A Beauty Contest

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

28 February 2013

Even when people know each other very well (e.g., in marriage) it is possible that you can find yourself having a conversation with someone only to find that the person you are talking with is having a different conversation in his or her own mind.  People can “talk past each other”.  This reality is a real danger in our conversation—our testimony—about faith, with the world around us.  Are we engaged in argument, in apologetics, to convince others of the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ?  If so, we may find that the argument doesn’t address the issue that is in the mind of the listener, because he or she doesn’t think himself or herself in need of a savior.  Many people do not think of the world as fallen (despite ample evidence).

If our proclamation of the Good News by word often falls on ears that don’t seek any news at all, consider that we also promise at baptism that we will proclaim God’s Good News in action, by example.  What this means is that we often have to refocus from a model of winning an argument to one of winning a beauty contest.

What does this “beauty contest” look like?  What is on-show is no more and no less than the difference made in your own life by your practice of your faith.  At 1 Pet. 3.15 the apostle writes, “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you ...”  This justly famous teaching is thought, in general, to enjoin that we have to understand our faith so that we can convince others of its truth.  This is a valid understanding, but it is a partial one, for in making a defense of the hope that is within us, we make this defense every day among those who watch us.  In watching us they are (in their own minds) calling us to account.  They are watching to see if the faith that we profess is a faith that is lived, and if this faith that is lived changes us, and how.

So, how does the scoring work in such a beauty contest?  You will be rated on a scale in which the observer looks for a positive correlation between your faithfulness in worship, in prayer, in giving—in all the outward marks of faith—with how you profess yourself to view the world.  We can all think of people who go to church and yet are notorious in how they treat others, but what about those who go to church and are known to be those who “go the extra mile” to help?  What about those who are known to be kind and generous?  When we are seen to live as people who others want to emulate, and are known to be followers of Christ, then we testify in the way that St. Tertullian recorded, when he quotes pagan skeptics saying of the Christians, “See how they love one another.”  The pagan world around Tertullian became a Christian society because of the testimony of those who “loved each other”.  We face the same task in conversion and evangelism.

Lenten Discipline:  If you have fallen out of the habit of Church-going, this is a great time of the year to refocus on worship and devotion.  It is all to easy to slide into complacency, and there are certainly other things that compete for time and energy, but we should always offer to God our first and our best efforts.  The last Sunday of the Epiphany Season, standing with Jesus on Mount Tabor in His full glory showed us clearly that we cannot stand still.  We cannot rest.  We might wish to stay on the mountain, but we are bidden to make the walk to Calvary with our Lord.

Grace Abounds:  Please thank Bobbi and Kaleigh Kraft for hosting the lenten supper last Friday. 

Please take the opportunity to notify the office of any member or friend of the parish to whom we owe thanks, in order that we can publicize this in the weekly newsletter.

A Swell Project:  A swell engine (a device which controls the volume of sound) in the organ needs to be replaced.  The approximate cost if $3,500, and this amount is not included in the 2013 budget.  Our goal is to raise the necessary funds, to allow for installation of the device prior to Holy Week, and the clergy and Vestry are leading the way in donations.  Update:  More than $1,200 has been raised!  If you wish to contribute to this project, please contact the parish office.

Episcopal Youth Community:  We had a great Youth Group meeting last week, and we did it in a different way. We met at the lunch hour leaving directly from church, and we went over to Paradigm coffee shop. There it was, while eating delicious sandwiches and coffee of varying sorts, that we talked about ourselves; the churches we've been at, the way we are involved, and what it means to us to be in a church. In a very real way we had a group testimony session, and it was really good to hear everyone's take on who they are in  the church and what the church means to them. I hope we can continue this conversation in the next few weeks. Thank you.

―Nick

Adult Christian Education:  Adult Education meets on Sundays at 9 a.m., in St. Nicholas Hall.  On 17 February we will begin a Lenten series of sharing our faith, on Christian Testimony.  The theology of this intersection between witness, evangelism and fellowship will introduced by Fr. John Ambelang, followed by a example of testimony by Fr. Schaffenburg, and the opportunity for small group discussions.  Throughout Lent we will hear the witness to faith from the leadership of the parish.

