The biggest truth to face now--what is probably making me unfunny now for the remainder of my life--is that I don't think people give a damn whether the planet goes or not.
               --Kurt Vonnegut

     Exactly one week after Easter, the Austin American Statesman featured an article on the recently deceased Kurt Vonnegut. "At his life's end, Vonnegut lost faith in people," the headline proclaimed. Quotes from his last television interview and final book illustrated the author's pessimism: "There is not a chance in hell of America becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts us absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power."
     Though it has been years since last picking up one of Vonnegut's books, the Statesman article struck me deeply, appearing as it did just one week after preaching an Easter sermon in which I shared my own lack of optimism regarding the human race.
     Recall that in my Easter sermon I asked, "Do I believe it is possible that all human beings will one day live together in peace within God's creation? Do I believe it is possible that humanity will one day inhabit what Jesus called the Kingdom of God?"
     I answered, "No, I do not. I do not believe it is possible. This may come as a shock to some of you since the Kingdom of God, since peace and justice, are so often the topics on which I preach. But do I actually believe they are possible for humanity? No, I do not. I do not believe they are possible."
     Reading the Statesman article, it struck me that I share Vonnegut's loss of faith in humanity even if I don't share his flair for language. But one thing I suspect (though I'm not sure) Vonnegut did not share with me is a radical hope instilled by Jesus Christ's resurrection. In my Easter sermon, I countered my disbelief that humanity can live in peace with a radical hope that transcends my disbelief: because of the resurrection, I refuse to limit my hope to things I believe possible, feasible, and doable within our currently reality.
     What the resurrection does to me on a deep level in my heart, my gut, my soul--in a place deeper than rational thought--is reveal to me that God is capable of doing things that I do not believe possible. The resurrection tells me the most radical thing I can do is dream of things I don't believe possible, hope for them nevertheless, and strive for them unceasingly. The most faithful thing I can do is hold out the hope that for God they are possible, and that with God's help they may be possible for us despite the evidence to the contrary and my own disbelief.
     The resurrection pushes me outside of my comfortable yet self-limiting zone of belief and it thrusts me into the far more discomforting and liberating zone of hope beyond belief, risk beyond belief, and new life beyond belief.
     So, my prayer for you: in your heart of hearts, do not limit what God can do, what God can help you do, and what God can help us do together to what you believe possible, feasible, or doable in our current situation. May Christ's resurrection push you over the comfortable and self-limiting edge of your belief. May Christ's resurrection compel you to hope for something you don't even believe possible and to strive for it unceasingly.
     Hoping and striving for a future that does not seem possible may be the only hope we have for a possible future. Christ is risen, indeed!
                                                                                Tom

MAY BIRTHDAYS
 2 Louise Froelich
 3 Joyce Sinclair
 4 Stephen Luna
 6 Fran Briggs
11 Mel Oakes
13 Florence Castle
16 Mary Charles Williams
22 Julia Kato Kaneda
23 Heather Cole Fernandez
Ben White
26 Matthew Wilding
28 Gregg Appel
29 Matthew Tomasek
30 Kathleen Hawes-Domingue
31 Louise Whitworth

