large enough to become a cross. The dogwood tree blooms near Easter. Its blossom forms a cross with Stained nail prints on the edge of each petal and a crown of thorns in the center of each flower. April 21, Easter Sunday 9:00 a.m service 10:30 a.m service. Easter Egg Hunt a0er the 10:30 a.m service The Legend of the Bu2erfly Symbolic of resurrec!on and eternal life, the bu8erfly emerging from its cocoon represents the resurrec!on of Christ from the tomb. Just as the bu8erfly comes forth with a new body, those who trust in Christ come forth with new life.
Page 2 Lent: A Time of Radical Discipleship It s early March, but signs of spring are becoming visible a9er an altogether thoroughly wet winter. One season is faithfully, if begrudgingly, giving way to another in this con-!nual cycle of life. How fi:ng then that we in the Chris!an tradi!on observe the season of Lent during this period of earthly transforma!on. Lent means long or to lengthen, referring to the increasing hours of sunlight as spring!me creeps ever nearer and winter retreats back from which she came. Lent reminds us that we are members of an alterna!ve community of travelers along this way of transforma!on and discipleship; led, modeled and embodied by The Way himself. Christ s three-fold challenge (deny, pick up and follow) is the sin qua non of discipleship. Lent is the occasion whereby we align our soul and will more deliberately with the Spirit of God. It is living for forty days how we should be living 365 days a year. And while self-denial and the dives!ture of habits, addic!ons and luxuries is the first step toward change, personal disavowal is much more than sen!mental bourgeois asce!cism. Lent becomes the opportunity to put down the habit-forming indulgences that bind us, while joining our Lord in the solidarity of selfdenial and acts of service. It is also worth no!ng that this biblical connota!on of denial evokes the vernacular a courtroom, where followers of Christ are pressed to either profess Christ or renounce him, the former necessita!ng self-sacrifice and death. This way of Christ con!nues to remind us that it is in service and self denial that we experience freedom, while simultaneously offering it to others. And s!ll, self-denial isn t an end in itself. It is never enough to simply put aside this thing or that, we are required to pick up something altogether different, a cross. The specific turn of phrase echoing down through the ages to pick up your cross has no other meaning than an invita!on to share in Christ s suffering; to join Him weeping with those who weep, mourning with those who mourn, making peace with those who choose war, offering meekness to a world replete with domina!on and prac!cing mercy with those hell bent on redemp!ve violence. Walking this way, choosing His cross and dying to self is an!the!cal to our very existence, thus the need for faithful praxis and prac!ce during this intense period of spiritual forma!on. His drama!c and hopeful story, which began heralding highways through the wilderness, ends on the narrow path to Golgotha. The ashes of Wednesday remind us some 2,000 years later that a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Pastor Guest As we move deeper into Lent, as one spiritual season gives way to a new one, urge one another on to follow him unceasingly. Obedience is never an accident. You will never accidentally fall into faithfulness, it requires inten!onality and ac!on. Abide in Him so that He may abide in you. Join the saints in this season of spiritual change repen!ng of sin, renewing of faith, prac!cing the tradi!ons of the ekklesia and preparing to celebrate the joyful mystery of our salva!on. Amen, Pastor Guest
March/April 2019 Page 3 Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. It was established many years ago, the exact date this prac!ce started has been lost. It goes back at least to the 10th Century. The Catholic Church realized that many Catholics were not going to confession, they wanted to change that. The reasons why they wanted people to go to confession is debatable. Many scholars say it was for money, others say it was out of concern for the welfare of souls. Either way, the Catholic Church decided on the first day of Lent to be the one day a year that everyone would be required to go to confession. A9er confession they will receive an ash Cross on their forehead, this mark on your forehead was a way to dis!nguish a believer who had gone to confession, and a believer that has not. It also served as a reminder to everyone that they need to go to confession. (The ashes come from burned palm branches from Palm Sunday the year before, and the use of ash is symbolic of repen!ng in sackcloth and ashes ) Many Chris!an Church s today do not believe in Ash Wednesday, as the prac!ce lacks Biblical support, and it started in the 