TEACH US TO PRAY Psalm 85; Luke 11:1-13 July 29, 2007
When Andrea was a girl and I was a busy parent, working, going to school, trying to read what I needed to read for class and citizenship, it was often the case that she would come into the living room and start telling me about something that was going on or important in her life. She would talk, impassioned, and the paper would remain up in front of my face. Finally, exasperated, she would protest, “Mom, you’re not listening to me!” And then I, in all smugness, would recite back to her exactly what she had said, word for word, with all the inflections exactly so, right up to the “Mom, you’re not listening to me.” She would walk off, knowing that she was right, and also knowing that I could play games with the best of them. For the fact of the matter was, in fact, that I wasn’t listening. I was playing the conversation back like something that had been recorded on tape, but I was not present in it, I was not affected by it, I was not there for her. These many years later, I am embarrassed by my pretense of presence—and in some ways, I still have a lot to learn about how to really be present in an encounter with others, or with God.
I was reminded of this when our adult Sunday School class decided to divide into prayer teams of two. For a week, and then for another week, we would covenant to pray daily, and to talk with each other about the experience. My partner was Jeff. In our first conversation, we were to decide and share with each other when we would pray each day. “That’s easy,” I thought, “I’ll pray while I exercise.” As part of my continuing practice of reclaiming physical health, I’m committed to exercising each day. Two or three days a week, I go to a facility where I use machines and guidance to develop strength and flexibility. Most of other days I ride my exercise bicycle in the morning. I’d just do my praying in the same time, legs pumping or pushing on the leg press, mind with God.
Surprise!—It was a crock. Yes, there had been a number of times, while riding the bicycle or walking, when my mind had turned to prayerful reflection, sometimes leading me to helpful insights or commitments. But to think that it could work like that—I was treating God just as I had treated Andrea so many years before. I’m too busy to give you my full attention—here, how about a scrap, along with my clever demonstration that I am really here for you! I wasn’t. Mostly, what I learned in that week was how slipshod and arrogant I was about the practice of prayer. It was pretty embarrassing when we gathered a week later and my turn came to report back on my week of prayer. All my thinking to myself—I decided years ago to devote my life to God’s will, I intend to live my life wrapped in daily on-going prayer, I’m a pastor, for crying out loud—it all sounded pretty phony when I looked at the reality of my attempts at prayer that week.
And so, I started over the next week. This time, I tried a time of quiet, but with a sort of a question in my mind, “How should I pray?” I felt a kind of leadership, to pick two of you to hold close in an attitude of care and concern for a while. No promises, just a leading to be intentional about active caring presence. I am trying to live into that call, and it feels good, right. I have no clear idea where it will lead, but I’m willing to keep listening.
It was with this experience that I came to today’s gospel passage, the disciples coming to Jesus and asking him, “Lord, teach us to pray, like John taught his disciples to pray.”
The question sprang from some cultural beliefs about the role of the religious leader and the nature of prayer. Some of these are rooted in our long history as human communities existing in the presence of powers we can neither understand not control.
If we go back in time to the earliest periods of human culture, we find people who lived in a world awash with mystery and beauty and terrifying power. Hunters who gathered around fires in caves tried to capture the powers present in the animals they hunted by painting the forms of those animals on the cave walls and watching them seem to move and run in the flickering light from the camp fire. The power of mystery, of life, the holy, uncontainable power was resident, they believed, in everything around them—in the animals with their graceful strong legs, in the shelter of trees, and the clouds that carried water and shade, in the sun that returned again after the low light of winter. Everything was sacred, holy, other and brother to them. To pray was to be humble and connected and grateful, a way of living in grace and gratitude. God came to them as brother sun and sister antelope, as the awesome and frightening holy power of creation, life and death.
