July 2020 • Volume 22, Number 4
In the Image of God: 3 Crossword Fun: 8 Meet Avery: 10 Generosity: 12
The Message this month: Contents:
Contributors:
Christ Church Staff: The Rev. Patrick Gahan, Rector
From Our Rector ..............................3
The Rev. Scott Kitayama, Associate Rector
Music Ministry ................................8 Youth Ministry ...............................10
The Rev. Brien Koehler, Associate Rector for Mission and Formation
Family Ministry .............................11
The Rev. Justin Lindstrom, Associate Rector for Community Formation
Church Life ....................................12
PATRICK GAHAN
Carol Miller, Pastoral Care Administrator Halleta Heinrich, Director of Family Ministry
Great Commission...........................13
Lily Fenton, Nursery Director
Page Turners...................................14
Amy Case, Youth Minister
Photo Album...................................15
Susan Lindstrom, Director of College Ministry JOSH BENNINGER
Jennifer Holloway, Assistant Music Director
Cover photo: Susanna Kitayama Back cover photo: Gretchen Duggan
Charissa Fenton, Director of Children’s Music & Receptionist
Editor: Gretchen Duggan
Live Stream Services:
www.cecsa.org/live-stream or www.facebook.com/ChristChurchSATX/live
Robert Hanley, Director of Campus Operations Darla Nelson, Office Manager
HALLETA HEINRICH
Donna Franco, Financial Manager Gretchen Comuzzi Duggan, Director of Communications
music begins 15 minutes before the service
11:00 a.m. Sundays
Monica Elliott, Executive Assistant to the Rector
6:30 p.m. Wednesdays
Elizabeth Martinez, Kitchen Manager AMY CASE
Current Services:
Robert Vallejo, Facilities Manager Rudy Segovia, Hospitality Manager
Sunday 9:00 a.m. on the lawn music begins at 8:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite II Christian Education, Small groups and Bible studies for Children, Youth, and Adults are offered via Zoom
Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist
Joe Garcia, Sexton
JUSTIN LINDSTROM
2020 Vestry: Darrell Jones, Senior Warden Barbara Black, Junior Warden Andy Anderson
Sudie Holshouser
Lisa Blonkvist
Andy Kerr
Catherine de Marigny David McArthur
Visit us on-line at www.cecsa.org 2
Meagan Desbrow
Margaret Pape
Tobin Hays
Robert Rogers
What Do We Want for Our children? by Patrick Gahan
Kay and I were stepping sprightly
along a path at Brackenridge Park. The unexpected chill of a mid-April day accelerated our walk under the bright Texas cobalt sky and gave us a glimmer of hope while still deep in the throes of COVID-19. Side by side, holding hands off and on, we had no trouble keeping the ten feet between us and those we encountered in the sprawling verdant park. “Good morning,” we offered in a sort of joint staccato to each person we passed. Most, however, would not even look at us, passing us by like soldiers in rigid, cheerless formation, or, worse still, as if Kay and I were gossamer apparitions, not actual persons at all. Exiting the park grounds by the zoo entrance, I turned to Kay and said, “That was degrading. I mean, people take more account of caged animals than of us.” I continued to muse as we walked towards home as to why during this uncertain, fearful time would anyone ignore the presence of another? Before
Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom, medieval manuscript, National Library of the Netherlands
the COVID-19 captivity, I had often remarked to Kay that we could ramble all over a commercial district adjacent to our neighborhood and not be acknowledged. I can mostly accept the rebuffing of two fluorescently clad 60-year-olds. Although, I do recall a Sunday afternoon some months past when I strolled about the storefronts for an hour or more and was ignored by no less than six people in succession. True, most were anchored to smartphones, but to not even be curious about a passing member of their own species? Dogs and cats do better than that. I began to imagine I was staged in one of those Twilight Zone episodes where the protagonist, frantically attempting to get the attention of others, discovers at the end of the show that he is actually dead. In that same vein, Emily Gibbs also comes to mind. She sets out from the grave in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, where she has been planted since her untimely death while giving birth to her first child. Emily is transported, both in time and place, to her family’s kitchen on the occasion of her 12th birthday. Alarmed by her
