| August 2011 |
The Good News |
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Making it real She stands tall, with a very straight back. Her head is held high and her eyes look into the distance. Her features are noble, her face shows resolve, her jaw line suggests determination. There is no smile, but she does not look unkind. She wears a long, pleated robe: simple, elegant, timeless. At her feet lies a broken chain and her head is crowned with seven rays. One of her hands holds a tablet; the other is raised high and bears a torch. Can you guess who this is? … It is the Statue of Liberty - Lady Liberty, the neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. By choosing certain features rather than others, the creator of the sculpture, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, managed to convey strength, dignity, and greatness. If you had to design a statue that stands for “liberty” how would you do it? However, it is one thing to look at a statue and perceive the concept of liberty. It is quite something else to experience liberation. Jesus offered such an experience to people. And many other experiences as well: Justice. Hope. Compassion. Truthfulness. Kindness. Love. Humility. All these things became real through the way Jesus conducted himself; how he lived and how he died. The way he touched people, blessed them, fed them, healed them, consoled them - or even the way he confronted, challenged, and resisted them. We call this incarnation/embodiment. Embodiment is hugely important, because we human creatures are created not just with souls and spirits and minds but also with bodies. And just as Jesus was the embodiment of love and justice, etc, so the church is now the embodiment of Jesus. If people want to know Jesus, who he was, how he lived; if people want to see Jesus, experience him, and discover him, they are meant to experience him in their interaction with the church. For us who are members of a Christian community this is a tall order and a daunting task: are we really meant to give ourselves away as Jesus gave himself away? To be broken for the sake the healing of the world? To speak the truth in love, to console, but also to confront? Can we even do it? It seems impossible when we look at the motley crew that we are. How in the world can people see Jesus when they look at us? The embodiment of Jesus? Really? How can this be? Mary – whom we will remember on August 15 - asked the same question when she was told she would bear a son who would be the embodiment of God. How can this be? And in both cases the same answer is given: by the power of the Holy Spirit! With or without our efforts, and perhaps many times despite them, Christ is embodied in the church. What a strange and wonderful miracle! Whatever happened to the play area? Some may remember that one of the goals for my position is to facilitate an outreach, through the Sunday School, to the families in the area. To facilitate the outreach it we decided that a play area, available to the local kids, would be appropriate. So I began to look into what our options would be. I found a group, KaBOOM, who would help us fund, and build, the park. I set up an account with them and then contacted our insurance company. Our insurance company told me that we would need to have a 6 (six) foot cyclone fence with a locked gate or they would drop us. They also said that if we opened the area to the public, they would drop us. These requirements did not seem to be in-line with our goal of an outreach.. With that knowledge I looked for other options. I spoke with two churches that have a play area similar to what we want, and found out that they have a different insurance company then ours. I also visited our district 6 office, to see if there was the possibility of a partnership between CGS and the City of San Jose. The district staff stated that while there is an interest in a “pocket park” the subject would have to wait until the budget talks were completed before they could address the idea. Currently I am trying to schedule a meeting between Pr. Bea, myself, and a representative from SONA (Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Association), to see what avenue we need to take with District 6. Soon we will reach a decision point. We will need to either change insurance companies or pursue a partnership with the City of San Jose. I would prefer to work with the City of San Jose because it seems that this project could be a launching point for a great partnership between CGS and the City of San Jose. Regards, Pr. Jim Congratulations to Pr. Jim! Congregational meeting-August 14
Social Action Update
Social Action and Public Policy On our ELCA Churchwide website under the topic of Advocacy, the question is asked, “what if people in power could hear your voice?” As I shared during church in June, my first reaction to this question was… I would want to know what I was talking about and I bet you would too. Fortunately, this is precisely what the ministries of LAMN and LOPP help us do – learn about social issues of concern in today’s world and in our synod, helping us become better informed and more fully equipped when there is a need to voice our Lutheran perspective in the public realm. As Lutherans, we hold firm in the belief that through our baptism, we are called to be wise and active citizens, conscientious Christians, who speak for those who cannot speak for themselves -- defending human rights, working for freedom, peace, and justice, for all people and for our environment. Access more information about these ministries and become familiar with our Churchwide efforts, by going online to the following websites: Go to LOPPCAto learn about these partnerships:
All these ministries are working to shape public policy from the Lutheran perspective based on what we know to be the Good News we have experienced in our lives. In each area of effort, work is being done in areas of taxes, fiscal, and governmental policy with the hope of adding elements which reflect our Christian values spoken of in our Social Statements. Blessings to each of you as you move through the months ahead. New books in the Library!