If we look forward in human history, we come to the time when the first agricultural revolution led to the building of barns to hold surplus grain, large herds, and seeds for the next year. Now people gathered into cities and some among them began to specialize, taking up trades relying on currency for their sustenance. People in these new towns no longer lived so elementally connected to the animals of prey, to the spontaneous growth of nutritious plants in the fields and forests. Agricultural societies had new needs, for stability, for good crops, for peace among peoples, for reliable distribution of wealth. Some became rulers, judges, adjudicators in disputes. And, if that which was holy and other took the form of nature and the power of the natural world for the hunter/gatherer, in the new cities people identified power with rule, with authority over distribution, with wealth. The gods of the hunt fell away, and God took on new names, King, Lord, Ruler, Master of the Universe. Much of the language of the Psalms comes out of this worldview, which is why the psalms so often seem to be pleading with a distant and tremendously powerful but capricious ruler, pleading that that ruler would grant humans blessing and favor. In these times, the persons who were set apart as religious leaders were expected to learn the special words and rituals that would capture the attention of the gods and lead to favor and blessing for the one praying. The words of the disciples, “Teach us to pray,” heard in this context, mean, “Train us to know the rituals that will influence the behavior of the gods, teach us the special words that will control what sometimes seems to be the capriciousness of the gods, or of God.”
Teach us to pray, take us into your secret inner circle of priests who know how to manipulate the gods into pleasing human beings. Teach us the rituals and fancy words and sacraments of power, so that we might use them to attract favor and blessing from the gods, thus demonstrating our power to influence the gods and bring blessing to the patrons who might be willing to support us as religious leaders. Lord, teach us the magic, powerful, secret words and rituals of power and prayer.
And Jesus responded with such simple words. When you pray, pray a simple prayer, one that the editorial board of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible translate as “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” Eugene Peterson, translator of the version of scripture called The Message, brings the words to us in this way: “Father, reveal who you are. Set the world right. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.” Both of these translations hint at but eventually avoid the most radical part of Jesus’ prayer. Jesus did not use a word that is the equivalent of what we mean when we say “Father,” with all its trappings of patriarchal power and cultural authority. His word was “Abba,” a word more accurately translated as “Papa,” or “Daddy.” This is what Jesus was telling his followers: “It’s not about magical sacred words. It’s about relationship. God is not some distant power, some ruler or king or lord or master of the universe. God is a God who loves you, loves you like a father loves his child.” I’m pretty sure, given the meaning that Jesus was trying to convey, that he would be more frustrated if by our choice to call God “Father” with a capital F than he would be if we were to call God “Mama.” What he was after was a word that captures that relationship of tender intimacy and care. Approach God with the same trusting manner that a small child uses to approach his Mama, her Papa. Be straightforward and simple; ask for what you need; believe that God will respond like a loving parent, listening, loving, giving good things, being patient and intimate and always present. Believe this is who God is, and lay your heart’s desire open. And if it seems that God isn’t listening, persist, knowing that God really does love you and desire good for you.
The words convict me. I had been distant as a parent and I prayed like someone who expects God to be equally distant and distracted—and who would respond with just that kind of detached, uninvolved distance. “Sure God, I’m here, multitasking as I pray. Wouldn’t want to be wasting time, you know.”
I think—or maybe I hope—that God shook her head, chuckled deeply in his throat, and said something like, “Okay, are you ready to try again? Let’s see if we can spend some time together, talking, listening, being glad to be in each other’s presence.” And then it came to me, another image, that God wants to be with us, in relationship, like the parent I am now who longs to spend time with my daughter, like two old lovers who sometimes talk and sometimes listen and sometimes just spend time together, quiet or busy, but fully aware of and present to each other, living together, in harmony.
There is a story about Mother Teresa, who was being interviewed about her remark that she prayed daily. The reporter asked, “What do you say to God?” Mother Teresa replied, “I don’t say anything. I listen.” “Well then,” continued the reporter, “What does God say to you?” “God doesn’t say anything,” she replied, “God listens.” Confused, the reporter asked, “How can you pray when both you and God do nothing but listen?” “Ah,” she replied, “explaining this would take far longer than you have time for.”
Prayer is not something we explain. It is something we do, wholeheartedly or not at all. And whether we do it or not makes all the difference.