5th century, years a9er the death of the last Apostles. Lent Lent pays tribute to the 40 days that Jesus Christ fasted in prepara!on for his ministry. Lent is the 40 days leading up to Holy Week, to prepare for Easter. A common prac!ce is giving something up for lent just like Christ fasted, o9en!mes it is something that is a vice, or a sin. Some!mes it is something that they personally want to give up to be a be8er or healthier person. My Catholic family member once gave up sugar and sweets. Many Catholics give up meat for the 40 days of lent. But as soon as lent is over, most of my friends go right back to what they gave up. Lent ends with Holy Week. Holy Week is basically the acts of the last week of Christ s life, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. In some areas, people even reenact those events including the carrying of a cross, and in some areas, they even will crucify someone (normal they just!e them on the cross). Certainly the events of Holy Week happened, but reenac!ng them as many people do during lent is not necessary. We join with our Catholic brothers and sisters in celebra!ng, and honoring Christ, and we will defend your right to worship the way you feel is right, even if we don t agree with it. We believe that we should always be turning away from sinful, an!- human prac!ces and ways of thinking. We do not believe in the idea that the church should pick a day you are required to repent on, we believe in repen!ng daily and regularly partaking of the Sacrament. We believe that doing this not only renews all of the covenants we have made with God, but it is the only way to renew any of our covenants. We celebrate the birth, life, and teachings of Jesus Christ and His Apostles. We honor and celebrate the Holy Week, and we rejoice that the Atonement was wrought, but Jesus death with the Cross was not the end of the Atonement. We believe that He Lives! Because we believe that Jesus Christ lives, we believe that the head of our church not a human being, but that Jesus Christ is the Living Head. He leads us and loves us, and encourages us to love and invest in others. Our focus is on the Resurrec!on of Jesus Christ. Billions have died. God raised Christ, making him the first to conquer death. And because of that, we celebrate Christ resurrec!on and we celebrate our own.
Page 4 My work with the United Mission to Nepal is primarily based in Rukum district in western Nepal. We have twice weekly, 1-hour, flights available to Kathmandu (weather permi:ng), in what I affec!onately term "chicken planes" since folks have been known to bring their chickens on these rickety 18-seat, twin-propeller planes. Otherwise it takes 24 hours by bus to get back to the capital city (or 7 hours to the Nepaljung airport with daily flights). The Rukum district headquarters, Musikot, is located on a ridge at about 5500' eleva!on; we enjoy the warm sun on brisk winter days, but sit in the clouds through much of the summer monsoon. I have a corner room at a local boarding house, with a view of the Rap! river in the valley below and snow dus!ng the surrounding hills in the winter. A local hydro-plant supplies most of our electricity, and solar panels provide needed back up (except during the monsoon when lack of sun makes power-outs more frequent). I have a single-burner electric range for simple cooking, but mostly eat at the local tea shops; my favorite meal is ro! (flat-bread) with saag (mustard greens), acchar (tomato chutney) and daal (len!ls). A propane-fueled "instant hot water" shower makes bathing bearable in the winter! Internet access through the local cell-phone networks (some!mes even at 3G speed) keeps me connected to the outside world and even lets me download books borrowed from my public library in the USA. The villages where we work are 4-8 hours by jeep away. We o9en have an addi!onal 2-10 hours of walking past the end of the road, in one case over an 11,220' pass. Significant investment in road infrastructure is making life easier every month. As the weather turned cool and the trails dried up a9er a long, wet summer, I visited the villages of Shyala, Khadi and Patagau in Rukum last week. As I ve been reflec!ng on my apprecia!on for my Nepali colleagues and the progress made by the women s groups and child clubs in these villages, I also stand in awe of all of you who trust me enough to send me to accompany this process. Most donors want tangible projects and things accomplished that can be counted, whether it is numbers of bap!sms or numbers of toilets constructed. And yet, you have been suppor!ng me in this nebulous process of community development. Some days I do feel like I am just faffing around, listening while others have what seems like the same discussion yet again. But then I have an opportunity to meet with the women in the Jyo (light) Paren!ng Group