mother’s absorption in her morning tasks, Emily begs her to just stop and look at her. Of course, her mother cannot see her, but it does lead Emily to cry out the play’s burning question, “Do any human beings appreciate life while they still have it – every, every minute?”1 After the cold encounter, Emily begs the Stage Manager to lead her back to the cemetery. Better to be in the grave than to be invisible. Emily’s confession leads me to the hero of Genesis, Abraham. He is so old as to be regarded, ‘as good as dead’ when he starts out on his long walk at the behest of God (Hebrews 11:12). Abraham is God’s doover of humanity. A self-consuming strain runs through the Bible’s first humans from sylvan Eden all the way to the crumbling Tower of Babel. Not even the Great Flood can drown out our species’ idolatrous, dehumanizing march. No longer content to refashion human beings as a whole, God chooses one man and his family to reset our destiny. While Abraham is Thornton Wilder, Our Town (New York: CowardMcCann, 1938), 83. 1
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From Our Rector... no paragon of morality, witness the two occasions he attempts to pawn off his wife as his romantically available sister in order to save his own skin (Genesis 12:1020; 20:1-18) and the abuse both he and Sarah heap on their servant girl Hagar (Genesis 16:1-16 & 21:9-21). However, he does trust God at his word and travels with his family nearly 3,500 miles at the
‘I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep
Lord by doing righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him’ (Genesis 18:19). the way of the
Almighty’s bidding. The long journey is a meager challenge when compared to Abraham’s more pressing problem. God has promised that he will be the father of a great nation, even though both he and his wife Sarah are well beyond childbearing years. Always a surprise, God calls Abraham from his tent in the dead of night, and commands him to peer into the ink black sky and count the stars if he can. ‘Your family,’ God promises, ‘will number more than these stars’ (Genesis 12:5). A great nation will proceed from a man “as good as dead.” Abraham’s response to God’s evening lightshow frames the entirety of the Bible and is subsequently reechoed throughout it, ‘Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness’ (Genesis 12:6; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:22; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23). The generative power of God to promote human fecundity is merely subtext here. The real miracle is that God is shaping Abraham’s brood to be in the right kind of relationship with Him and with one another. In other words, Abraham’s descendants are called to live righteously. This point is emphasized sometime later in the Abraham saga, when God, musing to Himself admits, ‘I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing 4
righteousness and justice; so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him’ (Genesis 18:19).
human to human relationships to an entirely different plane of experience. If we live righteously under God by entrusting our life to Him, then it follows that we live righteously with one another by being trustworthy and daring to trust our lives to one another. Righteous relationships look at the other as a reflection of the divine, such that we are never invisible to one another.
The Hebrew word for this right kind of relationship is tsedeka. In English we translate tsedeka as “righteousness,” but the meaning is much broader than what we’ve previously acknowledged. Biblical righteousness operates along two poles, the vertical and the horizontal. The vertical, to be in right relationship with God, is Speaking of looks, I am fond of repeating, pointedly illustrated by Abraham. He “If you want to know what God is like, entrusted himself fully to God. Leaving his look at His Son Jesus.” According to the home, his occupation, his father’s gravesite first chapter of the Bible, I should be able – everything he knew and had come to to add, “If you want to know what God depend on – he put all of his faith in God, looks like, consider the people made in His whom neither he, nor any of his kindred image.” While that second statement may had previously encountered. This radical sound way out of bounds, reflect on the reorientation of life is precisely why Paul, Ten Commandments. Number two on the James, and the author of Hebrews will list, right after the primary commandment, hold up Abraham as their ideal of faith. ‘You shall have no other Gods before Me,’ is ‘You To believe, that is entrust ourselves, our shall not make for yourself any idol or image of families, our security, and our futures God’ (Exodus 20:1-4). Why? Because God to God, is has already to make While righteousness along the vertical pole created His the most images on puts us in right relationship with God by significant earth – each shift of our one of us!2 entrusting our lives to Him. Righteousness lives. The The key along the horizontal pole insists we see and locus of our to being faith moves in right accept other human beings as actual living, from our relationship