Lenten Friday program:  On Fridays we will gather for Stations of the Cross at 5:30 p.m., followed by a simple supper and a program in Christian testimony, in St. Nicholas Hall.  Featured speakers will be:

1 March           Mthr. Marie Gray, Priest in Charge, St. Paul’s E. C., Plymouth

8 March           Pastor Bill TeWinkel, Hope Reformed Church, Sheboygan

15 March         Pastor Ric Olson, St. Luke United Methodist Church, Sheboygan

22 March         Pastor Todd Smith, First United Luther C. (E.L.C.A.), Sheboygan
      We have guests.  Please come to listen to them, and to share in fellowship.  We need, as well, hosts/cooks for meals.

Being the Body:  Don’t forget!  Being the Body (Knowing, Being, Doing)—our discipleship program—will gather again on this Saturday, 2 March (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.)  We will finish up our “knowing” trimester with a program led by Bp. Edward L. Salmon, retired Bishop of South Carolina and President and Dean of Nashotah House, who will speak on our identity as Anglican Christians, and the unique gifsta an challenges associated with being an Anglican.

Music this week:

Prelude                        Meditation on ‘O God, unseen yet ever near’             Sowerby

Introit                          My eyes are ever looking toward the Lord                  Plainsong

Offertory Hymn 401   “The God of Abraham praise”                                    Leoni

Communion Motet      O God, unseen yet ever near                                       Gower

Comm. Hymn 684      “O for a closer walk with God”                                  Caithness

Closing Hymn 344      “Lord, dismiss us with thy blessing”                          Sicilian Mariners

Postlude                      Prelude & Fugue in G Minor                                      Fischer

Parish Notices

Scout Appreciation "Pancake Breakfast": Sunday, March 3^rd after each service, please stay to savor a down home Pancake Breakfast. The Boy Scouts will supply all the know how for the event. As an added bonus, Maple Syrup will be supplied by the Drewry Farms of Plymouth. This award winning Maple Syrup is served at all the major restaurants in the area and beyond.

Adult Christian Education in Lent: In Lent our Sunday morning Adult Education program will focus on Christian Testimony. We have heard from Deacon Mike Burg, Deacon Michele Whitford and the Senior Warden Bobbi Kraft. Come and join in the fun and listen to more faith stories. We will hear each week from members of the parish leadership team (ordained and lay) about how a person came to be a Christian, and Episcopalian, a member of Grace. We will then have opportunity in small groups to reflect on our own faith journeys and testimonies. We will share by doing it, as we grow in our appreciation of how we are formed by each other. 

Stations of the Cross, Simple Suppers and Teaching:  We will meet each Friday at 5:30 p.m. for Stations of the Cross, followed by a simple supper and Christian formation. Our formation program this year will focus on testimony in faith. How do we share our faith with each other? Lent allows us to focus on how we have separated ourselves from God, but in this context we need to look at how we are separated from each other, when Jesus wills that we be one. (What He says at John 10.16 is not merely a suggestion.) We are blessed that we will be joined each Friday by the pastor of another church in Sheboygan. Each pastor will testify to his own or her own experience of the Christian faith, and what it is about his or her identity in a particular faith tradition (e.g., Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed) that informs their faith and the practice of their faith. We will then have the opportunity to share with each other our own reactions to such testimonies, and to learn how to testify to faith by experiencing the testimony of others.

A Passover Seder Meal: You are Invited to a Passover Seder Meal Wednesday, March 27, 6:30 pm. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Plymouth. “The Passover is the oldest and most important of the Jewish festivals, commemorating God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.  The Passover meal is known as the Seder, which means ‘order’, because the meal and the service are done in a prescribed sequence.  This sequence is presented in the Haggadah (telling) which outlines the steps of the meal as well the readings and the songs for the participants.”  --Dennis Bratcher. Please RSVP by Sunday, March 24 by calling the Grace Church office at 452-9659.

Bishop Search: For all information concerning the search for the eighth Bishop of Fond du Lac please go to bishopsearch.info.