Holy Ground-Wednesdays Choir is on summer break, but our faith community is still alive and busy. Please accept this invitation to use our Wednesday evening time to gather together. Each Wednesday starting at 7 p.m., we will meet at the church front door and then walk to the garden for our program. (We will lock the front door at 7:10, so if you are late, do call Rosy's cell at 408-242-3672). The initial ideas: walking meditation, hymn sing, crafts, sharing our favorite Bible stories, psalms, verses, reading modern works by Bonheoffer, are traditional circle themes. Our shared wisdom and experiences might lead us to gospel music, drumming, or, who knows? Please bring yourself, your friends, and some item you want to show us. Yes, the "show and tell" model works for adults too! Rosy McCloskey will bring some special souvenirs this Wednesday to start the activities. Questions? Facebook users can check our Christ the Good Shepherd group or contact Rosy at 408-242-3673 in the evenings or at rosymc@gmail.com
Second Mile Giving for August is Lutherans Concerned/North America We are all wonderfully created in the image our God. Regardless of our sexual orientation, we are all part of the full spectrum of God's human creation, a rainbow of diversity. Sexuality is a gift from our creator, not a choice we consciously make. Rather, a choice is the decision of how we express who we are. As Christians we believe we are empowered to be a model of the Gospel, loving our fellow human beings and promoting justice for all. All too often, churches have used scripture to condemn people for many things including their God-given nature. Even Lutheran churches, which emphasize grace, have been quick to judge. Lutherans Concerned helps people reconcile their spirituality and sexuality in an uplifting way. We seek to minister to people who the institutional church often shuns. We also seek to lead the church to live the Gospel to the fullest, affirming sexual diversity, as we all grow in faith and understanding of God's grace. We believe that God values and embraces each person as a beloved child, that the Spirit gives a diversity of gifts for the common good, and that Jesus Christ calls us to work for justice. The ministries of Lutherans Concerned / North America (LC/NA) embody, inspire, and support the acceptance and full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, their families, friends and allies, within the Lutheran communion and its ecumenical and global partners. Through our Reconciling in Christ Program, ministries, resources, events and alliances, LC/NA: builds community for worship, education and support; fosters welcome and acceptance in all Lutheran settings; advocates for the ecclesial changes necessary to ensure full participation in all rites, sacraments, and ministries of the Church; and invites all people into Gospel lives of authenticity, integrity and wholeness.
Heritage Services
Summer Suppers 2011
CGS's 40th anniversary
A special anniversary page will be posted on the CGS website where you can stay informed about the celebrations and how you can get involved throughout the year.
W.E.L.C.A. Calling all parents with children in school up through college. We will offer an expert panel of teachers who will open with issues for your information then introduce an interactive discussion session. We will meet at 11:45 in the Fireside Room; snacks will be served.
Hooray for Hollywood
San Jose Pride 2011
New Member orientation-September 17
Art Show-Portrait Art by Peter Moen, August 1-30 Our CGS Sunday School ** On June 11th, I attended the ELCA Youth Ministry Training at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Fremont. There were 25 people there from as far away as Reno, Nevada. What I learned was that ELCA has a full-blown Youth Ministries program (“Youth” are defined as teenagers). There is a national convention every 3 years of around 35,000 kids, ministers and mentors, and next summer it is in New Orleans. We don’t have any teenagers, so we don’t have to plan for that triennial event yet. There is an Elementary “camp meeting” at Mount Cross coming up in February that we plan for some of our older children to attend. One of the things I was reminded of at the training was that when we baptize, the congregation promises that they will support and pray for the child in their new life in Christ. In today’s world, what does that look like? My main take-away from the training was that CGS has plenty to consider as our Sunday School grows up, and the Youth Ministry begins. Our children are simply not being raised in the same type of world that we were. Most of these children will never know a time when hours were spent cooking a meal. They will not have to travel across town to talk to their friends in person, they will not need to be driven everywhere. They will have virtual “friends” from around the world. Their lunch money is safe; instead, they will be attacked by words, pictures and videos on Facebook, twitter and YouTube. Gangs are no longer the threat; sexual predators and personality controllers will have to be fended off. Our children’s substitute for unspecific fears, like we had during the Cold War, is replaced with being frightened about global warming. They want less designer clothes and their own cars; but they thirst for constant connectedness to the internet. What many of us would consider a substitute for interaction with people, such as twitter and Facebook, they consider actual interaction with people. One of the studies presented at the Synod training, a huge study conducted by ELCA, showed that today’s youth believe there is more than one God, not just God and Satan masquerading himself in all the other religions. Teenagers are not as suspicious of religion as we were. Instead of believing there is one God, they believe there are many co-existent High Beings who generally want the same happiness and code of ethics for us all. They