In Luke's Road to Emmaus story, several downcast travelers recognize the risen Christ in the breaking of bread. The breaking and sharing of bread was a profound symbolic act in Jesus' culture. Sharing a meal, offering food to guests, and feeding one another with your own hands were symbolic acts that communicated unity. Dipping bread into a cup and offering it to another person was a cultural sign of deep affection.
Table fellowship was one of the most powerful symbolic acts Jesus used to reveal and enact God's Kingdom. His inclusive table fellowship was a radical departure from and alternative to the stratified and exclusive table fellowship ritually practiced by other religious and social communities in his day.
The table fellowship Jesus practiced is reflected in our celebration of Holy Communion, which recalls the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. Holy Communion is one of two sacraments recognized by the United Church of Christ, the other being baptism.
What exactly is a sacrament? In ancient Rome, the Latin word, sacramentum, referred to a sacred pledge, like an oath of allegiance. Sacramentum was also used to translate the Greek word, mysterion, which referred to hidden or sacred realities revealed by Eastern mystery religions.
Among early Christians, sacramentum came to signify the mysterious power of the resurrected Christ or an experience of God's grace. It was a visible sign or manifestation of an invisible power or reality. In that sense, Jesus Christ himself was a sacrament of God--a visible sign or expression of the invisible power and presence of God.
In the Middle Ages, the Church became increasingly concerned with codifying its beliefs and practices. Scholastic Theologians more narrowly defined the term sacramentum to refer to specific church rituals deemed to produce spiritual effects when performed correctly by priests. By the 13th century, the Roman Catholic Church identified seven official sacraments that mediated God's grace to Christians: baptism, Holy Communion, confirmation, penance, marriage, holy order and anointing of the sick.
Protestant reformers in the 16th century, reacting against the Scholastic movement, claimed there were only two sacraments--baptism and Holy Communion. But for the most part, these remained highly ritualistic and in the hands of professional clergy. Most lay people believed the sacraments were the symbolic objects used in the rituals and saw themselves simply as recipients of the sacraments.
Today, some Christians are rethinking the meaning of the sacraments and reclaiming a view that preceded the Scholastic narrowing of the term. According to this view, a sacrament is a visible sign, symbol, manifestation or expression of the invisible presence and power of God. Jesus Christ, as a visible sacrament of God, reveals who God is and what God does in human life--God draws people together into healing, reconciling, loving, just and peaceful relationships. Holy Communion reflects both the inclusiveness of this unity and the sacrifice Jesus made to bring it about. The visible sacramental element of Holy Communion is not limited to the bread and the cup, but includes the human community that shares Christ's bread and cup. The actual drawing together of diverse people into healing, reconciling, loving, just and peaceful relationships is itself sacramental. Holy Communion creates Holy Community, and Holy Community reveals in a visible, tangible way the invisible power of God at work in human life.
The key difference in this view is the pastor or priest doesn't simply "administer" the sacraments to the laity who simply "receives" them. Rather, all who share become sacramental. We ourselves become living
symbols of God at work in and through human life. We reveal the invisible God through our visible sharing and unity.
In devoting ourselves to the risen Christ, and in sharing his life-giving and sacrificial love for all people, let us truly be a Holy Communion/Holy Community in our life together.
ALL CHURCH RETREAT
APRIL 5-7
DISCERNMENT KICK-OFF
Discernment comes from the Geek word meaning to sift through. To discern is to sift through a bunch of stuff to discover what you're looking for. Spiritual discernment involves sifting through the stuff of our lives to discover who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do, and identifying the resources God is offering us to accomplish this call. The same goes for the church. Discerning who God is calling us to be, what God is calling us to do, and identifying the resources God is offering us involves sifting through the stuff of our corporate lives as a faith community.
Our all-church retreat this year will focus on discernment. We're not actually going to participate in a discernment process during the retreat. Rather, we're going to explore several different methods and models of church discernment--different ways of sifting and discovering. By exploring different methods and models, we'll be able to decide which one, or which elements from several, will be most helpful in enabling us to discern God's call for our church. The next step after the retreat will be to choose or devise a discernment process and set a timetable for engaging the process.
Not long after I arrived, I shared my view that the options for this church were not to move elsewhere and build a whole new church or to stay here and make the best of it. The options were really to move and build a new church or to stay here and build a new church. You chose to stay. Now its time to really get to work--to invest the same time, energy, passion and resources into rebuilding right here as you would if you had decided to move elsewhere. I see our April retreat on discernment as the opening kick-off for this process. Make sure you're in the game!
