Last Sunday, just before worship, Anthony gave me a picture of himself. It is a wonderfully sweet picture of him hugging his little sister Aurora. It made me think of all the times I’ve seen him tending to Aurora, carrying her on his back, going to her as she cried, eating the coffee hour food she took and then didn’t want. He’s a good kid, and his love and care for his little sister was shining out of that picture. It makes me feel good to look at it.
Just as it made me feel good, the week before, when Christo came up, all excited, to show me his new shoes, the ones with a roller wheel in the heel, so he can lean back and glide around the rooms. Dana told me that he has learned that he can save his small allowance to get things he really wants, like those shoes. Have you been noticing that Christo is growing up in this, his first grade year? He is learning to plan, to save, to raise his hand, to give others a chance. Christo is still exuberant—and I hope he will be always—but he is growing up into being a person who can choose good and constructive behavior in lots of ways.
As I watch these two boys, and all the other kids we claim here, I give thanks for their families, for all the people in their lives who are teaching them to be generous, responsible, loving and lovely young people. It is a challenging task, to raise boys and girls to be thoughtful, generous and loving men and women, and I want to honor all the people who choose to pour their love and care into the long-term and steady vocation of raising a family.
We celebrated New Year’s Day last week. Each New Year’s Day the Pope, this year Pope Benedict XVI, delivers an address to celebrate the World Day of Peace. On Tuesday, he delivered his address, entitled, “The Human Family, a Community of Peace.” In this address, he claimed, and I would agree, that the family is “the primary place of humanization” for the person and for society, and a “cradle of life and love.” Pope Benedict went on to identify the family as “the first and indispensable teacher of peace,” and to claim that families enable their members to experience peace and to learn the “vocabulary of peace.” I expect you can join me in agreeing that this is essentially true, and in celebrating the families that are raising the children in our midst.
But then, politics came into it. We shouldn’t be surprised. We know, from our lesson, that King Herod was moved to anger, not homage, by the birth of the child Jesus, for he was told that this birth heralded a new distribution of power in the world, that this baby would grow up to be a king who would lead the people like a shepherd. And so, Herod responded to the reality that he didn’t know which child in the area of Bethlehem would grow up to be this shepherd-king by ordering that every child in Bethlehem, every boy under the age of two, must be killed. Here was a man intent on retaining power, even if it meant destroying families of the kingdom he was to rule over.
Pope Benedict is also a man who holds a great deal of power. He has been engaged, recently, in a strong Vatican campaign to protect the “traditional” family against proposals to extend rights to gay couples or to other unions and families outside traditional marriage. In this campaign, he has decried attempts by Italy’s government to give legal status to de facto couples and he has denounced the Spanish government for passing legislation that recognizes gay marriage and legislation that facilitates divorce. He has applauded rallies in Madrid and in Italy that involved thousands of people marching to defend “traditional” families by denying the rights of “non-traditional” families to be recognized as families at all, by law or by faith.
Lest we think I might be exaggerating the strength of his pronouncement, hear these words from his address:
The natural family, as an intimate communion of life and love, based on marriage between a man and a woman, constitutes the primary place of humanization for the person and society and a ‘cradle of life and love,’ The family is therefore rightly defined as the first natural society, ‘a divine institution that stands at the foundation of life of the human person as the prototype of every social order.’ . . . Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace. This point merits special reflection: everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, . . .constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace.
I read of Pope Benedict’s address on Wednesday. I cried. In simplified language, I heard him claiming that my choice to defend the integrity of my family, of David and Betty’s family, of Carolyn and Barbara’s family, of Dana, Love, Christo and Sammy’s family, of gay or lesbian-headed families, single-parent families, intergenerational families, adoptive families—of all our families—our choice to defend our families, in all their strengths and varieties constitutes “an objective obstacle on the road to peace.”
Did it cross your mind, when I was talking of what great boys Anthony and Christo are, to think that one of them has a family that strengthens world peace and that the other has a family that, by its very existence, by our support, undermines world peace? Isn’t that absurd, on the face of it?
When we ask, why did Herod seek to destroy hundreds of children, the answer is pretty clear—he was afraid of what one of them might do, when he grew up, to undermine his power and dominion. He murdered the babies to protect his belief in the rightness of his views and power. And, when I ask what would motivate Pope Benedict XVI to attack “non-traditional” families, I find a similar motive—that the babies of those families might grow up—as some of them already have—to put the lie to beliefs that undergird the power of patriarchy.