in Shyala village and I am reminded of the difference that comes when we, as church, par!cipate in community development. Again, and again, women we spoke with last week talked about their apprecia!on for the Social Mobilizers in our project who met with them and encouraged them to learn new ways of rela!ng to their children; the women spoke of finding voice to facilitate group discussions on gender-based violence and even opened-up conversa!ons with their husbands. They told their own stories and learned from each other. They became advisors for community disputes and pooled their savings to purchase a piece of land for a community gathering place. While we did budget some dona!ons this year for ac!vi!es like classroom improvements, when it came down to the specific improvements it was the teachers who decided what was needed. The crea!vity of the young entrepreneurs who won the business grant compe!!on is inspiring in villages that are just now ge:ng connected by a road that brings them within three hours of a market center. The child clubs purchased sports equipment to encourage kids to hang out at school rather than playing truant, started a kitchen garden at the school to supplement the World Food Program rice and len!ls, and used part of their social ac!on grant to purchase a blanket for a poor student. So, I con!nue in gra!tude for your trust and support that allows me to be here in Nepal as we slowly try to reorient how we do community development away from projects designed by the privileged into ministries with communi!es that allow for spaces where women and children can find their voices and make substan!ve decisions about how their group will choose to use the donated funds to contribute to the transforma!on of Nepal.
March/April 2019 Page 5 I was born and raised in a small town called O8awa, Illinois where I was the church organist for First and Evangelical United Methodist Churches. During the summers, I was a Sailing Counselor at Wesley Woods Campground on Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. I graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a Bachelor s Degree in Accoun!ng and I moved to the Bay Area in January of 2016 for work. During the weekends I love go to hike and explore the Northern California region. I am happy to have found Sunnyvale First because I hope to grow in faith, community, and music. Everyone I have met in the church has welcomed me with open arms and I am grateful for that. Les Cline First UMC Sunnyvale Finance Commi2ee Report Les Cline, Finance Chairperson February 28, 2019 I m disappointed to report that, from a financial perspec!ve, 2019 is not off to a good start: In the 2019 Budget, total Es!mated Income is $280,110 and total Es!mated Expenses are $311,574. This adds up to an overall 2019 Budget Deficit of $31,464. The 2019 Budget includes $165k of Pledge Income; however, to date our church has only received commitments for about $136k. When this $28,537 Pledge Income shoruall is added to the projected 2019 Budget Deficit, it means that right now our 2019 church finances are tracking towards a $60k loss. So far this year, the Finance Commi8ee has chosen to not panic and slash expenses; instead, we are trus!ng that God will provide for our church s 2019 finances, one way or another. However, we do now ask that everyone who spends our church s money be especially diligent with it. The $136,463 in pledge commitments is especially disturbing in that it s more than $44k lower than the $180,831 Pledge Income our church received last year. The Finance Commi8ee does recognize that these are uncertain!mes, both for our local church and for the en!re United Methodist denomina!on, so we understand why some who have generously contributed to our church in past years may be hesitant to make a pledge commitment for this year. As we stress during our Stewardship Campaigns, we never intend to force anyone to make a pledge however, if you re intending to donate to our church this year but have not yet informed the church office by sending a pledge card, email, or by other method, we would very much appreciate hearing from you.
Page 6 Katherine Parker, our United Methodist missionary, serving the Health Team of the United Mission to Nepal, will be giving the message on Mother s Day. Everyone is invited to hear her share her experiences in Nepal. May 12th 2019 at 10:30 A.M Easter Ac:vi:es: April 20th @10:30 AM - Egg Coloring. Children of all ages who wish to par!cipate can bring a dozen hard boiled eggs to color. Coloring kit will be provided by the church. April 21st @ 10:30 AM - Easter Sunday. There will be Easter ac!vi!es in Sunday School where the children will learn about the Easter story and make some special arts and cra9s. This will be followed by the Easter egg hunt in the courtyard once the 10:30 a.m service is over.