     Easter Sunday dawned cold and chilly (upper 30s)--but the sleet and rain had stopped, so a few dozen hardy souls climbed Mt. Bonnell to take in the sunrise service. Melanie Wilkinson wowed the group at the sunrise service and then again at the eleven o'clock service. The choir and the trio were in fine fettle. The flowering of the cross at the regular service was beautiful--and Tom's reflection was thought-provoking and moving. The children enjoyed a very quick, cold Easter egg hunt outside while the adults enjoyed the now traditional Easter brunch in the fellowship hall. Many thanks to the folks who helped the Fun and Fellowship committee--Tommie Pinkard, Suzanne Vanderpoel, Sharon Brown, Lois Drachenberg, Marilyn Vaché, Lynn Lemley and Carol Barrett--for the delicious food. The folks prepariing the brunch enjoyed getting things ready in our new kitchen.
     Becky Nash had a fabulous time on her two week spring break trip to Australia. A 9th grader at Kirby Hall, Becky and a group from her school learned a great deal about "the land down under." Becky particularly loved Kangaroo Island, the Blue Mountains, and scuba diving on the Great barrier Reef near Cairns.
     Did you know that Gail Christeson and Pam Tucker play on the same Round Rock soccer team? Gail recruited Pam several years ago to play on the Intimidators team. On Sunday, April 15, Gail left church early to get ready for the game--and Pam was seen leaving church in her soccer gear. Pam had reported that they were all having a terrible season but that they were having fun anyway. Pam had injured her calf earlier in the week, but because the team was short players, had agreed to play goalie. Gail was delighted to report later that the Intimidators defeated the Annihilators 4-1--and that Pam had done a great job in spite of her injury. Gail also says that it was their first win of the season. The Intimidators have several new team members, so they are finally beginning to play as a team. Savanna Tucker is also playing soccer for the Round Rock Soccer League on Saturday mornings. She is about 3 inches taller than any of the other girls, so she looks like she is older. She is having a great time and has met a new friend, Jordan, on her team. They are inseparable at games and practice. Harrison is talking more and it is getting a bit easier to understand his words. His favorite game is using different names. He likes to call his mom Bobby and she says, "I'm not Bobby. How are you, Noah?" He says, "I'm not Noah!" and it goes on from there. The Tucker family is hoping to be finished with the new house in about a month, but that may be optimistic. It is difficult to tell. As of mid-April they still had to finish plumbing, plus electrical, HVAC, flooring, flatwork and landscaping to do.
     Julia Deisler had a wonderful six day trip to San Francisco to celebrate her birthday in mid-April. The long-planned trip came just after she started her new job as director of professional services for AMED Home Health.
     Joe McMillan and his aunt Cora Gordon have been much missed at church of late. Joe reports that he and Cora are still alive and kicking--no high kicks though. Cora has had several falls and Joe has been struggling with psoriasis, exacerbated by the stress of his job at the Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. We hope to see you both soon!
     Comfort Tysen has been a customer at the University Federal Credit Union (UFCU) for several years, but she was really surprised to get a call from UFCU asking her to do a commercial for them. She agreed--and lots of our folks have seen the commercial which is running on several cable channels. In fact, another group has contacted her and asked about her doing another commercial for them. Comfort has a friend who has been trying to break into commercials for more than a year with no luck--and here Comfort just has the opportunity fall out of the sky. Comfort's work schedule as a tour guide and information specialist at the Texas State Capitol has kept her from being in church recently. She continues to add to her collection of photos of herself with famous folks including former president Bill Clinton, presidential candidate Barack Obama, and others. Daughter Waamene will be finishing 5th grade in May and will probably be going to nearby O. Henry Middle School in the fall.
     Congratulations to the Church Ladies spelling team who tied for first place in the 4th annual Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee which raised more than $70,000 for the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas. Many thanks to Doyal and Tommie Pinkard who served as co-captains of the team and coordinated the fund-raising (there is a $1,000 fee for each team entry). Pat Oakes from our church and Kathy Blackburn (accompanied by her unflappable guide dog Millie) and Susan Richter from Central Presbyterian Church made up the team--and are undefeated after 4 years. A lively crowd from church turned out to cheer the group on to victory--Mel Oakes, Dennis Murphy, Doyal and Tommie, Cathy Hubbs, and Sharon Brown--plus a good group from Central Presbyterian and numerous friends of the 3 team members. Kathy works in the talking books program with the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and Susan works for TEA as a data modeler designing a variety of data bases. It was funny to get notes of congratulations from Lisa Kirch who lives in Alabama and Eunice Paul who lives in England. Both check the American Statesman Web site each day and saw the news in the paper on Friday the 13th.