breathing images of God. own designs, is seeing cleverness, the other and man-made alliances to complete as an image of God. Before any dependence on God. Many cannot make consideration of a person’s background, the jump, as depicted by the procession of habits, nationality, education, cleanliness, Bible personalities preceding Abraham, amicability, or impairments – he or she is which is precisely why he is God’s amazing a walking, breathing image of God. What restart for human beings. if those we passed in the park or along the storefronts saw Kay and me as walking The horizontal pole of righteousness images of the God who created every demands an equally strenuous change rock, every live oak, every molecule of the for us. While righteousness along the picture windows, and every atom of our vertical pole puts us in right relationship neighborhood? Far more important than with God by entrusting our lives to Him. our community strolls, this fact changes Righteousness along the horizontal pole the entire content of a Christian’s political insists we see and accept other human and social outlook for other human beings. beings as actual living, breathing images Sadly, we Christians often insist on a sort of God. Recall that the Bible opens with of “survival of the fittest” in our politics that fact of our creation: So, God created and social circles, which aligns us with 2 “Justice” Bible Project Video, https://www. humankind in His image. In the image of God, youtube.com/watch?v=A14THPoc4-4 I am He created them. Male and female he created indebted to the creative, comprehensive work of them (Genesis 1:27). This elevates our the Bible Project.
From Our Rector... Neo-Darwinism, but certainly not with our Savior. Hitler and Stalin made convenient use of the theory, but not Jefferson, Lincoln, and Jesus.
This first step is the hardest because it goes against the grain of most of what we have been taught and how we have heretofore lived. Paul is being candidly biographical here, for his life was a perfect portrait of one who was resolutely determined to be righteous – even if the prodigious
So, how do we realign our lives to Christ? How do we recapture our image-ness in God? The short answer is we don’t. The longer answer is to remember Abraham’s fundamental characteristic: He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham and Sarah, in spite of their human flaws or, perhaps, on account of them, entrust their lives to God. They do not know where the long, winding three thousandmile road will lead, but they rely on the One who has called them. The first family of faith demonstrates that the sole avenue to realignment is completely trusting God with our lives. Paul, who was Abraham’s number one fan, and who was, at one time, terribly out of alignment himself, realized that Christ alone can restore us to our rightful image in God. In his Letter to the Colossians, Paul carefully explains how proper realignment is given, not earned or shrewdly devised, to all who put their trust in Christ. Paul explains in his letter that because Christ is the embodied presence of God on earth, his consummate sacrifice on the cross is the cosmic magnet that has the Virgin and Child with Archangels Michael and Gabriel, power to bring the entire universe Ethiopian manuscript, 1504-1505 back into right relationship with God, which includes all of us human beings: effort killed him. The paradox of Paul’s For it was by God’s own decision that the life and ours is that the harder we try to Son has in himself the full nature of God. become righteous on our own the further Through the Son, then, God decided to bring away from God we drift, and the image the whole universe back to himself. God made of God fades from our countenance. To peace through his Son’s blood on the cross live righteously in the vertical sense means and so brought back to himself all things, to surrender to the grace of the only both on earth and in heaven. At one time you, One who has the immense power and Colossians, were far away from God and were unconditional love to redirect us. Once His enemies because of the evil things you realigned, the image of God is restored did and thought. But now, by means of the in us and we can begin to step out in physical death of his Son, God has made you horizontal righteousness: his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence. Colossians At one time you yourselves used to live 1:19-22 according to selfish desires, and your life was dominated by them. But now you must get rid