This is strong language. I know that. It hinges on a basic valuation that undergirds the choice to approve or disapprove of non-traditional families. That valuation is this: are people created to adjust themselves to predetermined roles, called “natural” and fashioned by God for the good of all being, so that any deviation from predetermined roles undermines the ground of being; or are people endowed by God with freedom and dignity to choose for themselves how they will live, to join God as co-creators of an on-going creation? Either side of this question carries strength and liability for harm and damage. We cannot choose one or the other and believe that it will be a pathway free from danger. The question, then, is where do we locate the greater danger, in insisting that those who are different conform themselves to strict guidelines, or in giving latitude, knowing that, sometimes, it will be used irresponsibly? To put it yet another way, which do we trust more, as we attempt to live into the Realm of God: the power of authority, with its danger of rigidity and tyranny, or the intentions of the people who are actually raising the children of our church and community? Could we imagine a pathway that builds up the parents—in any family—and supports them as they try to guide their children toward responsible and loving, peaceable adulthood, without imagining for a moment that we must cut one family down to support another?
In moments, we will recognize and install the lay leaders of this community for the next year. Some of you have accepted the positions to which you are being called with eagerness, and some with trepidation. Some of you feel well-qualified, and some of you are nervous about whether you can do what we are asking of you. Some of you may be wondering whether it is important, this responsibility we are asking you to carry, for all of us. I tell you it is. We are here to be a place where children and adults can be called into the fullest development of who they are created to be. We are here as a witness that God is yet at work, working out the wonder of creation in all its beautiful fullness and variety. We are a people living into the pathways of peace, which rests, I believe, on a full respect for the dignity and well-being of every person, each of us a child of God, called to be Christ—liberating, threatening, and full of God’s grace in the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.
CONNECTIONS • Celebration of New Leadership, Sunday, January 6, during worship. • Made in God’s Image, Adult Sunday School class begins Sunday, January 6, 11:45am, Errol Stephenson Hall. • SPRC Committee meets Sunday, January 6, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Trustees meet Tuesday, January 8, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Education Committee meets Sunday, January 13, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, January 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Outreach Committee meets Sunday, January 20, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • All-Church Potluck, Sunday, January 27, 11:30am, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Mardi Gras Sunday, worship, clean-up, and pancake feast, Sunday, February 3, 10am-1:30pm, all over the church.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Catholic tradition worship service, Second Saturdays, 5pm, Sanctuary, UPUMC. • Reconciling United Methodists meet Saturday, January 12, 10am, Eugene First UMC. • Nuts and Bolts: Metro District Training for Leaders and Members of Local Church Administrative Committees, 9am-Noon, Saturday, January 19, Portland First UMC.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop. • Portsmouth Neighborhood Association Board meets Tuesday, January 22, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • Ash Wednesday Service, Wednesday, February 6, 7pm, Sanctuary. • Reaching Out in Love, 9am-3pm, Saturday, February 23, Portland First UMC. • General Conference of the United Methodist Church meets April 23-May 2, 2008 in Fort Worth, TX. • Western Jurisdiction Conference of the United Methodist Church meets July 16-19, 2008 in Portland, OR.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. • Morrison Center for Children and Families, Thursdays, 5-8:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. STAYING IN TOUCH Edna Riddle, Sunrise Adult Care Center, 11945 SW Butner Rd., Portland OR 97225; 503-841-1295.
Harriet Bonhorst, 870 4th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95818-3302; phone: 1-916-446-4863.
Erica Martinez, 182 E Nevada St. Ashland, OR 97520. Cell phone: 1-503-791-3680.
Jeanne Pulliam, 8603 SE Causey Ave, Apt 202; Happy Valley, OR 97086-2604, Telephone 503-594-2539.
Aleena Sologar, 775 Cascade St. #1316, Oregon City, OR 97045, her son Jonathan’s home. Phone, 503-387-3813.
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE At University Park we not only respect but welcome diversity in race, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental ability, economic status and profession. We believe all people are equal before God and entitled to God’s grace and abundance.—We proclaim those words on our bulletin each Sunday, but do we really know what the words “gender identity” mean? Stephen Hicks has made a gift to UPUMC of copies of a wonderful short book, Made in God’s Image, which explores the experiences of people with a variety of gender identities. We will use the books for our January adult Sunday School class, which Jeanne will teach.
