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"Come and See"
The grand premise of religion is that man is able to surpass himself; that man who is part of this world may enter into a relationship with Him who is greater than the world; that man may lift up his mind and be attached to the absolute; that man who is conditioned by a multiplicity of factors is capable of living with demands that are unconditioned. How does one rise above the horizon of the mind? How does one free oneself from the perspective of the ego, group, earth, and age? How does one find a way in this world that would lead to an awareness of Him who is beyond this world?
--Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man
Jesus turned and asked them,"What are you looking for?"
They replied,"Rabbi, where are you staying?"
Jesus said,"come and see."
--The Gospel According to John
What are you looking for?
Spiritually speaking, the question is a double-edged sword. Our spiritual search is one that holds out the possibility of finding what we're looking for, but there's a great danger as well. By looking for something in particular, we may miss something of far greater importance; by narrowing our search to something we already envision, we may miss something we never imagined; by looking for a particular god, holy person, or reality, with particular characteristics and attributes that will tell us we have found him, her, or it, we may miss the God, holy person, or reality that is actually right in front of us.
To me, Jesus' invitation"come and see" has a double meaning. On the surface, it means"come and see" where I'm staying. But more profoundly, it means"come and SEE." It's as if Jesus is saying to the men,"you guys are groping in the dark for things you can't see, you don't even really know what you're looking for because you can't see all the possibilities. Come and have your eyes opened. Come and things will be made clear to you. It doesn't matter where I'm staying, just come and SEE."
I think it was people who managed to do this--to"come and SEE"--that were able to follow Jesus and see something in him that transformed their lives. Many who were looking for the Messiah, with all the characteristics and attributes they expected to find in the Messiah, ended up rejecting Jesus because he didn't fulfill their expectations. He wasn't who or what they were looking for. Those who could let go of their preconceived notions and suspend their search for something in particular saw something they never imagined and came to believe in things they never thought possible.
I have come to accept that God is always who God is no matter what I happen to believe or not believe about God, regardless of the systematic theology I construct or the image of God I form in my head. I need to adopt a humble attitude toward my beliefs about God, embrace a paradoxical stance of conviction and non-attachment towards them, remain open to the"I Am Who I Am" reality of God, and understand that God will always transcend the horizon of my mind. I have found it most helpful to simply respond to Jesus' invitation,"come and see."
During the Season of Lent, please reflect on Jesus' question and invitation. See where they lead you.
"What are you looking for?"
"Come and see."
Tom
Get Ready for Easter...
It's Early This Year!
With Easter comes our annual sunrise service on Mt. Bonnell and this year it will be on March 23 at 7:15 a.m. Besides a beautiful setting, wonderful singing, and inspiring words, we will have hot chocolate and doughnuts. Don't miss out! Then join us again at 11 a.m. for worship at the church.
Thank you to everyone who made a donation to help Martin Bukasa. The congregation was most generous, coming through to help him with rent and other expenses as he is out of work and having difficulty supporting his young children. Many in the church are too new to remember him and his family; he and wife Judith were in our church's care when they moved here from a resettlement camp in Congo. They later moved to New Hampshire but stayed in touch with us. Judith passed away from breast cancer a year or two ago, and this winter has been especially difficult for Martin. He is highly respected by those who know him and they responded quickly to the Deacons' request for help. The Spirit does indeed move within our body.
Chairs of our Board
Trustees: Reuel Nash
Deacons: Betty Bodman
Christian Education: Paula Fracasso
Christian Outreach: Tommie Pinkard
Moderator: John Goff
The Intersection of Art and Faith
Spring Retreat, April 11-13
This year at Slumber Falls Camp in New Braunfels we will experience the arts both as praise and as a spiritual path. We will leave "ordinary time" for a few days of fun, fellowship, and creativity. In workshops on photography, drawing, recitation, and writing we will work to quiet ourselves and observe our world. Can such an effort re-awaken us to the beauty of creation, touch our feelings, and allow an opening to the Spirit? Please join us as we explore this theme. Estimated cost per person for the weekend is $75; this includes room, meals, and materials costs. To register please contact Marilyn Vache.
CHURCH STORIES
Church stories (like family stories), to children, are more important than most people realize.
Nancy feels fortunate to be able to give these stories to our children, to give each child a chance to make them his or her own, and consequently give each child the feeling of connectedness and belonging that goes with them. Becoming a storyteller is easy: No lesson plans to prepare, no materials to purchase, and the materials are like cue cards lined up in a box so you can't get lost or misplace any of them.