CONNECTIONS UPUMC • Unbinding the Gospel, Adult Sunday School meets Summer Sundays, 11:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Orientation meeting for Cruise, Wednesday, August 1, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • All-church Beach Retreat at Camp Magruder, Friday-Sunday, August 3-5. See article and sign up. • Third Annual North Portland Pride Festival, Sunday, August 12, Noon-4pm, UPUMC. • Staff-Parish Relations Committee meets Monday, August 13, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, August 13, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Finance Committee meets Tuesday, August 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • UMW Bake Sale, Sunday, August 19, after church. • Education Committee meets Sunday, August 19, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Lunch Bunch meets Tuesday, August 21, 12:30pm, Maria’s. • Outreach Committee meets Sunday, August 26, after the potluck, Narthex.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Nature Detectives Camp for our Sunday School Children, August 8-11, Suttle Lake Camp.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • UPUMC FUNd-raising Cruise, September 16-23, 2007. Talk to Betty Cruson to sign up. • All-church Charge Conference, Sunday, November 18, 4pm.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Men’s Group, Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. • Morrison Center Program, Thursdays 5-9pm, beginning June 21. 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.
HOLDING IN PRAYER Dick Burdon—recovering from surgery on 7/16—at home. Jerry Culver—medical testing—at home. Carolyn Hammett—recovering from surgery—at home. Phil Herbach—recovering from hip surgery on 7/17—in rehab.
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
SUNDAY CONCERTS IN MCCOY PARK During July, there will be free Sunday concerts at the park, 6-8pm. The schedule is: July 29—Portland Festival Symphony Orchestra
PENCILS FOR KIDS Do you remember the excitement of getting your new school supplies each fall to start the new school year? Do you know that buying school supplies is a challenge for many of the families of school children in North Portland? There are 4,384 children enrolled in North Portland Public Schools in the Roosevelt cluster, the area UPUMC is in. We are a big part of a neighborhood effort to make sure that every one of those students starts school with the school supplies they need. Our own Lisa Horne is coordinating the collection of school supplies. Our part of that grand adventure is to collect as many pencils as we can. In 2005, we collected over 1800 pencils. Last year, we more than doubled that, gathering 4, 584 pencils. Could we plan to gather 8,768 pencils this year? That would be enough pencils to make sure that every school child in our area started school with at least 2 pencils. Watch for the back to school sales. Bring them to the altar as our gift to God and to the kids of our community. Let’s show ourselves, once again, that we are the church that can, and does. We will collect through July and most of August before making sure that they get to the children for school..
ALL CHURCH BEACH RETREAT AUG 3-5 Camp Magruder had some time available to groups, and several people asked if it would be possible for us to plan an all-church retreat on short notice. I spoke with the office manager at the camp and have reserved the weekend of Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5. Beutler Hall has two big sleeping rooms with bunkbeds, a large central room, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a shower. All of the rooms are on one level. The cost for the retreat is $100 per person, which includes all food and lodging. There will be scholarship help available, so do not let the cost deter you. We do all of our own cooking and we provide our own bedding, towels and toiletries. This is a time away to rest, relax, play and get to know one another better. There is a sign-up sheet on the Narthex bulletin board. Please sign up now. There is some scholarship assistance available. Let me know if you could use some help.—Marcia
CHANGED E-ADDRESS Claudia Webster, who moved to Hawaii, has a new e-address:
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN SCHOOL AGE. A COOL IDEA Perhaps you’ve noticed the purple fans at the ends of the pew rows, the ones that have the words of the Champoeg Declaration on the front. That declaration was drafted by Oregon-Idaho Reconciling United Methodists at an annual picnic at Champoeg State Park. It reads: We, the ___________ United Methodist church, together with other congregations of the Oregon-Idaho Annual conference of the United Methodist church, declare that persons of all ages, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, economic conditions, marital status, mental or physical abilities are welcome to attend, join, and participate fully in the life of our congregation.
University Park United Methodist church was the first one to sign the Champoeg Declaration. Twenty-two churches in the conference have since signed. The full list, at this point, is: University Park UMC – Portland Madras UMC Metanoia Peace Community UMC – Portland Vermont Hills UMC – Portland St. Paul's UMC – Milwaukie OR Rainier UMC Baker UMC Clatskanie UMC First UMC Salem Morningside UMC – Salem Rockwood UMC – Portland Fremont UMC – Portland Tillamook UMC Asbury UMC - Hood River OR Junction City UMC LaGrande UMC Cherry Park UMC – Portland Klamath Falls UMC Wilshire UMC/Native American Fellowship – Portland First UMC Portland Lebanon UMC Hughes Memorial UMC – Portland Christ’s Church Methodist and Presbyterian United – Monmouth OR
Taken together as list and cooling device, the fans represent some of the best of welcoming hospitality. Enjoy them. Stay cool.