of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all. Colossians 3:7-11 Before our realignment, no matter how we dressed ourselves up in piety or altruism, we continued to be selfcentered. We could not be righteous because we had put ourselves on a throne that rightfully belongs to God alone. On those occasions when our guard came down, the real self was exposed with its outbursts of selfish anger, consuming desires, and destructive speech. Now, however, through trusting in God’s grace-full love as demonstrated in Christ’s sacrifice, we have taken off the old self like an ill-fitting jacket and put on the glad rags of our Savior. We are now dressed-to-the-nines in Christ, and, therefore, our proper image-ness in God is restored. Through this restoration, we no longer perceive the boundaries between us and other human beings. We see through skin color, economic status, social class, neighborhood, and nationality to perceive those others, who, too, are living, breathing, walkingaround images of God. We can no longer pass them by as indistinguishable flesh colored bags of protoplasm. Once we recover our self, regain our sight, and our realignment is restored, we’re ready to hit the road and set the world right for our children and our children’s children. Invisibility is no longer an option. One thing this Coronavirus intermission has shown us is our nation is far from righteous and throngs of our fellow citizens had become invisible to us. The enforced retreat has led many of us to take a broader account of our situation, and, 5
From our Rector... therefore, emboldened us to take a longer medicine for real freedom and ultimate millions of American were hurt terribly view of what kind of country, church, fulfillment. No longer will we consider and will never recover. At last count, 10 and culture we wish to bequeath to our what’s best for others based on our own million homes were foreclosed on between progeny. Compounded by the needless welfare. Instead, we will cast our attention 2006 and 2014.3 That’s five cities of killing of George Floyd, we’ve come to on God to decide the righteous action to homes the size of San Antonio! At last our own “Abraham moment,” when we undertake on behalf of others. That’s a count, one banker went to jail, while 10 perceive how the stars are lining up for the radical break from worrying about “what million families lost the American dream, residue of our lives and the future lives of will become of me if we do this for others” all with the consent of the government… our children and grands. If we’ve come to to “what is God’s desire for those made in which is us. No amount of massaging can doubt ourselves as American Christians, his image”? Consider the freedom our new recast that recent chapter of American we’re in good company. Abraham, orientation portends. No longer will we be history as righteous. I’m afraid we’ve though later fêted as heroically faithful, pulled along by our capricious emotions hitched our wagon to the wrong star. expressed doubt repeatedly. Teetering on and our excessive fears. Instead, we will the edge of age 100, he confronts God perceive and attend others according In between preparing Zoom classes, with the obvious fact – Sarah and he to God’s Word. Paul himself expressed making pastoral phone calls, and are still childless and the physiological this release when he confessed to the streaming worship, I have tried to climb ability to conceive and bear a child “had Galatians, ‘The entire law is fulfilled in a single above the present crisis to dream about left the station.” The notion that the two decree (from Christ), “Love your neighbor as how we can emerge from it. We can fight would still have a child of their own is yourself ”’ (Galatians 5:14). like hell to keep the old order intact. Then so preposterous to the 99-year-old, that, the divisions between us will widen, the in the very presence of God, number of poor roaming the city he falls on his face laughing At last count, one banker went to jail, while will increase, a stampede of adult uncontrollably (Genesis 17:7). children will move home, the well10 million families lost the American dream, all off will retreat into our manicured Even so, God is unruffled in his assertion the two will have with the consent of the government…which is us. neighborhoods, and the poor will be a child. Abraham and Sarah into their sprawling favelas. No amount of massaging can recast that recent stuffed will be the ancestors of a great America’s urban landscape will begin chapter of American history as righteous. nation. To seal the promise, to look more and more like Nairobi, God declares a new covenant while China’s luminous cities will with Abraham. Circumcision, emerge like Oz. the cutting of the foreskin of the male We American Christians are in need of reproductive organ, will be the sign of the realignment, which necessitates some To maintain the status quo, we have failed renewed promise (Genesis 17:10-11). hard questions: Why is it that we express to confront the obvious. Should not every The couple’s child, Isaac, and every child self-satisfied smiles when we hear the story citizen receive adequate, preventative of their progeny will proceed from God’s of Jesus overturning the tables of the health care? How can we justify the promise. God’s “mark” shall be on every moneychangers (Matthew 21:1-6; Mark uninterrupted building of glittering birth of the faithful in perpetuity. 