WHERE IN THE WORLD? January 6, 2008. Do you live in Vernonia? Astoria? Seaside? Tillamook? Warrenton? Nehalem Bay? Clatskanie? Rainier? Is that your steeple laying in the street in Bay City? Camped at Camp Magruder? Did you have a tree come through your roof in December? Crush your car? Did mud fill your home? If you answered yes to any one of those questions, then you can also answer yes to this question as well: Isn’t it amazing how people from around the state and around the nation offered their time and their resources to help clean up and rebuild? Well, one more question. Did you know that you are a part of the effort as well, and that you join in that effort with United Methodists throughout the world? UMCOR, United Methodist Committee On Relief, is our United Methodist crisis response agency. While some relief agencies were still trying to figure out if and how their response would take form, UMCOR was already on the scene with an emergency grant and help. But thus has it always been! UMCOR is often the first international agency on site with assistance. Better yet, 100% of all money given to UMCOR goes directly to crisis relief. You give a dollar to flood relief and a dollar gets there! How? Your support of World Service covers the overhead and administrative expenses of UMCOR, and allows that agency to do what it does best: quietly and quickly respond to crisis. Were you on the North Oregon Coast during the big storm? Everyone say yes on the count of three…1…2…3! Because of UMCOR you were there! And will be the next time a crisis happens anywhere in the world. Now where did we put that chainsaw???—Rev. Jim Monroe
MAGRUDER STORM RECOVERY UPDATE The most hazardous trees have been removed, so the camp is now open to all volunteers who wish to help with the clean-up. This information is accurate as of Dec. 31, 2007. • Volunteers are needed anytime in January, and especially during the week and weekends of Jan. 11-21. Contact Al Trachsel, conference disaster relief coordinator at
or 503-873-6517 (church) or 971-218-0028 (cell) to schedule a date to volunteer. • Go to http://gocamping.org/pdfs/Disasterreliefeffortsplanned.pdf for list of work to be done and how you can help. • The camp received a much-appreciated $6,200 grant from UMCOR for humanitarian assistance for local employees affected by the storm. • The Oregon-Idaho Conference Disaster Fund paid for a dozen hard hats, orange vests, safety goggles, and other safety equipment, the better to keep us all safe when helping with storm recovery at Magruder. • PUD and electricians are working with the camp staff to get some electric lines underground. • Magruder will be open for guests Jan. 25. HOT CHOCOLATE A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.
Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: “Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
“Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, we choose the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.”
POSITION PERSON ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL ADMIN. COUNCIL CHAIR SCOTT JENSEN AD COUN. VICE CHAIR STEPHEN HICKS RECORDING SECRETARY LEANNA DEEDS FINANCE CHAIR JEFF GERRITSEN FINANCE SECRETARY DOTTI SWENSON LAY LEADER DOTTI SWENSON LAY MEMBER, A.C. DAVID WHITE ALT. LAY MEMBER, A.C. DOTTI SWENSON MEMBERSHIP CHAIR BEV READ MEMORIALS CHAIR BEV READ STAFF-PARISH REL. CHAIR CAROLYN HAMMETT TRUSTEES CHAIR to be elected UMW CHAIR BEV READ TREASURER KAREN RIPKA EDUCATION CHAIR DAVID WHITE WORSHIP CHAIR to be filled OUTREACH CHAIR BETTY CRUSON RECONCILING MIN. LIAISON DICK BURDON MDCES REPRESENTATIVE JO ANN PIEHL AT LARGE JUDY GRIFFEN FINANCE COMMITTEE CHAIR JEFF GERRITSEN FINANCIAL SECRETARY DOTTI SWENSON TREASURER KAREN RIPKA AD COUNCIL CHAIR SCOTT JENSEN LAY LEADER DOTTI SWENSON LAY MEMB OF A. C. DAVID WHITE MEMORIALS CHAIR BEV READ TRUSTEE REP. MEMBERS AT LARGE MDCES REPRESENTATIVE JO ANN PIEHL TRUSTEES CHAIR 2008 