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June | 2007
Sabbath Worship Dt 5:12-14(NIV) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
Many of you will be glad to know this is the last installment in my series on worship (Woohoo!) Originally, I intended to address each of the “5 W’s” of journalistic integrity (Who, What, When, Where, Why – and sometimes How). But writing articles on worship during the Summer would be too drastically ironic even for me. Suffice it to say, the What and Where of worship would wind wonderfully together were I to wow you with my whimsical wondering (Sorry, that just happens sometimes). What is Worship? Any honest response to the power and glory of God, which takes place in community. Like prayer, worship can take myriad forms which we would often never consider as such. Where is Worship? Wherever two or three are gathered in His Name. Not when two or three Christians gather at a Spurs game. You can try to worship God at a Spurs game, but it’s tricky to worship God without spilling your nachos (and yes, that is why we don’t have nachos in church). Were we to venture onto the rocky terrain of “How to Worship”, one of the answers would have to be Sabbath. God is pretty clear on the whole Sabbath concept. We, however, are not. The Chosen People (Israel) kept the Sabbath as one of their greatest duties – Jesus got into a fair bit of trouble for breaking it, on occasion. We had the Sabbath all wrapped up in blue laws there for awhile, and then somebody figured out that most folks were more than willing to spend money on Sunday. Kawham! Now the malls are open 10—6. The question for us, it seems, is what might it mean to keep the Sabbath Holy, or to keep it at all. Should we move all our Sunday morning activities to Saturday night, so we can all rest on Sundays? Should we ask our Jewish brothers and sisters how they do it, and follow their example? Let me offer you three possibilities of how to keep the Sabbath, in varying degrees of depth (or craziness, depending upon your point of view). 1. You do no work on Sunday. If you are required by your job to work on Sunday, create a Sabbath for yourself on another day of the week. But it has to be a whole day. “Work” you have to define for yourself. Begin by cutting out job-related activity, either at the “office” or at home. Then expand your view to include financial work, housework and yes, even yard work. I know, I know, when would all that other stuff get done? I just wonder what would happen if we set the Sabbath in stone, and worked our week around it, instead of allowing our week to dictate what our Sabbath may or may not be. 2. Spend no money. That’s right, skip the movies, bypass HEB, avoid Wal-Mart at all costs. Fill up with gas on Friday. Pay the bills on Monday. Grocery shop at 11:00 pm on Tuesday (there’s never a wait in line). Philosophically, money is simply a medium of exchange for work. So if you’re spending, you are working. Besides, not spending money leads directly to this third idea. 3. Do nothing which causes another to work. Yikes! That’s a hard one. Even if we get past the spending money thing, what about all those other things we do which cause other people to work on the Sabbath? Watching Spurs games? The NFL (now I’m blaspheming, I know, but …)? Using electricity? Water? Going to the pool? Hey, I don’t have it all worked out. Just an idea, really. But wouldn’t it be something if all we did on the Sabbath was worship? That would keep it Holy. ~Father Jay
Are We There Yet? Ever go on a long trip with kids? In a car? For something like 20 hours? I’ve just done that very thing—and it was 20 hours each way, by the way. It was my 7-year-old daughter Emily’s first long trip, and I found myself wondering how many times a child could literally ask, “Are we there yet?” “Are we getting close?” Emily had never driven such a distance, so when I explained, “We’re going to be in this car for a long, long time,” how could I have expected her to grasp what that meant? Up until now, her longest drive was three hours to the beach. So she had no concrete concept of what ‘long, long’ means. When something is too hard for our children to fathom, we search for some foothold—some familiar something—to compare it to in order to help them grasp this new concept. We have to liken the unknown to the known to make it easier for them to understand. “Emily, we will be in this car for the same amount of time it takes to watch Sponge Bob 80 times in a row. With the commercials.” Now we’re getting somewhere. Understanding God is kind of the same thing, isn’t it? We are introduced to this unfathomable, enormous, invisible God, as adults, as children, and it’s only natural that we feel overwhelmed when we attempt to locate the foothold—the concrete thing that we do understand that we can attach to this God to make him reachable. Real. Tangible. We call him Father. King. Wonderful Counselor. We stick a name tag on him. Why? Human nature, maybe. We are looking for a way to relate to God, and to define him so that we can figure out who he is to us. The only danger in that comes when we think that who he is to us is all of who he is. When we pack him into the box that suits us. When we put limits on him in order to make believing in him…a little easier. A little more comfortable. Let’s face it: the whole idea of looking to, of listening to, of trusting this…this being that is unmatched by any other reality we’ll ever encounter is just plain hard. It’s as close to impossible as it gets. Enter faith. “When will we get there, Mom?” “Well, Emily, even though you don’t understand the time and distance involved, even though I can’t make you understand until you’ve experienced it, I can give you this one promise: we will get there.” She looks me in the eye. And decides to believe. Decides to trust. Simple as that—profound as that. The truth of the distance, of the hours it takes to get from Texas to Colorado, would be the same whether Emily believed me or not. But her choice to believe, to have faith in something she doesn’t understand, and frankly doubts, makes the miles go by a little easier. She relaxes and enjoys the ride. Hard as it is to grasp, God is not limited to Father, King, Counselor. He is all of those things put together, and infinitely more. He reveals himself in the man on the bus who gives up his place so someone else can sit. He is a brilliant sun slipping behind the mountains. He is the unsearchable beginning and end. He is forgiveness, grace, love. And however you define him, he is more than that. And still more. God goes right on existing, in the face of every doubt, every question, every faltering, stumbling human moment. So it comes down to this: believe or don’t. Faith is a choice, like Emily’s choice to sit back and enjoy the ride, believing we would get there eventually. Now, after experiencing what it means when her mother says a ‘long, long time,’ it will be easier for her to understand and have faith on the next trip. So it is with all of us. We experience a little bit of God, and our faith grows. That faith gives us momentum, and we are all the more equipped for the next trip. As we started down the road on the trip back home, Emily no longer wondered when we’d get there. She only asked, “Are we far from home?” She already knew the real answer, that even though the miles and the time are enormous, they are not unending. And that made me smile, at this journey, and all the journeys to come. At the building of faith through the living of life; at the realization that God never fails, and the way that simple understanding frees us to sit back and enjoy the ride, knowing we will get there. Are we far from home? Never far. ~Tracy Aubin, Editor
News About Shoes
Did We Stuff the Limo? Thank you to Father Jay and to those who came out to support the Shoes for Orphan Souls “Stuff the Limo” donation event! It was a lot of fun for a great cause! With God’s help and your support we raised $1,550 dollars and received 45 pairs of shoes and are ¼ of the way to the goal for June 30th. THANK YOU!