11:15-19; Luke 19:45-48; John 2:13-16), medical citadels, while at the same time but we shake our heads in disgust when leaving 27.9 million Americans uninsured, This “mark” of the covenant is not our young people “Occupy Wall Street”? a number that will exponentially exhibited, but the requirement of the Have we actually made peace with 1% increase in the fallout of Covid-19? new covenant is on display for all to see. of our citizens amassing more wealth Our Texas pride should be bruised to Abraham and those who follow him are than the number of our countrymen in learn that, according to the President of required to ‘walk blamelessly before the Lord’ the lower 90%? Entrusting our futures to the American College of Obstetricians (Genesis 17:1-2). The Hebrew word the hegemony of these financial oligarchs and Gynecologists, only 50% of Texas for “blameless” is tāmīn, which doesn’t is comically ludicrous. Just because a women receive pre-natal care in the first so much connote purity or perfection, segment of the American population is trimester of their pregnancies and only but rather to have the right orientation becoming awash in wealth, do we honestly 60% return for after birth postpartum towards God. This new orientation of think the majority of our citizens are checkups.4 Do we really think that ends up life is key and predicts a revolutionary bathing in that same water? We’ve come being a savings for our citizens in the long change in the way we live our lives and to imagine that if Jeff Bezos walks into a run? This July is the 55th anniversary of treat others. Tāmīn insists we realign our McDonald’s restaurant, the net worth of 3 Francesca Mari, “The Housing Vultures”, The lives around God even as we surrender everyone seated in the dining room rises. New York Review of Books, June 11, 2020, 12. our obsession with our personal comfort. On a far less comical note, during our 4 Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl Wudunn, Tightrope: While this may sound like a prescription most recent financial crisis, engineered by Americans Recaching for Hope (New York: Knopf, for a second-rate life, it is actually the risky, wild west Wall Street speculation, 2020), 152-154. 6
From Our Rector... Medicare, the umbrella for medical care Congress instituted for the most expensive demographic in our nation – those age 65 and older. Is it not time to cover our more vulnerable citizens? Texas, in particular, has much at stake. With a 34.4% adult obesity rate, 18.5% childhood obesity rate, and a 12.5% rate of diabetes, we have a pressing stake in accessible, preventive medical care.5 Homeostasis has taken root in our American education system, as well. Why does a university education have to approach or exceed $200,000, while, at the same time, we have accepted out of hand that many American teenagers are woefully ill-prepared for college academically and emotionally? Did you know that residing in a particular school district is a major predictor of a student’s eventual success or failure in the workforce? Are we accepting inequality as a norm, or should we be brave enough to look at alternative ways to organize our schools and reprioritize the goals for our children? The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures high school students across developed and underdeveloped nations, ranks American teens in 38th place in math and science out of 71 countries that participated. When measured against the 35 members of the most developed countries, the U.S. came in at a miserable 30th place.6 At the same time, we spend, on average, 35% more per child than most other countries. As of July 2019, only Austria, Norway, Switzerland, and Luxemburg were outspending us!7 The fallout of our unequal, inefficient education system is staggering. Give teachers back their creativity and self-determination. Reward the most enterprising of their number, remove the uninspired and unsuccessful, and reduce bloated administrations. Give teachers and schools a measure of visionary autonomy again. Teaching must become a profession on par with law and medicine. After all, teachers hold the keys to our future Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pew Research Center, Fact Tank, February 15, 2017. 7 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_ cmd.pdf 5 6
economy and national security.
To fail to shore up our educational and medical systems will be to catch and finance the fallout at the other end.