     Congratulations to Marilyn Harris who finished her first 10K--the Capitol 10K--on March 25. Marilyn had heard a friend say that running that race was a religious experience, so she did it even though she was trying to take Sundays as "Sabbaths" for Lent. All the tough training (Feb-March) paid off because she ran the whole way, it was fun the whole way with no pain, and she was just fine afterwards. She had only run one 5K before that, two years ago, so this was a real achievement for her. Her time was 1 hour 6 minutes 44 seconds. She was pleased to note that her 5K two years ago was 35 minutes, so she did really well compared to that.
     Sadly, Barbara Burnham's father (and Robin Rosson's grandfather), Carl Burnham, finally lost his battle with heart disease on April 1, after a ten day hospitalization at St. David's. He was buried on Saturday, April 7, in Alice, next to Barbara's mother and her parents. Her dad had outlived most of his friends, but there were still a few admirers left, along with her brother and his family, and their maternal cousins and their families. Barbara reported that it was a nice service, and his burial included military honors, with a flag-draped coffin, "Taps," and a twenty-one gun salute. It was cold and rainy, just the sort of weather he most disliked! Carl was a retired petroleum engineer and a great-grandson of Sam Houston. Barbara has spent the last 3+ years caring for him, so she has quite a vacancy in her heart and her time right now. Barbara and Rob, you are both in our thoughts and prayers.
     Marilyn Gaddis and George Carruthers flew to Phoenix March 31st to visit George's ailing ninety-year- old sister in Wickenburg. They were accompanied by George's other sister who lives near Tyler. She reached San Marcos by Amtrak - only 20 minutes late! The Texans enjoyed staying in George's nephew's new home in the hills NE of Wickenburg. The desert flowers were out after recent rains and the sunsets were beautiful! The return flight was plagued with problems - oil leak, everyone off the plane - after 3 hours, everyone back on the plane - after 15 minutes, flight cancelled. Then there was a lottery to pick 20 people to go on the next flight to Austin -they were not picked! Then it was announced that a flight to San Antonio would take a few people willing to travel by bus to Austin. They opted to go that route and boarded the half empty plane. After a delay, the rest of the passengers from the Austin flight boarded the plane. They arrived in San Antonio after midnight and the airline provided SUV's to take them to Austin. When they arrived in Austin, they found that their luggage was locked up for the night. They finally got to bed about 3:00 a.m. and were up at 6 a.m. to go back to ABIA and claim their luggage since George's sister was scheduled to take Amtrak back home that morning. With luggage in hand, they were able to get George's sister to the Austin Amtrak Station as the train was pulling in! What an odyssey!
     Emily Howicz thanks everyone for their support during Girl Scout cookie sales. Thanks in great part to your generosity, she well exceeded her goal! Emily was excited to learn recently that she has qualified for advanced math in middle school ~ her favorite subject, just behind socializing. Tess is also doing well in school, and is finally reading letters of the alphabet instead of counting them. (For those wondering, the tally was a consistent 26).
     Don Miles read the scripture in both English and Spanish on Sunday, May 6, as he welcomed his in-laws and one of his nephews from Mexico. They were in town for the week of April 30- May 7 to help promote his "Cinco de Mayo" book with various bookstore and TV appearances. His visitors were Señor Arq. Manuel Gustavo Gonzalez Angulo and his wife Enriqueta from Xalapa, the capital of the state of Veracruz, and their son, Xavier Gonzalez Angulo Belloc. Xavier is a published author in Mexico, and has translated Don's book into Spanish for two editions in 2008 - one for students and the other for native speakers. They celebrated more than Cinco de Mayo and Don's book--it was his in-laws' forty-second wedding anniversary. Xavier's brother Gustavo and his wife Nicole decided that there was too much fun going on without them, so they came in from Cleveland with their children for the weekend, too.
     Whit Bodman was able to visit the Palestinian girl that our Sunday School students have adopted. Hala Mahmoud is a student at Rawdat al-Zuhur School in Jerusalem. Through the wonders of technology, Whit was able to send pictures of himself with Hala. Whit was to be home in late April, so we will be looking forward to a full report of his extensive trip to the Middle East.

The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us. Thus I suggest that prophetic ministry has to do not primarily with addressing specific public crises but with addressing, in season and out of season, the dominant crisis that is enduring and resilient, of having our alternative vocation co-opted and domesticated...The alternative consciousness to be nurtured, on the one hand, serves to criticize in dismantling the dominant consciousness...On the other hand, that alternative consciousness to be nurtured serves to energize persons and communities by its promise of another time and situation towards which the community of faith may move.
                    --Walther Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

     Our Spring Adult Discussion Series continues following worship. We will meet May 13, and May 20 after worship. Our primary text for the series will be Walter Brueggemann's The Prophetic Imagination, but shorter pieces written by Richard Rohr, William Countryman, and others will be distributed as well. The Brueggemann book can be purchased used or new through major on-line book sellers. Please order a copy of the book and begin reading it. You do not have to finish it before April 15.
     Board Chairs, if at all possible, please try not to schedule meetings or other events on May 13 and 20, so as not to conflict with this series. Thank you!


Deadline for June VISITOR -- May 18