September 30, 2021
Friends in Faith,
This coming Sunday, October 3, is World Communion Sunday. We will be celebrating the grand diversity of Christianity in our world and our unity as disciples of Jesus Christ. We'll also be ordaining and installing our new elders, so it's going to be a busy, beautiful day. More details are here. Do you have a small cultural item you would like to place on our communion table for World Communion Sunday—fabric, a basket, a trinket? Let Cathy Sapunor (916-832-3373) know and we can make arrangements for it to be featured on the communion table. If you'd like to join us virtually, click here. Be sure to have some juice and bread on hand so you can join us for communion. Also, please note that you can always watch services any time you'd like here.
Don't forget that at 4 p.m., we have our "Drive Thru Pet Blessing." More details can be found here.
In the spirit of World Communion Sunday and recognizing our common calling as believers, Bill Laws, a member of Bethany, has volunteered to share with us more about the PCUSA's "Matthew 25 Invitation."
We Can Follow Matthew!
In 1971, an off-Broadway musical Godspell (based on the book of Matthew) celebrated a band of Christian disciples. Urban residents with a youthful spirit came together to form a community. In their hearts, they are determined to spiritually ignite the blighted city of New York.
One of the play’s songs, Day By Day, related how one person’s love of Jesus spread like brush fire. It was a beautification process. It was done through art and with shared greenery and smiles. Step by step the disciples distributed an unmistakable and immaterial joy. A joy that they so clearly possessed.
Fifty years later the story from Matthew comes home to churches. In the denominational magazine Presbyterians Today, September 2021 edition, the Matthew 25 In Action feature relates how a trio of churches came together. These congregations “answer the call....to become a Mathew 25 church.” The transformational focus is on eradicating poverty and racism. The key outcome is to “build congregational vitality.”
Bethany already has the “vitality” which is at the core of the play Godspell or the new church movement. An example of this exuberance is Bethany’s long standing relationship with a regional food bank. Nancy Disher, our Presbytery’s food security ambassador has expressed an interest in visiting the Bethany campus. She wants to learn what we have been doing.
Like the blighted neighborhoods of Godspell, our church is in the middle of an opportunity to spread the vital energy from the Book of Matthew. Day by day there are little things that can be done. Supporting “pay it forward” campaigns at the nearby laundromat or starting “sunshine funds” for local restaurant workers are two examples. These small inspirations, though, are ideas similar to the zeal from the Godspell era of the late 60’s/early 70’s. Today, perhaps these notions need to be resurrected and recoupled with bigger strategies.
My suggestion is to team up with other congregations. This was strongly suggested in the recent Presbyterians Today article. For example, along with renting a building to the food bank, Bethany could team with Westminster Presbyterian to deliver specific dishes to the Loaves and Fishes ministry. The Presbytery, including Nancy, has had direct experience working with this agency’s hunger program. Also, from the model of Pastor Barns of Grace Presbyterian, the congregation could link-up with local urban farm efforts and farmers markets.
All of this, though, might best considered in the context of Matthew. Day by day, step by step, creatively, actively encouraging fairness for all, especially the underserved. The small incremental steps going with the larger programs.
-William Laws III
All are welcome to join our book study of Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" on Monday, October 4 and Monday, October 11, from 10- 11:30 a.m. We'll be meeting in person in the church Social Hall, but there will also be a Zoom option, too. Here are the details.
Save the date—on Sunday, October 10, we'll be having a service of "healing and wholeness" during our time of worship. Click here for information.
Save the date—Wednesday, November 10, will be a "Lunch and Learn" event. We'll be making Advent wreaths together and then enjoying a delicious meal. Details to come.
A Prayer for Peace
Lord Christ, at times we are like strangers on this earth, taken aback by all the violence, the harsh oppositions. Like a gentle breeze, you breathe upon us the Spirit of peace. Transfigure the deserts of our doubts, and so prepare us to be bearers of reconciliation wherever you place us, until the day when a hope of peace dawns in our world. Amen.
—Brother Roger of Taize
Blessings,
Jesse
