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First Presbyterian Church of Ulysses
69 East Main Street
Trumansburg NY 14886
Dear friends in Christ,
First, I have a little personal excitement to share. Do you remember the bowl of about a dozen goldfish that was featured in worship under the tent last summer? Those little one-inch-long goldfish that reminded us of God creating the fish of the sea? Something wonderful has happened to them. Those inch-long goldfish were let loose in Paul’s and my swimming pool turned pond and are now 4-5 inches long and rather chubby! Their survival, let alone their growth, is far beyond our expectation or hope. It just goes to show what God can do with a few fish and a derelict swimming pool.
Now for a summary of “Section One: Get Up” from the book Claiming Resurrection in the Dying Church: Freedom beyond Survival by Anna B. Olson. My summary statement will be in italics.
Make Room: “Where will the future happen in your church?… Making room for the future is a powerful act of faith. It assumes that God is not finished… “
Olson makes the point that we must love the future more than the past to have a future. This can be painful.
“The future seems indifferent to the value of all we have been and tried to be, even to the gifts that we have offered with all our hearts…. Storing things that have passed beyond uselessness is and outward and visible sign of our love affair with the past…For many lifelong church members, the fear of throwing away accumulated stuff goes hand in hand with the fear of being discarded them-selves… it seems perilously close to trashing the love they contributed to the church—the trashing of “their” eras in favor of the era of some generation that doesn’t even seem to want or love the church…The distinction between throwing out stuff and throwing out people needs to be voiced loudly, explicitly and often.”
Loving God’s future is modeled after biblical love, not sentimental love.
“Biblical love is about offering, about sacrifice, about a willingness to see that which is our—even that which is us—disappear into something so large we are not able to comprehend it…Loving the future is a way to love God, to whom the future and all things in it belong.”
Map the Terrain: “Many churches have lost track of where we are. We get tangled up in who we are, and what we are doing, and worse yet, how we are doing. When we peek out it looks like a foreign land out there. Don’t hunker down…Be where you are…fully. Be with the people who are there with you….Too often we begin conversation about getting the neighbors to church with only the foggiest idea of who they are…. If your church started its life serving a predominantly or exclusively white community, … Be assured, …that any non-Anglo neighbors you have now will likely perceive your historically white church as ethnically specific—in other words not for them.”
The most important direction to look is OUT. We need to look out at our changed and changing community, walk the streets, talk to new people, and get to know our neighbors.
Turn Out Your Pockets: “Abundance is a trendy word in church-speak these days…For dying churches, reality is about scarcity. We recognize ourselves as dying because there is not enough of something we need to keep going—usually people, energy, money, or building resources…. We tend to hang on tighter and tighter to what we have left—to the things that stand between us and the end of church as we know it…It’s time to give it all up to God’s purpose and see what your meager resources can do. Risk the joy of seeing what wasn’t enough for you become more than enough for Jesus.”
Turning out pockets means constantly finding more things we are called to give, enjoying how God uses them, and thereby cultivate more courage to give what we are holding back.
Walking with you in faith,
Pastor Susan
Eastertide is an opportune time to refresh your daily personal devotions. At long last the “These Days” devotionals for April-June have arrived and are available in the Fellowship Hall.
But there are other devotional options that can come right into your email inbox. Check out some of my favorite devotionals:
The Herni Nouwen Society Daily Meditations
https://henrinouwen.org/meditation/ features a daily quote from Henri Nouwen (scholar, mystic and pastor) focused on faithful following of Christ.
Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations from the Center for Action and Contemplation
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/ is a little longer daily meditation meant to support marrying contemplation and social action.
Inward/Outward Together from Church of the Savior
https://inwardoutward.org This weekly devotional includes an inspirational quote and an accompanying bible verse.
Verse and Voice from Sojourners https://sojo.net/daily-wisdom Each weekday morning you will receive a short bible verse, a justice quote, and prayer.
Work of the People https://www.theworkofthepeople.com is a subscription to moving inspirational films. This service is not free but well worth the small cost.
Announcements
Soul Matters: Sunday April 21 at 7:00pm
This month’s topic is Transformation. When it comes to transformation, faith communities take a different tack.
It’s about breathing rather than becoming better.
It’s about patience not perfection.
It’s about depth not dominance.
It’s about attention not improvement.
Join “The Conversation” Tuesday April 23rd at 7:00pm in the Lange Room We will be discussing Part 3 of the book The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion is Seeking a Better Way to be Christian. Drawing from his work as global activist, pastor, and public theologian McLaren challenges readers to stop worrying, waiting, and indulging in nostalgia, and to embrace the powerful new understandings that are reshaping the church. In this book, he explores 3 profound shifts defining the change. McLaren invites readers to set out on the most significant spiritual pilgrimage of our time: to help Christianity become more Christian. You can purchase the book and a study guide Way of Life at BetterWorldBooks.com
Help Build a Community Labyrinth
Labyrinth Ground-Breaking:
Saturday May 4th 10:30am
Come put a shovel in the ground, enjoy some lemonade and hand out flyers about our labyrinth.
The Session has approved a labyrinth to be installed on the lawn next to the Fellowship Hall for the community and we need your help. Donate a brick or bricks (suggested donation $20) and, most importantly, a story of a spiritual landmark you experienced. The bricks will create the path of the labyrinth and the stories will be gathered into an inspirational booklet and available to all donors.
We will also need workers to install the labyrinth. If you are willing to help dig, measure, shovel, cut brick, provide refreshment for workers, recruit community service volunteers, etc, please contact Pastor Susan at revsjoseph@optonline.net.
See the slide show “building a labyrinth” at coffee hour.
Help Local Youth in Need: When you return your bottles and cans for refunds, you help the Caring and Benevolence Team support the Local Youth Initiatives like nurses’ emergency funds for students in need at the Trumansburg and South Seneca Schools. Return your bottles & cans to:
#1) the T-burg Shur-Save recycling and take the paper receipt to the service desk and have them put it in the Presbyterian Local Youth Initiative pouch.
#2) the Trumansburg Redemption Center (reopened) on Main Street next to the Post Office. Ask them to put the money in the Presbyterian “jar” and they will sort the bottles and cans. Thank you for your support!
GREETERS NEEDED: We are in urgent need of people willing to greet people coming to worship on Sunday mornings. We have several worshipers who need help coming into the building from the street. Cheerful, welcoming greeters are a very important first impression for visitors worshiping with us for the first time. If you are willing to serve, please contact Pastor Susan at revsjoseph@optonline.net or 732 648-6325. A list of greeters will be created with dates to serve assigned. Two greeters will be assigned for each week. If you are unable to serve on the date assigned you, you may call another greeter on the list to swap dates with and notify Pastor Susan. Your help will be much appreciated!!
Food Pantry News: On Monday, 4/15, the pantry served 78 families with 157 individuals (21 children, 79 adults, 57 seniors). These numbers included 5 new families, from Ithaca, T-burg, and Interlaken. This pantry was the first for the toothpaste and toothbrush giveaway. All products were well received.
Little Free Library: Our Little Library needs books. Thanks to generous book donors and to you who tidy & refill occasionally! Good adult, young adult and children’s books appreciated! Leave in library bin in kitchen, in the little library or on my driveway side back porch. We offer a variety for all ages.
