Sunday May 13

This Sunday is Mother's Day. We will honor and celebrate our mothers in worship. For some, this is a bittersweet time. I know it is for me. My mother died a few years ago. I wish I could talk to her again. There is a liturgical piece in The Pattern of Our Days (from Iona, a monastic community in Ireland) that says it well:

"Underneath are the everlasting arms"--
loved words and loving--
reminds us of a God
who is always there,
like a mother with a young child,
knowing our needs,
catching us when we fall,
comforting, bearing, cradling, dancing, and caressing.

"Underneath are the everlasting arms"--
words of encouragement
in moments of desolation
and loneliness;
words passed down from mother to daughter,
not in cold print but warm with faith.

"Underneath are the everlasting arms"--
now you are dying--
is it hard to let go?
For so long you have been there
to catch, to carry, and to care
Listen, love, I want you to know
that I can cope:
first your faith nurtured me,
and your strength,
but now I have found my own.
Let go.
Into God's hands I commend your spirit;
Underneath are the everlasting arms.

Momma, into God's hands I commend your spirit. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Amen.

Our study for this Sunday is Moving Forward in Sanctification. The subject of sanctification is important to us Methodists. Well, it was important to Wesley, and it should be important to us today, but it often is not. It might be good to read the background material and the Scriptures ahead of time. The worship bulletin is here.

May the life of God be in you today and may the peace of God be with you today. Amen.

Good CD

I am currently listening to this CD: Top 25 Vineyard UK Praise and Worship Songs. It has a great variety of music and I have always liked Vineyard music and it's live worship feel. I saw it at Gospel Supplies where I was able to listen to some samples, but I bought it used on Amazon.com for a MUCH lower price.
I have been burned so many times by CD reviews that I always listen to samples first. You can usually listen on Amazon. I credit Rob Resetar with this idea.

Senior Night

Every year we have a big celebration in the Catalina youth group for our seniors. Last night may have been the best ever. To see the video about the seniors, go here.

Another Piece of Theology: Universal Core of the Gospel

I read this post on the Emergent Village blog. It raises questions, rather than giving answers. Read it and think about it.

"Pale Blue Dot" is a video made by David Fu of a reading by Carl Sagan. It is about the place of our earth in the universe, and how we should live. I didn't agree with all of it, but it is extremely thought-provoking, sometimes beautiful, and supremely artistic. As an aside, how many of the films featured in the video can you name?

Atonement

I read an interesting article online today. It is a pretty heavy theological piece, but I found it remarkably readable. It is by NT Wright, and this article makes me want to read more by Wright. The article is actually a response to a radio address and a book, both of which Wright disagreed with and both of which concerned Christ's atonement for human sin. Check out the article here, and a response by the book's authors here.

This Sunday

I guess I've been slowing down lately here on the blog. I really enjoy it, but I've been pretty busy lately. This study for this Sunday in the Refuge is Moving Forward with Each Other. We will look at a lot of Scriptures. The best way to get a preview of Sunday's service is to look at the worship bulletin. You could even get a head start on the Bible study.

ArkAlmighty

There is a sequel of sorts to Bruce Almighty called Evan Almighty, which comes out this June. In this movie, the newscaster who beat out Bruce for the anchor job (Evan, played by Steve Carrell) has the encounter with God. Now, here is the interesting part. The movie has spun off a website and movement that encourages churches to do good. The concept is called ArkAlmighty, and works like a version of Craig's List for your church. People enter on a personalized (for your church) website their needs. People can scan these and choose one to meet. A person can also list gifts, abilities, skills, etc. that they can share, and people in need can check this list. if you go to the ArkAlmighty website, you can be introduced to the concept by John Goodman. Is this something we would like to do here at Catalina? I registered Catalina just to get further information; there is nothing entered on the site yet. Of course, one drawback to this approach is that some people with needs may not have access to a computer or the internet. As a solution to this, we could have a table set up on Sunday mornings where people could get the info entered for them, or even a kiosk with an internet-connected computer that people could use as a self-serve access to ArkAlmighty. You could also have people complete a brief survey and then input the results to the website. When we are serving at Casa Maria, or if we are planning a work trip to Agua Prieta, we could list the number of volunteers needed, and people could sign up online. Of course there are art pieces and links we can put on our church website. Lots of possibilities. What do you think?

Thanks, Sarai

Yesterday was Sarai Case's last Sunday on our church staff. She preached in both of our Refuge services and did a great job. The thought that stuck with me was about the miracles she referred to. The healing of the leper (Mark 1.40-42), the story of the hemorraging woman (Matthew 9.18-22), and the story of the blind men (Matthew 9.27-30); all have at least one common characteristic: the people sought healing from Jesus. Jesus was not seeking them to heal them, they came to Jesus and the healing they needed was available, and Jesus was willing. In the case of the hemorraging woman, all she did was touch his cloak. It seems that the faith needed to approach Jesus and ask was all the faith that was necessary. This brings up the question that Sarai asked: What if the healing is already there? What if it has already been allocated by God, and all we have to do is take it? I'm not putting this as well as she did, but we must ask ourselves, what does God have for us that we are not taking? What healing does Jesus have for us that we are not seeking?

