Grace Episcopal Church
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Grace Notes
14 March 2013
How do you share your faith? We’ve been exploring this in our lenten Adult Education and Friday supper programs, listening to the stories of both leaders in this parish and pastors in neighboring congregations. Three days after our last Friday program, in which we welcomed Pastor TeWinkel and members of Hope Reformed Church, a member of our church remarked, “Now, when I drive by Hope I smile, because I remember the good of visiting and sharing with members of that church during our lenten supper.” This experience and comment reflects a fundamental reality: We share our faith by sharing ourselves. When we tell a story we are more likely to establish a connection than when we share an idea.
Sharing a story is as simple as telling someone how you came to first visit this parish. It is as simple (and profound) as telling about how you relied on God when you were in a dark time and place. Over and over we find that when someone shares a story there is someone else in the room who can relate to specifics of the story. The experience of the storyteller resonates with the experience of someone listening, and a connection is made, a connection which involves sharing faith even though the intention was not about sharing faith—it was about telling a story.
Ideas are, of course, powerful, and ideas allow us to categorize faith experiences. But sharing an idea necessarily involves argument, reasoning, data. Sharing a story involves sharing self, and when personal connections are made people can grow together in faith. Perhaps this is why when Jesus first called His disciples He never began by telling them what they had to believe. He simply said “Follow me.”
In his Divine Comedy the 13th century poet Dante Alighieri uses more than 16,000 lines of masterful poetry to express an idea, to describe the “economy” of salvation, how God’s plan is put into action. Divine Comedy is undoubtedly a masterpiece, but it is work to read and work to understand. A typical edition might contain 30,000 words of introductions, and 1,000 footnotes. Compare this masterful outline and explanation of an idea with a novel like William Falkner’s The Sound and the Fury (arguably his best novel). Set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the novel centers on the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. Over the course of the thirty years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the local townspeople. The novel offers profound insights into human character, and yet it begins not with any idea but with the experience of a “slow” child sitting in a tree and listening to adults talking below him.
In the case of Dante we might well agree with him, after figuring out the argument behind his idea. In the case of Falkner, we can relate to the human experiences of characters in the novel. Even though their experiences may be foreign to ours in most respects, we don’t have to figure out anything, only respond to it. And in the case of 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 sounds like we may need to make an argument, explain an idea, but the preparation is far, far simpler. We are prepared to “account for the hope” in each of us when we can tell a simple story of the presence of God in our lives. Share your stories, and let others resonate with the presence of God.
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 LeRoy and Connie Schneider, and Mike Burg, for hosting the Friday night lenten supper. Please thank Paul Aparicio for installing a sump pump in the rectory.
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.
The Bible Challenge awards: If you have completed The Bible Challenge, please alert the parish office, in order that we may recognize this achievement within the parish.
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 $2,300 has been raised! If you wish to contribute to this project, please contact the parish office.
Episcopal Youth Community: What is the state of our friendships? How many friends do you have? Are you the type of person who easily makes friends, or are you the type who have only a couple of really close friends? These questions have been on my mind recently, and I hope to have a really good discussion about it one of these days with the youth group.
These questions have only increased after I watched the video in the link below. The video starts by talking about the 'friendzone' that place you find yourself when your crush only sees you as a friend, but Michael (he's the guy in the video) begins to ponder the nature of friends as we see it nowadays. Please follow the link, and ponder with me about your friends, and how much we need each other.
Video (starting at the point regarding friends): http://youtu.be/IGK2KprU-To?t=5m37s
If you wish to discuss this, you may find it helpful to comment on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gracesheboygan ―Nick
Faith Alive: We were pleased to receive Hal Foss this past weekend, who will lead the Faith Alive team for the weekend planned at Grace for 13-15 September. Faith Alive is a Church-wide program that provides a special time for each one of us to re-examine the promises we made in Baptism, and to reconfirm our commitment to live into these promises. A Faith Alive weekend provides a time for us to rethink what our promises mean to us, how we live into them, and how we recommit to follow our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Faith Alive weekend team at Grace is being chaired by Tom Wright and John Ambelang. Bob Hanlon will chair follow-up to the weekend, and we are blessed in the ministry of our “prayer warriors”, who are offering continual prayers that in Faith Alive we may realize a new empowerment by the Holy Spirit. These intercessors include: Mike Burg, Mary Clabots, Pat Ford Smith, Jane Hanson, Bobbi Kraft, Mary Massey, and Pat Sather. They will offer the following prayer (which will also be included in worship in the Daily Office and Eucharist):
Almighty and everliving God, look with favor upon your Church in this place. So open our hearts and minds to your presence that we may be filled with your life-giving Spirit; that we may embody your Word; that endued with your grace we may call others to know you, to love you, and to serve you. Send your Holy Spirit upon all who work to renew our ministries through the Faith Alive weekend, and grant your protection to all team members. Endue us with the wisdom and grace to discern your will and to do it. Let your Holy Spirit come upon us in mighty power, that we may experience revival of faith, to preach and live the everlasting Gospel, and to call and gather all faithful into your Kingdom. This we pray by and through your Son our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.
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:
15 March Pastor Ric Olson, St. Luke United Methodist Church, Sheboygan
2 2 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.
Music this week:
Prelude O Lord, turn not thy face from me H. Parry
Introit Give sentence with me, O God Plainsong
Offertory Hymn 441 “In the cross of Christ I glory” Rathbun
Communion Motet Like as the hart H. Willan
Comm. Hymn 474 “When I survey the wondrous Cross” Rockingham
Closing Hymn 598 “Lord Christ, when first thou cam’st to earth” Mit Freuden zart
Postlude Quasi lento from Six Short Pieces H. Howells
Parish Notices
· 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? 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 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.
· Sacrament of Reconciliation: Lent is a time of self-examination preparing for the death and resurrection of our Lord. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be offered by appointment. Please contact Fr. Schaffenburg to set up an appointment to make your confession.
· Maundy Thursday Foot Washing: Everyone will have the opportunity to have their feet washed and to wash someone else’s feet following the example of Jesus washing his disciple’s feet. Please wear socks and shoes that are easily removed.
· Vigil before the Altar of Repose: Please sign up to watch and pray for an hour at the Altar of Repose beginning immediately following the Maundy Thursday Mass March 28 and concluding Friday, March 29 as the Good Friday Liturgy begins. There is a sign-up sheet on the table in the Narthex, more than one person can sign up for any given hour.
· Easter Vigil Dinner: The first Mass of the Resurrection is on Saturday, March 30, at 7:30 p.m. The Easter celebration then continues at Trattoria Stefano, 522 South 8th Street, at 9:30 p.m. The actual cost of the meal is a gift to the parish, so you not only get a delicious meal but you help the coffers of the church by purchasing a ticket for the dinner. Tickets can be bought in the parish office or in the narthex after mass for $50 a person. Everyone is invited, but seats are limited. There are scholarships for anyone wishing to attend but are unable to donate.
· Easter Gala Reception: We will continue our Easter celebration with a Gala Reception after the 10:15 a.m. Mass on Sunday, March 31. Please sign up to bring sweets or savories and to help clean up afterwards. There is a sign-up sheet on the table in the Narthex.
· Bishop Search: For all information concerning the search for the eighth Bishop of Fond du Lac please go to bishopsearch.info.
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