CLASS BILL THOMASSON JERRY CULVER PHIL HERBACH 2009 CLASS BERNICE MCNEEL TOM MCNEEL 2010 CLASS LISA HORNE DANA BRANDT DICK BURDON SPRC CHAIR CAROLYN HAMMETT 2008 CLASS DICK BURDON SALLY CULVER 2009 CLASS CAROLYN HAMMETT BEV READ 2010 CLASS TRENA KLOHE STEPHEN HICKS LAY LEADER DOTTI SWENSON LAY MEMB OF A. C. DAVID WHITE NOMINATING COMMITTEE 2008 CLASS PHIL HERBACH BEV HEGINBOTHAM SCOTT JENSEN 2009 CLASS JUDY GRIFFEN 2010 CLASS DAVID WHITE STEPHEN HICKS LAY LEADER DOTTI SWENSON PASTORS JEANNE KNEPPER MARCIA HAUER EDUCATION COMMITTEE CHAIR DAVID WHITE MEMBERS BARBARA HERBACH JENNIFER HERBACH WORSHIP COMMITTEE CHAIR to be filled MEMBERS STEPHEN HICKS STEPHANIE THOMPSON JUDY GRIFFEN OUTREACH COMMITTEE CHAIR BETTY CRUSON MEMBERS LEANNA DEEDS LINDA GERRITSEN BEV READ BEV HEGINBOTHAM PAM ALLEE OTHER ROLES CREATION VACATION MARCIA HAUER LUNCH BUNCH BEV READ PRAYER CHAIN BERNICE MCNEEL COMMUNION STEWARD BERNICE MCNEEL CAMPING COORDINATOR JUDY GRIFFEN OFFERING COUNTERS BEV READ BERNICE MCNEEL
CONNECTIONS • Made in God’s Image, Adult Sunday School class begins Sunday, January 6, 11:45am, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Education Committee meets Sunday, January 13, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, January 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Outreach Committee meets Sunday, January 20, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • All-Church Potluck, Sunday, January 27, 11:30am, Errol Stephenson Hall, followed by film. • Mardi Gras Sunday, worship, clean-up, and pancake feast, Sunday, February 3, 10am-1:30pm, all over the church. • Ash Wednesday Service, Wednesday, February 6, 7pm, Sanctuary.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Catholic tradition worship service, Second Saturdays, 5pm, Sanctuary, UPUMC. • Nuts and Bolts: Metro District Training for Leaders and Members of Local Church Administrative Committees, 9am-Noon, Saturday, January 19, Portland First UMC.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop. • Portsmouth Neighborhood Association Board meets Tuesday, January 22, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • The Care and Feeding of the Gay and Lesbian Soul, Dr. Martin Brokenleg, February 8 and 9, 2008. • Reaching Out in Love, 9am-3pm, Saturday, February 23, Portland First UMC. • General Conference of the United Methodist Church meets April 23-May 2, 2008 in Fort Worth, TX. • Western Jurisdiction Conference of the United Methodist Church meets July 16-19, 2008 in Portland, OR.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. • Morrison Center for Children and Families, Thursdays, 5-8:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. STAYING IN TOUCH Edna Riddle, Sunrise Adult Care Center, 11945 SW Butner Rd., Portland OR 97225; 503-841-1295.
Harriet Bonhorst, 870 4th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95818-3302; phone: 1-916-446-4863.
Erica Martinez, 182 E Nevada St. Ashland, OR 97520. Cell phone: 1-503-791-3680.
Jeanne Pulliam, 8603 SE Causey Ave, Apt 202; Happy Valley, OR 97086-2604, Telephone 503-594-2539.
Aleena Sologar, 775 Cascade St. #1316, Oregon City, OR 97045, her son Jonathan’s home. Phone, 503-387-3813.
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN SCHOOL AGE. MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE At University Park we not only respect but welcome diversity in race, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental ability, economic status and profession. We believe all people are equal before God and entitled to God’s grace and abundance.—We proclaim those words on our bulletin each Sunday, but do we really know what the words “gender identity” mean? Stephen Hicks has made a gift to UPUMC of copies of a wonderful short book, Made in God’s Image, which explores the experiences of people with a variety of gender identities. We will use the books for our January adult Sunday School class, which Jeanne will teach.