March/April 2019 Page 7 Date OT Gospel Wed Mar 6 Jona 3:1-4:11 Luke 18:9-14 Thur Mar 7 Deut 7:6-11 John 1:29-34 Fri Mar 8 Deut 7:12-16 John 1:35-42 Sat Mar 9 Deut 7:17-26 John 1:43-51 Sun 1 Mar 10 Deut 8:1-10 Mark 2:18-22 Mon Mar 11 Deut 8:11-18 John 2:1-12 Tues Mar 12 Deut 9:4-12 John 2:13-22 Wed Mar 13 Deut 9:13-21 John 2:23-3:15 Thur Mar 14 Deut 9:23-10:5 John 3:16-21 Fri Mar 15 Deut 10:12-22 John 3:22-36 Sat Mar 16 Deut 11:18-28 John 4:1-26 Sun 2 Mar 17 Jere 1:1-10 Mark 3:31-4:9 Mon Mar 18 Jere 1:11-19 John 4:27-42 Tues Mar 19 Jere 2:1-13 John 4:43-54 Wed Mar 20 Jere 3:6-18 John 5:1-18 Thur Mar 21 Jere 4:9-10, 19-28 John 5:19-29 Fri Mar 22 Jere 5:1-9 John 5:30-47 Sat Mar 23 Jere 5:20-31 John 7:1-13 Sun 3 Mar 24 Jere 6:9-15 Mark 5:1-20 Mon Mar 25 Jere 7:1-15 John 7:14-36 Tue Mar 26 Jere 7:21-34 John 7:37-52 Wed Mar 27 Jere 8:18-9:6 John 8:12-20 Thur Mar 28 Jere 10:11-24 John 8:21-32 Fri Mar 29 Jere 11:1-8, 14-20 John 8:33-47 Sat Mar 30 Jere 13:1-11 John 8:47-59 Sun 4 Mar 31 Jere 14:1-9, 17-22 Mark 8:11-21 Mon Apr 1 Jere 16:10-21 John 6:1-15 Tue Apr 2 Jere 17:19-27 John 6:16-27 Wed Apr 3 Jere 18:1-11 John 6:27-40 Thur Apr 4 Jere 22:13-23 John 6:41-51 Fri Apr 5 Jere 23:1-8 John 6:52-59 Sat Apr 6 Jere 23:9-15 John 6:60-71 Sun 5 Apr 7 Jere 23:16-32 Mark 8:31-9:1 Mon Apr 8 Jere 24:1-10 John 9:1-17 Tues Apr 9 Jere 25:8-17 John 9:18-41 Wed Apr 10 Jere 25:30-38 John 10:1-18 Thur Apr 11 Jere 26:1-16 John 10:19-42 Fri Apr 12 Jere 29:1, 4-13 John 11:1-27 or 12:1-10 Sat Apr 13 Jere 31:27-34 John 11:28-44 or 12:37-50
First United Methodist Church 535 Old San Francisco Rd. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 We re on the Web! www.sunnyvaleumc.org Next article due date is April 29 9 David McAllister 12 Ruth Riley 14 Ellie Green Jayce Jeyapalan 20 Shobana Sylvester 22 Janet Cli9on 24 Anusha Goldi 26 Tomasi Panisi 27 Russell David Snead 28 Rev. Dave Schlager 31 Stephen Boaz 1 Christy Jaeson 3 Connie Stanley 4 Mike Caywood 6 Myrah Mishra 7 Steven Cline 11 Kate Wu 14 Joyce Molyneaux 17 Lola Panisi 19 Roger Oliver 20 Linda Morse 23 Ed Krauth 4 Rod & Tonya Oravetz 14 Sione & Lola Panisi 18 Edwin Thangaraj & Rijula Edwin 23 Mary Ruth & Darryl Alford George Mathew & Reshma Salian 28 Bill and Linda Malmstrom