If you are curious or have any interest in becoming one of our storytellers, please contact Nancy or Paula.
Nancy Edison (H) 246 1907 (cell) 422 6397 (email) edison_ns at yahoo dot com
Paula Fracasso 462 1854 paulsfracasso at sbgglobal dot net
PERSONALS
by Pat Oakes
Carol Barrett is definitely settling into her new neighborhood. Her new temporary address is 827 North Stoneman Unit B, Alhambra, CA 91801. She loves the fact that lots of good stuff is within an easy walk - a grocery store, movie theater, post office, and tons of Asian restaurants. There are sidewalks galore and tree-lined streets--a pedestrian's paradise. She has found the weekly Farmer's Market as well. Son Whitney's Christmas gift to her - museum memberships in the Huntington and the Norton Simon - are already paying off. She has been to the Huntington twice already. It's close enough to just drop in to catch a new exhibit. She has even got her library card, too! She has found a UCC Church in San Marino where the pastor, Art Cribbs, is an old friend of Joe McMillan's. As of late December she had been twice and they didn't try to sign her up for anything until her second visit when she was recruited for ushering duties. Hmmmm. Sounds familiar, no? Her apartment continues to be a bit Spartan. She finally broke down and bought real bath mats to replace the towels on the floor. She is hoping to get the house she made an offer on. That should be decided soon. Her work as planning manager in San Gabriel near L.A. is challenging, partly because the jargon is so new. She keeps having to Google California planning law and terms. It's a city of 40,000 with a planning staff of only four. The issues are all complicated. Everything is in-fill and so there are adjacent neighborhoods to consider on every site. The staff is fine. One of the planners is Carol's age, very experienced and willing to share. The other two are much younger and it's a great opportunity to mentor. They only work a 35 hours per week. Husband Gary will be out to visit at the end of the month and she is looking forward to that. Her mother-in-law Pat lives only about an hour away, so Carol has taken her out to lunch several times and is looking forward to going to the movies. We miss you , Carol!
The Nashes plus Ellie's boyfriend, Taylor Harris, spent the two weeks (including Christmas and New Year's) in England. The first week, they stayed in a flat in London in the Kensington area. They did lots of sightseeing. The highlights were attending Christmas Eve services at St. Paul's Cathedral after touring the church and climbing the dome, along with going to the Churchill War Rooms, the underground area in London near 10 Downing Street where he and his advisers directed the war effort. London celebrates Boxing Day the day after Christmas, which for the shopping district seems to have much to do with sales, although that's not the original purpose. Their second week in England was in a place called Wychnor, not far from Birmingham. Ellie and Taylor convinced them to detour south to Stonehenge on the way, which was terrific but extremely windy and cold. While staying at Wychnor, they went to old castles, visited Ironbridge -- a major site in the Industrial Revolution, and went to a magnificent production of Richard II by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. The warm weather in Austin felt great when they came home!
Yoshi and Setsuko Kaneda participated in an award ceremony at City College in San Francisco on Saturday, December 8. The occasion was when Yoshi received the First Prize for his essay "Misplaced Loyalty With Racism" from Ying-Ying and Shau-Jin Chang, parents of Iris Chang, author of "The Rape of Nanking." His essay was chosen from 270 entries from many nations. He gave an acceptance speech to nearly three hundred people gathered there. Later in the evening at the 70th Anniversary Banquet to commemorate the Nanking Massacre, Yoshi was suddenly asked by the chairperson to give an Invocation for the Memorial Service. He thought, he was to give a blessing for good food to enjoy and gave a very short blessing asking 500 attendees to stand and join hands. He quickly found out the prayer was meant for the whole Memorial Service. Oh, how embarrassing for Yoshi! Yet, a lady at the table comforted him saying, "Oh, it was short and sweet!"
Nancy Edison is starting to offer tutoring services in the area around 5 Round Rock elementary schools: Cactus Ranch, Union Hill, Caldwell Heights, Old Town, and Robertson. Last year she tutored children south of Zilker Park and in Central Austin. With the move to Mayfield Ranch, tutoring those children requires too far a drive. The tutoring can be done in the child's home, where s/he feels most comfortable and mom can hear how the child is being taught, although most moms are so busy they rarely get to do that. Nancy has taught in Connecticut and Florida and more locally, in Round Rock, and Austin. References are available upon request.