BIRTHDAYS FUND-RAISER A July birthday fund-raiser brought in gifts of $410. Beginning with the first Sunday in August, we will have a birthday bank to celebrate our own and each other’s birthdays with gifts of pennies, dimes, quarters, dollars or ? to mark the number of years. We will celebrate birthdays in the Narthex right after worship, while people are visiting and getting coffee. Let’s make it fun!
Bishop John Shelby Spong on his time with Dignity International
Written by JKnepper
Sunday, 22 July 2007
On Spending Three Days with DignityUSA
Every prejudice that is publicly debated is already dying, so this victory is inevitable. Diehard, retrogressive elements in every Christian Church lose ground daily. They will not prevail in this struggle. Christians cannot continue to sing, "Just as I am without one plea, O Lamb of God, I come," and not live out that invitation. The embarrassment of the Christian Church in our time will not result from the feared split over homosexuality; it will result rather from those Christian leaders who continue to value unity and institutional peace over truth and justice. Those are the people destined to discover that they do not, cannot and will not own the future. That future will belong to DignityUSA, to John McNeill, Sister Jeannine, Daniel Helminiak and their counterparts in every Christian tradition, who act without fear to make the Christian Church whole and to call it to be a sign of the Kingdom of God in our divided world. Indeed we live today at the dawn of a new era.
The Better Way Amos 8:1-12, Psalm 52, Luke 10:38-42 July 22, 2007 Rev. Marcia J. Hauer
I was listening to “Fresh Air” the other day when Terry Gross interviewed Adam Shankman, who directed and choreographed the latest movie version of “Hairspray.” It’s a campy tale of a teenager who wants to dance on one of the dance shows that were popular in the late 50’s and 60’s—an “American Bandstand” sort of program. In the first movie version, Divine, a 300+ pound transvestite, played Edna Turnblad, the overprotective mother in the piece. In the Broadway musical version, Harvey Fierstein, a very out gay man, played the part. So it was intriguing to me to hear the answer when Terry Gross asked Adam Shankman why he had cast John Travolta, a straight, leading man, in the part. His answer was lengthy, speaking about the qualities that Divine had and how Harvey Fierstein played the part. Then he said that Edna’s character is written to tweak our ideas about what is and how things ought to be, and who better to play the part than someone no one would expect to be playing a woman. That bit of casting distorts our ideas about what how things are and how they ought to be.
I paid attention to this interview because the scripture lessons this morning are also about messing with the status quo and our ideas about what ought to be in the world. Amos, who lived in the mid to late 8th century BCE, was a Judean shepherd speaking to Israel’s elite. During the time of Amos’ prophetic witness, Jeroboam was the king of Israel and Uzziah the king of Judah. In Israel, the times were good. This was the era of Israel’s greatest prosperity and geographic expansion. Everything looked really good until one looked more carefully. Israel was, truly, a basket of summer fruit that was rotten in the inside but looked good on the surface.
God called Amos to go to Israel to preach judgment to the king, the priests and to the people who were benefiting from the prosperity of the country, but benefiting at the expense of the poor. You can imagine how popular his message was. Amos was, after al, a foreigner and a shepherd. The people of Israel were people who wanted all the trappings of the good life, but none of the responsibilities. They wanted to be able to make money at the expense of the poor and the needy in their midst—people who were all but invisible to them. These were people who wanted to worship and praise, but who were not interested in the hard parts of their religion. They wanted to put God in a human sized box and God was having nothing of it.
Amos’ mission was to call into question conventional wisdom and to speak God’s truth. Being a prophet is a difficult, unpopular job. Amos felt compelled to give a message that no one, even the priests and religious officials, were willing to hear. He wanted them to know that God was unhappy and that Assyria was on the verge of destroying them. He wanted them to be aware that their behavior toward the poor was at the heart of God’s judgment. It would have been difficult to hear and easy to ignore. It’s a message we, also, find difficult to hear and easy to ignore.