Columbine/Virginia Tech

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Columbine school shootings, and this comes just a few days after the tragic Virginia Tech shootings. I understand that the VT shooter was influenced by the Columbine shooters. What do we do? What kind of a world do we live in? How do all these things make you feel?
Here are some prayers/readings dealing with tragic events. Take time tomorrow to pray one or two in honor of those who lost their lives at Columbine and Virginia Tech, and to soothe your own soul as you try to figure things out. (You can always leave a comment here, call me 403-2403, or email me richard@catumc.org.) [Prayers and readings from The Book of Uncommon Prayer by Steve Case]

God, we've read the newspapers
We've seen the video on the news
We talk about faith
Our brains demand evidence
Our hearts long to believe
Forgive us our doubts, God
The world is a cruel place
The hungry and hurting reach out
The questions and doubts rise up like a raging river
We could drown in our own ignorance
Come into this place
We will open our hearts
We will open our minds and souls
Show us
Enlighten us
God, we need to know you are here. Amen.

***
Give us faith to stay on the path
Give us the courage to face the coming days
Give us the strength to pray in the face of things we don't understand
Give us the strength to believe in the mercy and grace you've promised us all
Give us the grace to entrust to you those we lost
Invite them to your table
Serve them their favorite foods
Give them eyes to see how much we miss them
Give us the eyes to see their smiles in the sunrise
Give us the ears to hear their voices in the rain
Give peace to their families and friends, and to the world. Amen.

Psalm 23
Matthew 5.1-12

Sarai Preaching Sunday

This Sunday, April 22, is Sarai Case's last Sunday with us at Catalina before she moves to Chicago to go to seminary. She is preaching in both services of The Refuge. Her Scriptures are below.
Jeremiah 5.1
Luke 10.38-42
2 Timothy 3.1-9, 10-14
Acts 9.1-19

Ignored Beauty

What would happen if a world-renowned violin virtuoso played a $3.5 million Stradivarius in a subway station? Would anyone notice? Check out the video. Look for the post "Ignored Beauty".

Virginia Tech

I may say more about this later, but for right now, I will mention that Lilly Lewin has posted some awesome prayer ideas in response to the shootings on her blog.

Do we worship the God of the past?

I cited Mike DeVries in an earlier post, and he has put another insightful article on his blog. Read it here.

Noticing our presuppositions

A few months ago, Bart Campolo (son of Tony Campolo) wrote an article called The Limits of God's Grace. It was published in The Journal for Student Ministries, and was quite controversial. It was controversial for a couple of reasons. One reason was that Campolo stated that he didn't believe that a loving God would assign anyone to the torment of hell. Secondly, it was controversial because of the reasoning that Campolo used to come to his conclusion. He stated (to simplify) that the kind of God he believed in would not send a deeply loved creation to hell. Campolo has a follow up to his article. This article is well worth reading. It argues that everyone of us comes to the Bible and all theological thought with our own presuppositions that color how we interpret the Scriptures. Very thought-provoking.

Is God Real?

This is the title of an interview/article in Newsweek's April 9, 2007 edition. Jon Meacham interviewed Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church and author of the best-selling The Purpose Driven Life, and Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The discussion was pretty good, and I would recommend reading the article. I'm not sure if Warren was the best choice for this interview. I would have preferred Jim Wallis or Bono. I dont' think Warren could leave his fundamentalist-evangelical viewpoint long enough to give broad answers. He is a person who lives out his faith and puts his money where is mouth is. I think he could have emphasized Christian experience a little more.

Who is God and what is God like?

This was sort of the theme for our study Sunday morning in The Refuge. It was the first in our series "Moving Forward", and my thesis was that we cannot move forward in our faith with incorrect or unworthy concepts of God; and that the questions that nag us and doubts that haunt us will hold us back. So, we said 5 things that go with the Scriptures listed in the Thursday post.
1-I can move forward when I realize God is a mystery Isaiah 55.8-9 Read this post by Mike DeVries.
2-I can move forward when I realize my faith is not a superstition. Acts 17.24-27
3-I can move forward when I take risks. Genesis 32.24-32, Matthew 14.24-33
4-I can move forward when I look for God in the everyday. Exodus 3.1-5 Moses was just going to work when he encountered God in the burning bush.
5-I can move forward when I understand the goodness of God. Matthew 7.9-11

SUNDAY Sunday Sunday

We started out at 7am at Reid Park with the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Mindy, Bethany, and I did the 5k non-competitive race (walk in our case) and Tyler and Jeremiah did the 5k competitive. Tyler's time was pretty good (24:42/159th overall) since he is not a competitive runner. I was really blown away by all the Catalina people who were part of Race for the Cure this year! Of course, Friday night the arthritis in my left knee started to bother me. But I made it through! The photo is Mindy and three of the Melchers at the Race. We recognized RACE participants in the Refuge worship at 11, and they were an enthusiastic bunch! In fact, I would say the atmosphere in the hall Sunday morning was as good as I've ever known it to be.

Then during worship at 11am, we baptized and confirmed Chloe Kolaz. This was a special honor for me. Chloe is an awesome member of our youth group. I know this may sound self-serving, but I think it was the best confirmation service I have ever seen.

Eventful Saturday

Saturday Mindy and I chaperoned the Sahuaro Drumline on their trip to the State Drumline competition in Phoenix. We had a pretty good time. Sahuaro won fifth in the state. Not bad. The return trip was exciting: the Sabino bus broke down and we picked them up on the interstate (Sabino and Sahuaro are arch-rivals), and a boy threw up on the back of the bus. Sounds like fun, huh? This is Tyler in his drumline costume.

Sunday Bulletin

The bulletin for Sunday, April 15, can be found here.