Matt and Mary Blackstock enjoyed a brief visit with her brother and sister, in Abbeville, LA; daughter Clare and granddaughter Kelly were along too, Kelly being en route to LSU where she resumed her work on a degree in landscape design (to finish in about 3 more years). Mary's brother-in-law Bobby has chronic ill health and seems to hang by a thread at times, though he was all right at the time of their visit; her sister Pat manages a very heavy load which becomes more and more difficult. Matt reports that it was a fine visit despite the concerns and they were glad to be back home.
Carl White, his wife Sally, and sons David and Evan from Denver, visited Ben and Marguerite during the Thanksgiving holidays. Dave will graduate in physics from Colorado College in the spring, and Evan, a sophomore in high school, is a saxophonist in the all-city Denver jazz ensemble.
Steve and Jeanine Neuse had a quiet Christmas sharing time with some of their Fayetteville friends and families. Someone ran a red light and hit Jeanine in December. The MRI said she was okay, but she was not so sure about all the soft tissue in her body. Car damage was being repaired ($7,800!!) and Insurance coverage by other driver seemed to be in place. They were trekking to Texas late in December, but didn't have time to stop in Austin.
Mel and Pat Oakes enjoyed a five day Christmas visit from Pat's youngest sister Sandra and Sandra's daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Randy, and their three children. They arrived about 2 hours after the last guests left from the church open house after the carol service on the 23rd. Many thanks to Beth Placek for her help in cleaning up after the party! On Jan 1, Pat flew to Iowa City to help son-in-law Eugene with Emily and Ethan while Beth (with the Maia Quartet) was in NYC for the Chamber Music America conference. Pat was supposed to get home on Jan. 6, but she was delayed for two extra days in Iowa City because of fog. She had a good time playing in the snow with the kids. On Jan. 9, Pat and Mel went to Houston to hear the Maia Quartet perform at the Hobby Center. Beth was really glad to get back to Iowa City after two weeks on the road.
Rizer Everett likes his new home at the Summitt on Mesa Drive. He is enjoying the excellent food and the good help he gets in his assisted living apartment. His daughter Dot from New Mexico and his son John from Colorado came for a long weekend in mid-January to visit Rizer and to clean out Rizer's apartment at Inglewood Estates. He has made new friends with whom he eats in the dining room, but so far has not located any chess or checkers players.
Bill and Betty Phillips had a really good reason for being late to the friendship supper hosted by Dave and Sara Ross on Jan. 19. Their washing machine had flooded their home on Friday, the repairman came (late) Saturday and fixed it--then the washing machine flooded the house again. In the meantime, their refrigerator had also quit. Putting a number of clues together, they figured out that rats (gasp!) had made a number of meals of the insulation of the appliances and had rendered them useless. It took several trips to the appliance store to get replacements lined up. Betty (who was bringing dessert), not to be undone, put together the pie ingredients at home and brought the unbaked pies to the Rosses to bake while dinner was eaten. The pies were pronounced delicious and a good time was had by all.
Vic Appel spent five days visiting his daughters, Debbie and Cheryl, in New York over the Christmas holidays. He had a wonderful time with them and Deb's family seeing the thousands of lights used to transform the Bronx Zoo into a Christmas play-land. But, what really was special was his grandson Sam's reaction to one of the presents Vic gave him--a Spider Man costume. Little Sam, who at age three fancies himself as a superhero, went bonkers over the costume. He was so enamored of it that he would not take it off for three days. That included two nights in which he slept in it! Vic's trip to New York was unfortunately marred by word that his ninety-two-year-old Aunt Milly had passed away. Vic diverted his trip home to attend her funeral. She was the youngest sister of Vic's mother and the last of her generation. Vic has many happy memories of her which he was able to share with other family members who came to the funeral.
Julia Deisler loves her new job as the director of the new senior health specialty program for Gentiva. She is working with a populations near and dear to her heart--senior citizens who want to continue to age in place at optimal levels of health. The goal of the program is to provide education, support, and tools to make that possible.
FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS
4 Jonathan Carruthers
6 Mardie Oakes
Holly Ann Horner
7 Geneva Ross
8 Barbara Burnham
Lois Drachenberg
11 Valentino Herrera
13 Richard Jackson
16 Mathis Blackstock
Nancy C. Brown
Betty James
17 John Horner
John Moore
18 Ned Murphy
19 Jamie Adams
20 Flo Chiles
Whit Bodman
26 Ida M. Little
29 Martha Wilding
WELCOME NEW MEMBER
In January he congregation welcomed Bob Gillogly as our newest member. He is a long-time Austin resident, an architect, and has a family, wife Janet and son Albert. He is dealing with serious health problems so can't always get here on Sundays -- make sure to look for him and offer your hand in welcome and fellowship.