Amos was there to upset the status quo, and Jesus was from that same prophetic lineage. He had a lot to say about the status quo of his day, as well. In our Gospel lesson we find Martha doing the things that a woman of her time and place would have been expected to do in order to offer hospitality to travelers and Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to what he had to say. Mary was not doing what would have been expected of her. Martha was unhappy about having to do the work alone, complained to Jesus who that Mary had chosen the better way. What, is it better to sit and listen (there is no record of Mary’s participation in the discussion) than to do the things necessary to offer hospitality? Is it better to live the contemplative life than to live an active one? I suspect that the message here is not so simple. After all, even contemplative people need to eat and wear clean clothing. I suspect that both sorts of lives are to be valued, but that doing without contemplation, that is faith without works, is not the way to live any more than being wrapped up in the acquisition of the things that society deems valuable but which don’t lead to lasting joy is.
Jesus called from the margins. He advocated reform in religious life and he advocated reform in the governance of Rome. That is, he challenged people to live the faith they professed. He told the religious leadership that they were wrong to separate the way they lived their lives from the words they studied. He told the people that they needed to care for the widow and the orphan, that they needed to put others needs ahead of their wants. He told them that it’s difficult to be part of the Kingdom of God if you are a rich person. His message threatened the status quo of his time and the Romans crucified him as his reward. His followers, to a greater or lesser extent, lived on the margins of their society enduring horrible persecution up until the 4th century when Constantine claimed the faith as the official religion of Rome.
In our world, we are the rich folks that the prophets called to account. We like our comfort. We like fine things. We’re susceptible to the advertisers wanting us to buy the latest and greatest. We ooh and aah over the new things our neighbors show off and over the vacations they take. We watch celebrities and often want to emulate their life styles. In many ways, we’ve just like the people to whom Amos was speaking. How can I say that, you might ask. We’re good people. We donate to charity and to our church. We try to do the right thing. All that is true and was probably true for most of the people of Amos’ time, as well. We don’t mean to do harm to our neighbors, but we do it none-the-less. We are interested in getting ahead, in becoming rich, in living the good life, the comfortable life.
One commentator talked about having spent several months in Nicaragua living in the home of a woman who worked for a maquiladora. “She got about 30 cents for a blouse, and she could make two per hour and she worked about 12 hours a day on a treadle powered sewing machine. People would bring [her, and her co-workers] the cloth and even the labels for the garments. The law kept her or others from selling their wares inside the country. They were prohibited from organizing and the International corps said that if anyone tried to raise their prices, they would relocate to Asia. We don't have to/want to know the details but we love it when blouses are $5.99.“ I suppose that any work in such circumstances is better than no work, but I believe that we have a responsibility to see to it that women and men earn a living wage no matter where they live. When we go for the cheap goods, we are not living out that responsibility.
We don’t like it when we read what the prophets have to say to us. We don’t like the message. We want to believe that what we do is enough. There’s a song that I remember singing as a kid. We sang it a couple of weeks ago. “Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart, in my heart. Lord, I want to be like Jesus, in my heart.” Is that really true? Do any of us really want to live a life that leads to crucifixion because what we have to say so upsets the status quo that those in power are threatened by the message? Do we really want to be asked to leave the places where we stop, because we make other people uncomfortable? Can we truly call ourselves disciples of Jesus if we don’t? We church folks really want to be nice. We want to love everyone and to have everyone love us. We are called to build the realm of God, and the realm of God is where everyone has enough and no one has too much. It’s where people are all valued for their gifts and not for what they can do for us. It’s where Martha’s hospitality is balanced with Mary’s contemplation and where the poor are the ones who count the most. It’s a challenge to us to live that way. It’s a difficult road, but if we are to be the Church, it’s a road we have to travel. Among the things we promise at our baptism in the United Methodist Church is that we “accept the freedom and power God gives [us] to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.” Do you, do any of us really believe that God gives us the power to do all that. Do any of us believe that how we live our lives, our relationship to money and possessions has an effect on resisting evil and injustice? I believe that we not only have the power and the freedom, we have the mandate from God to do just that. Do you?