don’t mind being the religion of their parents, and religious traditions are thought of as generally good. They are not concerned that they have a different faith from their best friend, and are not trying to convert anyone to their own religion. They aren’t rebelling or running toward anything. Instead they are managing their very complicated, very fabricated “on-line” lives and “families.” The Sierra Pacific Synod, and ELCA in general, has excellent programming for Youth Ministries. We can make use of information that ELCA Youth Ministries has diligently accumulated and summarized for us. The ELCA’s large studies to discover what the youth of this new millennium are like and what their concerns are for the future will be useful to educating us about the world today—because it is not obvious to us! These studies found that their worlds are radically different from our own. Where we grew up trying to understand ourselves from day to day, these teenagers have 4 or 5 Facebook identities and are trying on different personas, trying to find the right person to be; online first, and then extending into the physical world. They stage every activity where they will meet others face to face by twittering to everyone what they are wearing, how they are feeling, what they hope will not happen to them, and who they want to be with the most. Their peers will be considered ‘nice’ if they follow the script, and ‘mean’ or ‘rude’ if they do not. Trying to drop spirituality into that is very hard to get one’s head around. Ignoring the realities of their text-message/twitter/Facebook world will make our Youth Ministry irrelevant. What do we do from here? We start listening in to the new language and mechanisms by way of the ELCA Youth Ministries. We start checking out its conventions and trainings, watching the videos, cross checking the information with our own children. In their baptism, we made a promise to our children. We don’t get to sit back and talk about how our parents did it, or how we did it when the world was so much different than it is today. We will have to aggressively educate ourselves and learn how to communicate and interact in new ways. We have to figure out how to blend the old with the new, and we should pray now for grace for our teenagers, as they navigate growing up during a social revolution. Its okay if we are nervous for ourselves and the children, but God’s grace has survived world wars and social disruption in the past and it will do so now. Birthdays
Anniversaries
Calendar of events
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August Good News In this issue: Making it real |
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The Good News e-Version August 2011 If you wish to subscribe to this newsletter, email us here. Our mailing address is: 1550 Meridian Ave San Jose, CA 95125 Our telephone: 408-266-8022 Copyright (C) 2011 Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church All rights reserved. |
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Some of you may be asking that question; I know I am. But before I address where we are, let me outline where we have been.
We offer our heartfelt congratulations to Pastor Jim on his graduation from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. It has been a long road for him, and we are thrilled for him and his family on this huge accomplishment. 
The first part of our Summer of Comfort which was a global project has been completed. We collected and sent 43 personal care kits to Lutheran World Relief. Each kit contained a bath towel, two bars of soap, a toothbrush and a nail clipper. They add toothpaste when the kits are given out. LWR sends thousands of kits a year to disaster areas. Thanks to all of you who helped with this endeavor. 
The second part is a local project we call “Undies Sundays”. We are collecting new underwear and socks for low income school children ages 5 to 16. They will be distributed by Sacred Heart Community Center. So far we are having a very good response. You’ll find a basket for collection in the narthex. 
Check out all the new books we recently added to the CGS Library. There are books for all; adults, kids, and Spanish language too! Go our 
What is "Holy Ground"? Moses and the Burning Bush, Elijah's visions, Jacob's Ladder, Jerusalem, Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, our church sanctuary (Latin root Sanctus), where we are now, where YOU are now, or all of the above.
The members of and friends of CGS come from a rich variety of worship traditions, including many non-Lutheran ones. Even Lutheran worship traditions are much more diverse than many realize. Join us for the next Heritage service scheduled for August 21. These services probide an opportunity for us to share elements of our liturgical heritage that we find spiritually nourishing. If you'd like us to incorporate a particular liturgy, order of worship, or hymn you dondly remember in one of these services, or would like to help plan one or more services, please contact Randy P. or Janet K.
Christ the Good Shepherd marks its 40th anniversary this year. The anniversary committee is planning a series of celebrations and activities that will kick-off in September to commemorate the ministry of CGS. More details will be coming soon. However, we need your assistance now in the following ways:
The August WELCA meeting will be a very special occasion since it is open to the entire congregation!
We offer periodic orientation events where we give people a tour of the church, acquaint them with the current ministry of CGS, give a brief overview of how our ministry relates to the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and address any questions you may have. The orientation lasts 4 hours; refreshments will be served. I highly recommend that all new and returning friends of CGS attend this orientation event. The next CGS orientation will be held on September 17th at 9am.