Bob Gillogly
4206 Ave B
Austin, TX 78751-4221
512-923-7797
avenue.d at toast dot net
BRAZOS ASSOCIATION NEWS
Creative Spirit, the United Church of Christ new church start, had its inaugural worship service on Saturday evening, December 22. The worship service was led by Pastor Dr. Carla Cheatham at the church's current location at 1700 S. Lamar in Austin. Creative Spirit is a congregation Carla is starting from scratch without a core initial group, with the aim of inviting in people from the south Austin area (and all others) who are looking for a creative, welcoming, non-traditional worship community. The opening worship attracted interested folk from the community as well as supporters from Austin area churches, including a group from Church of the Savior. We rejoice in the mix of people and the worship on that day: it's a great risk to start as Carla has without having a firm core group. The service included music led by Sean Michael Showalter and Tony Velasco, as well as movement led by a local Interplay leader. (Interplay is a group that focuses on creativity and Spirit.) The next worship, a Spirit Slam including a poetry slam, will be on Saturday, January 26th at 5:30 pm. For the time being, the worship services are monthly toward the end of the month on Saturdays at 5:00 pm. Carla is exploring options for gathering more frequently, and we'll let people know as that happens. Let's keep Carla and this new movement of the Holy Spirit in our prayers. We invite you to have a look at Carla's web blog at http://creativespiritucc.wordpress.com/ and at the church's web site at www.creativespiritucc.info/. Of course, we invite you to Creative Spirit's worship services, too!
As I noted last month, our Association is encouraging our 13-18 year old youth (with flexibility to include 12 year olds and 19 year olds mature enough to help the adult leaders) to attend the UCC National Youth Event next summer at the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville on July 24-28, 2008. A caravan or bus trip to Knoxville, including a stop to do a short work camp (most likely in the New Orleans area) for youth from our conference is currently in the planning stages. Youth and chaperones would have the option of going on the mission trip, joining the group afterward for the rest of the trip, or meeting in Knoxville. Laurie Doyal-Lampman from the South Texas Association is the conference coordinator for this effort. The Brazos Association has been setting aside money for several years to help fund participants, and we need to hear from our churches on or before March 1 with a list of youth and chaperones who want to go. We hope to be able to fund the entire registration fee of $345 for those who go from our Association (with participants and churches paying for travel expenses), but we have to have a firm number to see what works with our budget before we can determine the Association scholarship contribution. Let us know who wants to participate by contacting me, Liz Nash, at liznash@austin.rr.com or at (512) 231-0045.
SAVE THE DATE(S)
Information has come to the office about the CROP Walk for 2008.
The dates will be:
Saturday, March 1st; registration at 9:30 am with the walk beginning at 10:00 am
Sunday, March 2nd, registration at 1:45 pm with the walk beginning at 2:30 pm.
The walk will take place at the Roy Guerrero Colorado River Park at 8200 Grove Dr.
If you want more information you can contact Amy Prichard Tutt at 386-9145 Ext 11 or e-mail her at atutt@aaim.org
COMING UP
Palm Sunday (March 16) Cecile Adam will lead the combined CCoA, UCC youth group in a discussion about death and dying. In the Appel Room 12:30-2pm.
April 27 will be Youth Sunday, with the combined youth groups leading worship. Annie Nash will preach.
The Return of the Friendship Dinners:
Last fall and spring many of us enjoyed meeting together for dinner in smaller groups at people's homes. The primary purpose of the gatherings is to build community and friendship. The groups of 6-10 people will change for each date. Hosts would provide (besides their home) a main course and would assign others to bring appetizers, salads, etc. If you don't drive, we'll help you find a ride. The last date for this season is: February 23. We'll have sign-up sheets in the Fellowship Hall and hope you can participate on at least one of the dates. Andria Miner, Betty Bodman
COFFEE HOUR
Please sign up in the Fellowship Room to be coffee hour hosts on an upcoming Sunday. The coffee hour time is such a good opportunity to visit old friends and meet visitors. We keep coffee and ginger ale and some punch fixings in the pantry in the kitchen. There are usually paper napkins, and we use coffee mugs and punch cups to avoid wasting natural resources. Your menu can be as simple or complicated as you want. Cookies and/or chips and salsa are just fine! If you have questions, talk to Pat Oakes, Tommie Pinkard, or Lynne Lemley.
Deadline for March VISITOR -- February 15
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