APRIL BIRTHDAYS TO CELEBRATE
2 - Ellen Luna 10 - Lynne Lemley
3 - Mary Tomasek 16 - Eleanor Toery
4 - Ricky Masters 22 - Suzanne L. Bradford
5 - Sarah Oakes 24 - George Lemley
28 - Sarah Bentley
HANDS ON HOUSING
Let's Get A Team Together
April 20-21
Austin Area Interreligious Ministries has set the next Hands-on-Housing volunteer work weekend for April 20-21. Volunteers are needed to work in the Rosewood Neighborhood to do repairs ranging from painting to replacing a roof or vinyl floor. AAIM is asking our church to organize a work team and to join other people of faith from around Austin to join in this valuable and fun ministry. We have responded in the past. Let's get a good team together this time around! See sign-up details in Fellowship Hall, or you can call or e-mail us if you would like to volunteer.
THE HONDURAS PROJECT
Tom VandeStadt, and hopefully John Moore, will be traveling to Honduras from April 8 to the 15 with the two co-directors of the Walker Center for Global Missions, Bill and Susie Briggs. They'll be visiting several villages in the Department of Yoro, in the mountainous north-central part of Honduras, to determine how our church can participate in a grass-roots development project focusing on health and education. Upon there return, they will host an informational slide presentation and begin organizing a follow-up trip by a larger group of church members in August. The goal is to establish an on-going relationship between our church and a community in Honduras.
The Coordinating Council has approved setting up a fund to support this project. Church members will be encouraged to make financial contributions to the fund and the money will be used to offset travel expenses of those going to Honduras as well as actual project expenses.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT. . .Don't be so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good.
39th ANNUAL MEETING of the SOUTH CENTRAL CONFERENCE
United Church of Christ June 7th-9th
The 39th Annual Meeting of the South Central Conference, United Church of Christ, will be held in Corpus Christi, Texas, from Friday, June 7 to Sunday June 9. The event will be held at the Omni Corpus Christi Hotel Marina Towers. Saturday's banquet will be held at the Texas State Aquarium.
The theme for the gathering will be "Faith on the Move," and UCC President and General Minister, Dr. John Thomas, will offer the keynote address. Workshops will be offered in the areas of stewardship, church web-page creation, Christian education and church growth. If you would like to attend the Annual Meeting this year, please sign up in the Fellowship Hall, and Tom will give you the information you need. The registration deadline is May 30. The deadline for insuring the Conference's group rate at the Omni Hotel is May 16.
FAREWELL LOUISE
WE'LL MISS YOU
But you can't get away without a party!!
After years of loyal and dedicated service to our church, our Administrative Assistant, Louise Whitworth, has communicated her desire to retire. Not only has Louise been a competent staff person, but a good friend to many in our church. Louise, we'll miss you. But you can't get away without a party!!
On Sunday, April 21, we're going to have a special party for Louise following worship. Be sure to take the opportunity to offer Louise your personal thanks for her work and friendship. No doubt, some of you will want to share your favorite Louise story. Don't miss this special day!
CHURCH DIRECTORY NOTICES:
Tomasek, Sally 802 Plumbago Dr., Pflugerville, TX 78660-8952
VandeStadt, Thomas J. cell: 461-0219
Lemley, George Cell: 947-1711
Sinclair, Mary e-mail: msinclair@Austin.rr.com
Pinkard, Doyle & Tommie cell: 925-0786
Sinclair, Joyce 17 Robinson St., #1006 Hamilton, Ontario L8PIY6 e-mail: joycesinclair@simpatico.ca
P E R S O N A L S
by Catherine Huibbs
It has been only two weeks since a last-of-February freeze defied Texas trees to bud, and people walked hunched inside their jackets against the wind, but now trees are cautiously beginning to leaf out again. And we are getting ready: ready for a new season, ready for reflection on Holy Week and Easter, ready for a Post-Easter Spring Retreat at Slumber Falls, April 5-7.
Spring Break has come and gone. Nodie and Dennis Murphy and Ned welcomed married daughter Sarah Sennour, her husband Larbi, and their two children Randal and Debia, up from San Antonio. Ned had a week break from his senior year of high school. He works at Macaroni Grill in Round Rock after school and is looking forward to becoming certified as an Emergency Medical Technician.