WHERE IN THE WORLD? January 13, 2008. In Maua, Kenya, some of the Maua Methodist Hospital staff put the finishing touches on the home they had just built for a woman and her teenaged son. They had no home, so Bill and Jeri Savuto, United Methodist missionaries at Maua, along with Stanley Gitari, who received his advanced nurse training at Emory University, decided to build her and her son a small, modest home. However, the son suffered a traffic accident and has to rely on a wheel chair for the rest of his life. No matter! They built the home, and they all gathered to bless it! They laid hands on the house, prayed and then gave the new residents the keys to their new home. Big problem. In a nation where handicapped accessibility is not commonplace, the door was not large enough for the son’s wheelchair. The collective sigh of disappointment was palpable. But you know what? Rather than take a saw and make the door larger, which would have threatened the structural integrity of the home, Stanley, Bill and Jeri gathered the volunteers together anew over the next few weeks. They gave the first home to another family who also needed housing, and then built a new home with a door wide enough for the young man and his wheelchair. This time, the prayers were spoken, and cheers went up as the two Kenyans, formerly homeless with little hope for a better life, found a piece of that hope, and entered their new home. Your hands were on that home during the prayer of dedication. You support the Savuto’s through your apportionments. Stanley Gitari was educated through your gifts to the Ministerial Education Fund and its support of United Methodist colleges and universities. The hospital where they all work has several Advance Special projects you are a part of. Because of your gifts, you took hammer and saw and paintbrush in hand and made a future for a young man in a wheelchair and the mother who cares for him. Wow! Good work!—Jim Monroe
ATTENDANCE, JANUARY 6, 2008: 45 ATTENDANCE, JANUARY 7, 2007: 35 KEEP IT UP! THE CARE AND FEEDING OF THE GAY AND LESBIAN SOUL University Park UMC is joining with The Institute for Progressive Spirituality , a ministry of United Methodist Micah’s Village, and with Ainsworth United Church of Christ and Portland Metropolitan Community Church to co-sponsor a conference on spirituality for LGTBQ people and their allies on Friday-Saturday conference on February 8 and 9. The conference will feature Dr. Martin Brokenleg, an openly gay, Native American Episcopal priest who is a professor at the Vancouver [B.C.] School of Theology. On Friday, he will speak at 7pm on “The Care and Feeding of the Gay and Lesbian Soul.” On Saturday, he will offer a workshop on Reading the Bible from a Gay Perspective from 9am-2pm. Suggested donations are $10 for Friday and $25 for Saturday. UPUMC has three scholarships for folk who would like to attend. The events will take place at The Courtyard by the Marriott Hotel, 9300 SE Sunnybrook Drive, Clackamas. Talk to Jeanne if you would like one of the scholarships.
DISTRICT EVENT, NUTS AND BOLTS This Metro District Training event is designed to train members of the Trustees, Finance Committee, Staff-Parish Relations Committee, and Lay Leaders. It will take place on January 19, from 9am-Noon. If you are the Chair or a member of any of these administrative committees, especially if you are a new member of one of them, I encourage you to sign up by talking to Jeanne today or by calling 503-249-1851 or e-mailing
Registration officially closed yesterday, but act quickly and I’m sure we can get you in. CORRESPONDENCE My name is Christa May and I am currently the Treasurer for the Credit Union Workers Association, also known as CUWA. We are a group of Credit Union employees and various vendors who support the Credit Union Movement. We strive to further our education by meeting monthly for dinner and a presentation.
Each month at our CUWA meetings we have a speaker. Our topic for our December meeting had to do with charitable giving. In the spirit of the holidays we will be donating $100 on behalf of our Speaker, Jennifer Herbach, from Rivermark Credit Union, who chose “University Park United Methodist Church Children’s Sunday School” as her charity of choice. Please accept the enclosed check for $100 on behalf of CUWA.
We appreciate all that you do!
The money will buy Bibles to use in the Sunday School class.
GRATITUDE AND HEALING Joel 2:23-29; Psalm 65; Luke 17:11-19 October 21, 2007
Suppose I told you that I have found the key to a good life, would you be interested? Let me take it farther—suppose I could name a practice that could turn your life around, increase your sense of peace and well-being, heal angry hearts and transform stunted lives—would you want to try it? Suppose I could then tell you that this practice is one you already know, is free, and can be done by anybody, anywhere, with tremendous benefits and no—NO bad side effects. Would it be magic? No, it’s not magic, though many of us first learned to call it a magic word. It is this—saying “Thank you.” It’s what our mothers and fathers and teachers taught us, so long ago, to be grateful for what is given to us. Gratitude is truly a magical practice, a way of blessing and healing our worlds.
As I thought about it during the week, it struck me that one of the clues to spiritual and emotional health is the willingness to say, “Thank you.” To people who help us. To people who care for us. To people who are just doing their jobs. To God. To each other. I think that it is in our ability to be grateful that we come into some of the fullness of who we can be as human beings. When I thank you for something you have done, at a deep level, I am acknowledging that your world does not revolve around me, that you were kind or helpful to me because you sense in a deep way that we are connected and that my well-being affects your own. Your kindness is not my due, it is your gift to give. And when you give it, whatever it is, you have enriched my life in the spending of your own, of your own effort, or resources, or time, or care.
I carry this insight into the reading of the story of Jesus and the ten lepers. Now, even the translations are quick to point out, if you look at the footnotes in your text, that many diseases were jointly called leprosy. We have no way of knowing which disease these men had, or even if they all had the same disease.