CONNECTIONS UPUMC • Unbinding the Gospel, Adult Sunday School meets Summer Sundays, 11:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • All church Potluck, Sunday, July 29, after worship. • All-church Beach Retreat at Camp Magruder, Friday-Sunday, August 3-5. See article and sign up.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Nature Detectives Camp for our Sunday School Children, August 8-11, Suttle Lake Camp.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop. • Portsmouth Neighborhood Association Event, Walking the Neighborhood, Tuesday, July 24, 7pm, Clarendon Elementary School.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • Orientation meeting for Cruise, Wednesday, August 1, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Third Annual North Portland Pride Festival, Sunday, August 12, Noon-4pm, UPUMC. • UPUMC FUNd-raising Cruise, September 16-23, 2007. Talk to Betty Cruson to sign up.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Men’s Group, Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. • Morrison Center Program, Thursdays 5-9pm, beginning June 21.
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.
HOLDING IN PRAYER Dick Burdon—recovering from surgery on 7/16—at home. Jerry Culver—medical testing—at home. Carolyn Hammett—recovering from surgery—at home. Phil Herbach—recovering from surgery on 7/17—at Emanuel Hospital.
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
SUNDAY CONCERTS IN MCCOY PARK During July, there will be free Sunday concerts at the park, 6-8pm. The schedule is: July 22—The Fabulous Essentials, classic rock July 29—Portland Festival Symphony Orchestra
PENCILS FOR KIDS Do you remember the excitement of getting your new school supplies each fall to start the new school year? Do you know that buying school supplies is a challenge for many of the families of school children in North Portland? There are 4,384 children enrolled in North Portland Public Schools in the Roosevelt cluster, the area UPUMC is in. We are a big part of a neighborhood effort to make sure that every one of those students starts school with the school supplies they need. Our own Lisa Horne is coordinating the collection of school supplies. Our part of that grand adventure is to collect as many pencils as we can. Watch for the back to school sales and start to collect those pencils. Bring them to the altar as our gift to God and to the kids of our community. Let’s show ourselves, once again, that we are the church that can, and does. We will collect through July and the first part of August.
WALK AND WIN AN IPOD The Portsmouth Neighborhood Association will host a Neighborhood walk on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 7pm. Residents will walk through the neighborhood to discuss our community assets and what we’d like to see improved. Walkers will be joined by City Commissioner Sam Adams, Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder, County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, State Representative Tina Kotek and Crime Prevention Coordinator Havilah Ferschwilder. Afterwards, there will be a drawing for an IPOD Nano for a Portsmouth resident. For more information, talk to Scott Jensen.
ALL CHURCH BEACH RETREAT AUG 3-5 Camp Magruder had some time available to groups, and several people asked if it would be possible for us to plan an all-church retreat on short notice. I spoke with the office manager at the camp and have reserved the weekend of Friday, August 3 to Sunday, August 5. Beutler Hall has two big sleeping rooms with bunkbeds, a large central room, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a shower. All of the rooms are on one level. The cost for the retreat is $100 per person, which includes all food and lodging. There will be scholarship help available, so do not let the cost deter you. We do all of our own cooking and we provide our own bedding, towels and toiletries. This is a time away to rest, relax, play and get to know one another better. There is a sign-up sheet on the Narthex bulletin board. Please sign up now. There is some scholarship assistance available. Let me know if you could use some help.—Marcia
CHANGED E-ADDRESS Claudia Webster, who moved to Hawaii, has a new e-address:
THE LIVING BIBLE
Bev Read submitted this piece to UP-words. If you like readings like this, you can find them on the internet at: http://www.promiseofgod.com/.
His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This literally was his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is brilliant, with a potential to go far. He also became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how to go about it.
One Sunday Bill decided to go across the street to attend church. He walks in with wild hair, no shoes, jeans and one of his T-shirts on.
The service had already started, so Bill quietly starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now, people are really getting a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit. When he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet next to a row.
By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick. Trying hard to concentrate on his sermon, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A well dressed man, very elegant, very dignified, and walks with a cane. As he starts walking toward Bill, everyone is saying to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?
It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The minister hasn't been able continue with his sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.
As all eyes watched, they saw this elderly man drop his cane on the floor, and with great difficulty, lower himself down and sit next to Bill.
Everyone is struck with emotion. And as the minister regains control, he starts by saying... "What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget. Reach out a welcoming hand. Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible, some people will ever read".
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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