Keep Bringing in those Shoes! Shoe Drive Continues All This Month! As always, Shoes for Orphan Souls will continue to collect NEW shoes, socks, shoelaces & monetary donations through the month of June (or later if requested). Please note that 100% of monetary donations are used to provide comfort to “bare souls” in the US and in over 30 countries around the world. Call Kelly Follis at 303-0647 for more info, to make a donation, or to make arrangements to have us come speak to your civic club today! Or you may place items in the box located in the Narthex.
Hungry? Have a Taste of Seguin! A Taste of Seguin, to benefit Shoes for Orphan Souls, will take place on Thursday, June 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Silver Center. Tickets are $20 presale or $25 at the door. There are also raffle tickets for sale to support this great cause. They are $20 per ticket or 3/$50. You could win $1,000 cash, a limo ride to/from Dry Creek Comal Winery for a Tour and Taste party for 10, dinner for 20 from All Occasions, a Birthday Party Adventure Package for 12 at the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center, $200 cash, or an Extreme Action Birthday Party for 11 at ZDT’s. For tickets, contact Kelly Follis at 303-0647—or, just look for Kelly after the 10:30 service on June 3rd and 10th.
Among Our Family Welcome Friends! There are some new faces at St. Andrew’s, and we’re thrilled they’re here. ▪Gianna and Mike Strauss and their 3 darling daughters—Peyton, Bryn, and Avery, are now worshiping with us. Gianna is the daughter of Dr. & Mrs. Larry Spier, and grew up in Seguin. She was confirmed here when Father Aguilar was our rector. Mike works in Boerne as manager of the Chevrolet dealership. They have just moved into a new house near Rudeloff Road and Hwy. 46. ▪Mark & Diane Ballard moved here from Katy, Texas after spending many years at St. Mark’s Episcopal in Bay City. They arrived here in January, 2007. They have 2 daughters—Stephanie and Rebecca—both of whom are in college. Mark is a financial planner with Edward Jones, Investors. Diane loves to cook and has already said that she would like to be part of our volunteer receptionist team! ▪Mary Almond, the charming mother of Sarah Woolsey, has moved here and built a home on the property on Zion Hill, close to Alex, Sarah, and the kids. Mary has been an active Episcopalian at Trinity, Galveston for many years, serving as Senior Warden most recently. ▪Apologies to CARRI and TROY Herring for the misspelling of their names in last month’s Call. ▪Traveling this summer? Visiting other churches? Have exciting news you’d like to share with your parish family? We’d love to hear all about it! Email information to Tracy Aubin at Tracydonaub@aol.com.
A Note From Jack & Ruth Father Jack is home, and we want to thank all of you for your prayers, visits, cards, and for all of the other deeds of goodwill of which we were the recipients. God’s peace to all of you. ~Jack & Ruth
Write this Down for June:
Be sure to pick up your May-July issue of Forward Day by Day, available in McKeogh Hall and the Narthex. There will be no Sunday School on June 3rd. June 9th is St. Andrew’s Day to work on the latest Habitat for Humanity house. Strap on that tool belt (or not) and come join us! Summer Sunday School begins on June 10th. Father Wendel will be our visiting priest that day. Don’t miss the Taste of Seguin event benefiting Shoes for Orphan Souls on June 14th. Call Kelly Follis for information or tickets at 303-0647. Vestry members, we will have a regular meeting on June 17th. And happy Father’s Day! Time to hit the beach on June 21st through the 24th, at this year’s Family Camp in Port Aransas!!
Family Campers, Pack Your Bags! Family Camp is June 21st-24th. For last minute information or directions, call Clark Niles or check out www.mustangisland.org. See you in Port A!
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