Now, the first thing to remember, when we read this story of ten lepers healed, is that what we know as leprosy, that is, a disfiguring, mutilating previously incurable disease we now call Hansen’s disease, was not at all what Old or New Testament writers meant by the word that is translated as leprosy in our Bibles. In fact, the disease we call leprosy did not even exist in the Biblical Middle East. It surfaced later, during the middle ages, in Europe, and was later carried to other placed and climates, thriving especially in hot humid climates, not in arid deserts. But this was long after the writing of the Biblical texts.
If you were to turn your bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapters 13 and 14 [pages 98-102 in your pew bible], you would find a whole raft of leprosies, of the skin, of clothing, even of houses. Leprosy was any disfiguring stain or eruption—the zit on my chin, a bubble of mildew in your shower, a patch of raised and whitish skin such as I sometimes find on my leg, a place where a shirt discolored when it was put away wet and left too long without good air. Some kinds of disfiguration, hopefully like this zit, have always been temporary. Some kinds, like dry rot in a bathroom floors, bespeak a much greater problem. All of them led, in a time when it wasn’t easy to distinguish the disastrous from the merely dismaying, to isolation, to banishment from human society. As I think about it, it’s almost as if our worst nightmares from adolescence came true: that acne would ruin your life, forever!
Except, of course, that the culture had am escape, a way to distinguish the temporary from the dangerous. Part of the process was spiritual, reflecting the belief that everything that people experienced was from God. Part of it involved rituals of cleaning. Once this was done, if the eruption, if the bump or discoloration or roughness seemed to heal, if the washed wall stayed clean, then the afflicted one visited the rabbi, who was empowered to pronounce the leprosy healed and the person restored to community.
Jesus was called rabboni, teacher, by some of his followers, so it was not surprising that ones who had been pronounced unclean might approach him to be declared healed. And so it was, somewhere on the border between Galilee and Samaria, Luke tells us, that ten lepers hailed him from a distance—they had to maintain a safe distance away from others so long as they were in an unclean status—and asked him to heal them, to pronounce them ritually clean. When he saw them, and that is one of the miracles of the story, the frequent miracle that Jesus did see the people on the margins, the ones banished because of one ritual disfigurement or another, when he saw them, Jesus sent them to present themselves to the rabbi, essentially telling them that they were clean, that they were fit for human community as they were.
Think of the amazement! Suppose you had something you had always known as an affliction, something that made you not as good as others, not even fit to be around others. Think of the many things it could be—the things people have learned to hide, because, what would people think or do if they knew—impetigo or epilepsy, addiction or overweight, sexual orientation, a history of abuse, past time in jail, stuttering, a bankruptcy or a child given up for adoption, an abortion or the sure knowledge that your external gender and your internal being do not match. Think of whatever it might be that could leaving you feeling like you didn’t really belong in the community of faith, and then imagine that this one, this one called Jesus, had just said that you were healed, that you could go to the leader of the faith and be pronounced clean, whole—wouldn’t that just amaze you? Couldn’t that turn your life around?
And so, they went celebrating and rejoicing, all but one, who realized what a great gift this rabbi, one who was not even of his own people, had given him. That one returned to Jesus, praising God. And that one only was told, your faith has made you well.
You see, curing the skin eruption was not the big deal. Those things literally came and went. What was the big deal was that Jesus treated him, and them, like beloved children of God, that he saw the mark of God’s love on the one who was different, defiled, discriminated against. What set him free of his awful experience of dislocation and discrimination was his willingness to be grateful, to bring thanks to God. What was the big deal, for the one who returned, was that he got it, got it that God loved him, got it that Jesus reached out to him because of God’s love, got it that he could also be empowered to reach out to others. For, it is in expressing gratitude that we are freed from the tyranny of our circumstances, freed to grow into our best and most whole selves, freed to step out of the strait jackets imposed by discrimination, by internalization of hostility, by resentment and by feeling less than others. It is by expressing gratitude that we reclaim the selves that “our mothers taught us to be,” that we enter into the wholeness of being beloved children of a loving God.
I would wager that there isn’t a one of us here who hasn’t had that experience, sometime, of someone pronouncing us clean, of someone telling us that those eruptions or our unwelcome humanity, whatever they were, were not the determining factor of our acceptability, of our welcomeness, but that the bottom line of God’s love and grace meant that we were also welcome to be a part of the family of the people of God. Not a one. It’s such a blessing, to finally get that word, to know that we are beloved, first, and then we heal from all the pain that our particular human condition has brought us.