To fail to shore up our educational and medical systems will be to catch and finance the fallout at the other end. Now, in fact, we have more prisons in America than four-year universities. Did you know that while we have 4.4% of the world’s population, we harbor 22% of the world’s prisoners? Since the 1970’s our incarceration rate has jumped seven-fold, and our incarceration rate is six times that of Canada.8 Really, are Canadians six times tamer than Americans? In Texas alone, we’re incarcerating 149,159 individuals at an average cost of $22,012 per inmate. How many Lone Star State kids could go to college on that 3 billion dollars and change? (On a positive note, I should add that Texas has been steadily lowering its inmate population since 2017)* Beyond the expense, we need to consider the contributing factors that led to prison. We also need to ask if we are using our prisons to shelve a miasma of societal and economic problems that we do not wish to confront. One fundamental problem boils down to this: Why can’t a single mother, faithfully working forty hours per week, be able to clothe and feed her children, and take them to the dentist? Why must she endure the indignity of food stamps and Medicaid, if she can even secure either one? Bringing it down to the neighborhood level. Do you know what the most common shoplifted items are in the U.S. today? Pregnancy tests, diabetic test strips, baby formula, cigarettes, energy drinks, pain medication, cheese and raw meat. This list reads ‘d-e-s-p-e-r-a-t-i-o-n’. Only the frantically forlorn would stuff a Kristof & Wuduun, 178. *On a positive note, I should add that Texas has been steadily lowering its inmate population since 2017, resulting in the closure of two prisons. 8
pound of ground beef in their coat and a pregnancy test in their pocket. Nicking some baby formula and diabetic test strips really marks one as a modern-day John Dillinger! Lest we Christians think this has nothing to do with us, consider that the number one stolen book, far and away, is the Holy Bible.9 People are grasping at hope, even if they have to steal it. Are we to be trusted to give them hope of a better world, or will she and others continue to be invisible to us? My list of concerns come from my own experience and are not gathered from any group’s political playbook. I am well aware that if our nation begins to make some changes to better serve our citizens, Kay and I will inevitably make some adjustments – financial and otherwise. Like you, we want to bequeath a better world, a healthier county to our children and grandchildren. To do so, we Christians must seek what God would have us do and not what is most advantageous to us presently. God calls us to take the long view, all the while taking our eyes off of ourselves. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you,’ promised Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:33). Graced with righteousness, we will see others for who they really are, embodied images of God, on the sidewalk, in the car, at HEB, atop the park picnic table, beneath the freeway, and at the busy intersection. Seeing them, I catch sight of a painful memory in my own hometown. In 1981, I left the military to prepare for the ordained ministry. In order to demilitarize me and prepare me for seminary, the Bishop of Alabama arranged for me to serve as the Administrator and Youth Pastor of a large Episcopal Church on the boundary between downtown Birmingham and upscale suburbia. The venue should sound familiar. Manually keeping the financial books, overseeing the maintenance and cooking staff, and meeting with a procession of distraught parents was a fulltime job, and felt uncomfortably foreign to an infantry soldier. What was far more D.L. Mayfield, “God of the Shoplifters,” Christian Century, May 6, 2020, 35. 9
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From our Rector... disturbing was the unending parade of the desperately poor ringing the doorbell all throughout the day. Enraged, the rector instructed me to “just crack the door open and throw out a dollar bill at the feet of each one of them.” I followed him to the office and told him that I refused the order. In the tidal wave following LT William Calley’s actions at My Lai in 1968, I knew an “unlawful order” when I heard one. “Then figure out what to do and find a way to pay for it,” was the rector’s response and he dismissed me with a slam of his door. Garnering the help of
a platoon of others, I set up a systematic way to interview and assist those coming to the church’s doors. To my horror, in the first week of the newly instituted program, I realized what I had missed: U.S. Steel had closed its operations in Birmingham. The people I was interviewing had worked hard on the foundry floors all across the west end of the city – as had their parents and grandparents before them – only to be abandoned by the company and the city. Entire families, proud southerners, were now living in their automobiles in every precinct of the Magic City. I had forgotten
this chapter in my life until this morning when Kay and I were walking around San Pedro Springs Park. Looking more closely at the parked cars we passed on Flores, I noticed a young family all sleeping in their midnight blue Chevrolet Tahoe. Is this the leading edge of the Coronavirus fallout? The five of them would have been invisible had I not looked closer. The question that remains for all of us who cling to the cross of our Lord: How hard are we willing to look, not only for those five but for our children and our children’s children?