The Adams family was planning to celebrate Spring Break by replacing burned sheetrock in their dining room and living room, but they took turns getting sick, starting the week before and continuing through Wednesday, March 13. Nevertheless, they've removed and replaced the burned sheetrock in the dining room and are on the road with the living room. Jamie also took his SAT examination.
Pat Oakes welcomed the Sennours and went with them to Zilker Park to play. She also hosted Caroline Chial Telder at a dinner for her and her husband of ten years. Dean Telder, who together have ten grandchildren. Mary Tomasek went to visit daughter Dorcas at Eutes, Florida and help with her Boggy Creek Camp for chronically and terminally ill children, their families and caregivers. Norma Hawes went to see her mother in Port O'Connor.
Maggie Taylor Seehafer took spring break too. She completed her PhD in nursing and women's studies last August and is celebrating getting her life back again. This last week son James' two oldest children, Matthew, age five and Amber, age six came from Bandera for a visit. Will's children, Kenda, age six and Quinlin, age three came to see their cousins, and together they built a Gingerbread House, which Maggie says "was the greatest of fun, especially eating all the peppermints and jelly beans first!"
Danny and Rick Masters are working at the rodeo. K. C. Towery, Ches' and Maggie's son, celebrated by breaking his wrist in a soccer game in College Station. He is wearing a big cast which he hopes soon to exchange for a small one. The Deisler children were in town with parents and went to the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. Even Matthew Tomasek had a spring break. He goes to play school so was celebrating with his grandfather when Catherine phoned.
Vic Appel enjoyed a quick visit from Debbie, Bob and little Emily Grace on Friday and Saturday, March 8-9 when they came down with Bob for a professional meeting in San Antonio.
Mary Sinclair tells us that in November her mother, Joyce Sinclair, was marooned for ten days in her eleventh-floor apartment in Hamilton, Ontario when the only elevator broke. She cannot use the stairs, so Mary's sisters carried her groceries up all those flights until it was repaired. Meantime she missed going to the birthday party for Jacob, Mary's grandson. She is now receptive to moving to another apartment and has found one only a block away and close to church, doctor, and grocery store, important because she goes everywhere by means of a fancy walker complete with shopping basket and seat. Now, says Mary, if she would only take an apartment on a lower floor. Her new one is on the tenth. Oh, well.
Louise, we pray that your health problems will soon be a thing of the past. We hate to think of your retirement. You have been the engine which keeps us all going smoothly, but we don't want you to wear yourself out. You deserve a chance to rest and enjoy your free time. Just promise you'll keep coming back to see us! We'll let you attend the Methodist church, but remember that you will always be an honorary member of the United Church of Christ.
Now that it is spring we hope the colds and other bugs which have bothered us will move away. We're glad the Adams are feeling better. We rejoice that Mary Charles has overcome an attack of pneumonia. The choir missed Matt Blackstock's voice while he was recovering from bronchitis (We also missed Matt!). Chester Rosson is still coughing, and on March 17 we had only one man in choir. Tommie took a week off to nurse a cold and fever and keep from sharing it with the rest of us.
The Briggs family say they have missed being at church during the Lenten season. One weekend they went to North Carolina for their granddaughter Margit's stage debut as Baby June in Gypsy, while her mother, Beth Russell Briggs, played Mama Rose. Then beginning March 7 they took a ten-day vacation in Hawaii, taking in the Arizona Memorial and the national cemetery, or Punchbowl, in Honolulu. They loved the weather on the island of Hawaii: cool and rainy at 3500 feet and warm and sunny on the beach.
Rizer Everett is letting no grass grow under his feet. He is just back from an extended trip which makes Catherine feel tired just reading about it. On March 10 he drove to Houston to attend the annual convention of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, paying a visit en route to long-time friend, John Woods, whom he found hearty and strong and planning for his February 2003 birthday party when he will be 100. In Houston he had lunch with two more friends, then registered and attended the AAPG Convention until March 13, when he parked his car at the home of a friend and flew to Tampa to see granddaughter Lael Giebel, her husband, son and mother. After an enjoyable three-day stay he flew back to Houston, picked up his car, and arrived home on March 16. Congratulations, Rizer! Hope we see you again soon at church so we can hear about it personally.
A NOTICE:
from the Fun & Fellowship Committee
We are in need of hosts for the Fellowship Hour on Sundays. Please help us by signing up on the sheet provided from the Fellowship Room.
THANKS!
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