Many years ago, when I was going through a tough time in my life, one of my dear friends told me to buy myself a blank journal, one that had a pretty cover that I really liked. In it, I was to put the things I was grateful for, recording things people had said that made me feel good, recording moments that lifted my spirits. And then, when I was in the dumps, she told me to read the book, slowly, taking it all in. That book became my first gratitude journal. Reading it helped me to remember that I was more than my temporary pain and discouragement. It helped me to heal. Merry was years ahead of two psychologists who decided recently to test the hypothesis that gratitude could help people to heal. Dr. Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis were curious about why people involved in their faith seem to have more happiness and a greater sense of well-being than those who aren't and decided to study the connections. After making initial observations and compiling all the previous research on gratitude, they conducted the Research Project on Gratitude and Thanksgiving. The study required several hundred people in three different groups to keep daily diaries. The first group kept a diary of the events that occurred during the day, while the second group recorded their unpleasant experiences. The last group made a daily list of things for which they were grateful. The results of the study indicated that daily gratitude exercises resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy. Additionally, the gratitude group experienced less depression and stress, was more likely to help others, exercised more regularly and made more progress toward personal goals. According to the findings, people who feel grateful are also more likely to feel loved. McCollough and Emmons also noted that gratitude encouraged a positive cycle of reciprocal kindness among people since one act of gratitude encourages another. McCullough says these results also seem to show that gratitude works independently of faith. Though gratitude is a substantial part of most religions, he says the benefits extend to the general population, regardless of faith or lack thereof. In light of his research, McCullough suggests that anyone can increase their sense of well-being and create positive social effects just from counting their blessings. We are coming to the time each year when we look to our own lives of blessing and consider how we might choose to support this community of faith with our time, presence, prayers and financial support. As we come now to the point where we make our promises to support and care for this community of faith, I invite you to come forward, bringing your pledge, not out of obligation, not out of pride, not out of fear, but out of gratitude. Gratitude that the love of God has touched your life. Gratitude that people before us kept the message alive in their lives and actions so that it could be passed on to us. Gratitude that you and I now have this moment when we can turn back to Jesus, leap for joy, and say “Thank you. O God, thank you so much for the blessings that have brought me to this place, to this understanding, to this people, to your love. Thank you for the opportunity you give me to grow in my understanding and spirit as I receive your love and grace and to pass it on to others. Thank you for this community that nurtures my growth. Thank you God, and thank you people of God.” You, you are the seed that will grow a renewed and vibrant church. Thank you. Amen.
CONNECTIONS • Outreach Committee meets today, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • David White will bring the message on Sunday, October 28. • All-church Potluck, Sunday, October 28, 11:30am, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Stewardship Campaign during the month of November. • Food Drive for Good Samaritan Food Bank of North Portland during November. • Rev. Karen Crooch will fill the pulpit on Sunday, November 4. • Reception of New Members, Sunday, November 11, during worship. • Education Committee meets Sunday, November 11, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Staff Parish Relations Committee meets Monday, November 12, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, November 12, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson hall. • Leadership Development Committee [Nominations] meets Tuesday, November 13, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • All-Church Charge Conference meets Sunday, November 18, 5:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • All-Church Thanksgiving Celebration, Thursday, November 22, 1pm gather; 2pm dinner. • Celebration Sunday, November 25.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Catholic tradition worship service, Second Saturdays, 5pm, Sanctuary, UPUMC. • Oregon-Idaho Reconciling United Methodists meet Saturday, November 10, 10am-2pm, Lebanon UMC.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop. • Portsmouth Neighborhood Association Board meets Tuesday, October 23, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • General Conference of the United Methodist Church meets April 23-May 2, 2008 in Fort Worth, TX. • Western Jurisdiction Conference of the United Methodist Church meets July 16-19, 2008 in Portland, OR. WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. STAYING IN TOUCH Edna Riddle, Sunrise Adult Care Center, 11945 SW Butner Rd., Portland OR 97225; 503-841-1295.
Harriet Bonhorst, Pioneer Tower, 515 P Street #202, Sacramento, CA 95814; phone: 1-916-446-4863.
Erica Martinez, 182 E Nevada St. Ashland, OR 97520. Cell phone: 1-503-791-3680.
Jeanne Pulliam, 8603 SE Causey Ave, Apt 202; Happy Valley, OR 97086-2604, Telephone 503-594-2539.
Aleena Sologar, 775 Cascade St. #1316, Oregon City, OR 97045, her son Jonathan’s home. Phone, 503-387-3813.
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN SCHOOL AGE. CELEBRATIONS FUND-RAISER Each Sunday, after church and during the coffee and fellowship time we will celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations by putting pennies, dimes, quarters, dollars or whatever you choose into a Celebrations bank. This is an effective fund-raiser. Let’s make it fun!
FOOD DRIVE IN NOVEMBER In Oregon we have an immediate and urgent need. Many of our food pantries are very low on food. Also the Oregon Food Bank has put out a call for food and dollar donations. The Bishop's Initiative Task Force invites churches near food pantries to start food drives. Others may want to raise funds to send. Again, the situation in Oregon is very critical. This requires immediate action.
UPUMC will hold our annual Fall food drive the entire month of November. We bring food to worship and then donate it to the Good Samaritan Food Bank of North Portland. It is our pride and joy to give all that we can, spending the month of November being grateful for all of our blessings.
WHERE IN THE WORLD? October 21, 2007 Matthew has a problem. He is schizophrenic. And he lives in a place where there is little help. Several United Methodists met Matthew last July in an awkward kind of way. Matthew is so hungry for human contact that he comes up to strangers, falls on his knees in front of them, bows his head, and touches them. Often people misunderstand, misinterpret the touch, and strike out at Matthew. So immediately after falling on his knees and reaching out, Matthew springs up again and runs in order to avoid being hit. As he dashes down the streets of Maua, Kenya, he talks to demons no one else can see. The last time the United Methodists saw Matthew, he was being chased by children with machetes and sticks. It is a lonely, fearful world in which he lives. Bad news: Your World Service dollars do nothing for Matthew right now. There are no social services. There is no street chaplain. There is no community clinic. We offer little to him right now other than startled, anxious responses. Good news: That is changing. Because of your giving to World Service and Advance Specials, the Maua Methodist Hospital is developing programs and outreach clinics that eventually will offer Matthew medication and hope. You are not making a difference in his life right now, but your support of the World Service apportionment is setting the stage so that down the road, when Matthew falls on his knees and reaches out with a touch-starved hand, your hand will reach out and lift Matthew up; up with a helping hand of grace. You are making a difference in the world. You are becoming the hand of God’s love, reaching out to the Matthew’s of the world. Thank you.—Rev. Jim Monroe KAREN CROOCH TO PREACH NOV 4 The Rev. Karen Crooch was the pastor at UPUMC from 1988-1995. The congregation decided to become a Reconciling United Methodist Church during her ministry. It also began the capitol campaign that led to the construction of Errol Stephenson Hall. After her time at UPUMC, Karen was the pastor at Newman UMC in Grants Pass, Western District Superintendent, and then pastor at Morningside UMC in Salem. She retired this year and has agreed to preach here at UPUMC on Sunday, November 4. Plan to attend and to welcome her back to her first charge in the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference.
NOVEMBER STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN It’s somehow fitting that we make November the month for two yearly campaigns. In this month of Thanksgiving, we attend to the needs of those who are struggling by collecting food for the Good Samaritan Food Bank of North Portland and we plan for our own financial support as a congregation during the next year. During November, we will focus worship on gratitude, giving, and growth, in our lives, in our community, and in our church. Each week, lay people will speak of what giving to the church means in their lives. On November 11, we will receive new members. On November 18, we will gather as an All Church Conference with our District Superintendent Bonnie Parr Philipson. On November 25, Celebration Sunday, we will make our pledges of prayers, presence, gifts, and service and follow worship with a celebration dinner.
WOMEN’S DIALOG ON IMMIGRATION The Women's Division of the UM General Board of Global Ministries endorsed a new faith-based campaign promoting non-racist dialogs on immigration. The campaign, initiated by the Chicago-based Center for New Community, will promote a national dialogue on immigration, civil rights and citizenship that's free of the intolerance and xenophobia that dominate current debates. Carol Barton, the division's co-executive secretary for racial justice, said, "We will partner with the campaign to engage UM Women members in local efforts to understand and challenge these hate groups." She also said extreme anti-immigrant organizations with roots in white supremacist hate groups have infiltrated the mainstream and helped shape the national debate on immigration. Endorsing the campaign is another step in UM Women's ongoing advocacy for immigrants and just immigration policy in response to the biblical mandate to love neighbors and to welcome the sojourner. Women's Division actions on immigration cite Leviticus 19:33-34: "When strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall not do them wrong. The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
University Park United Methodist Church (UPUMC) is located at 4775 N Lombard, Portland Oregon 97203. UPUMC is small, diverse, growing, laughing, committed, caring, serious, warm and REAL! We are a community that encourages each other as we grow in faith, in knowledge, in service, and in love of self, God and neighbor. At University Park we not only respect but welcome diversity in race, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental ability, economic status and profession. We believe all people are equal before God and entitled to Gods grace and abundance. Pastors: Rev. Dr. Jeanne Knepper & Rev. Marcia Hauer http://www.upumc.net
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