Bible, Liturgy, and Music Trivia Crossword Puzzle Music Ministry by Josh Benninger
Are you tired of reading books? Have
you watched everything on Netflix? Are you bored and need something “fun” to do? If so, then I have the perfect challenge. Go ahead and step right up to what may be called the most exciting and fun activity of the summer. Well…maybe not, but at least humor your music director and give it a try! Across 2. This was poured onto Jesus when he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. 5. Last name of the author that wrote the hymn, “A mighty fortress is our God”. 6. “How _______ is thy dwelling place”. 8
8. “This little light of_______.” 9. The candle that is displayed during the entire Easter season, and also at baptisms and funerals. 12. Where Jesus was crucified. 13. “All things _____ and beautiful.” 16. Tune name for the hymn, “Holy, holy, holy”. 17. “King of Kings, and Lord of _________.” 19. The place where Jesus prayed and was arrested the night before his crucifixion. 20. Sung each year at Lessons and Carols. The opening line is, “Green and silver, red and gold, and a story born of old.” 22. The central part of a church building, stretching from the entrance to the transept or chancel. 23. God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Down 1. Last name of the author who wrote the hymn “Amazing grace”. 2. Prayer book of the Bible. 3. Not spoken or sung during Lent. 4. From Handel’s Messiah: “The ________ shall sound”. 7. Number of days in Lent. 10. “Come, thou fount of every blessing, tune my ________ to sing thy grace!” 11. “In him there is no _________ at all.” 14. “Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners ___________.” 15. We wear red on this day to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit. 17. “Crown him with many crowns, the _______ upon the throne.” 18. Christ has died. Christ is _______. Christ will come again. 21. This composer’s music appears only one time in the 1982 hymnal. It was adapted from his ninth symphony.
This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself. As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Gentiles and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, Christ is in all. Colossians 3:10-11
Ethiopian Baptism of Christ
Nativity scene by Mexican folk artist Josefina Aguilar b. 1945
Woonbo Kim Ki-chang, The Birth of Jesus Christ, 1952-53. Ink and color on silk
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Welcome Avery Youth Ministry by Amy Case
Christ Church is excited to welcome
Avery Moran as Assistant Youth Minister. Once we return to our normal activities, Avery will be with us on Sunday mornings in the Carriage House, at our special events, and will help us develop and lead a weekday Youth Group program. Avery is also excited to attend and support our
students’ extra-curricular activities and school programs. Avery grew up in New Braunfels after moving there from California when he was 10. He went to high school at New Braunfels High School and was heavily involved in his church’s youth group. Avery attended college at Texas State and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications. At Texas State, he was involved with Vital, the diocesan college ministry program. Avery also worked at Deer Creek Camp for three summers, and
that experience was heavily influential in his decision to work in ministry. Post college, Avery has been working with Vital College Ministries and working as a young adult and youth minister at Saints Peter and Paul in New Braunfels. Avery’s hobbies include playing music and reading. He also likes cooking, hiking, and playing games. When asked what he is most looking forward to in his new position Avery says, “I hope to bring a lot to the table, but mostly just focusing on being someone that the kids can talk to, and being an overall positive addition to your church and the kids that I’m ministering to.” Come meet Avery on our Youth Group Zoom meetings in July. July 12 - Bingo July 26 - Pictionary (See parent email for Zoom link). If you are not receiving the Youth Group emails from Amy Case, please email her at amygcase@gmail.com. Welcome to the Carriage House, Avery!
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Unshakable Hope and The Way of Love
CEC Family Ministry by Halleta Heinrich
A nd now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13
I think Hope is my favorite word along with Faith and Love. Paul declares Love as the greatest of all qualities from which Faith and Hope spring. God is Love. He is the source of all that is eternal. Children’s Ministry is providing our children and families two resources of Faith, Hope and Love this summer in our Summer Sunday School/Chapel Gatherings based on the book God Always Keeps His Promises – Unshakable Hope for Kids by Max Lucado and the Virtual VBS offering based on the book The Very Best Day – The Way of Love for Children by Roger Hutchison. I pray our families will be able to partake. When God called me into Children’s Ministry thirty- five years ago, I was determined for children to know they are never alone, God’s love is always with them, and He gives us hope for an eternal future so wonderful we can’t even imagine. Believing this takes faith. It is a gift from God granted to all who wish to receive it. I tell the children if they want to have faith, ask God for it. He will never say no! Hope based in faith and love looks to the future – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1) This verse begins the Faith Chapter, Hebrews 11, as it is known. The faith stories of many Bible heroes are told as they know the love of God
and persevere in hope, not reaching their final destination in this life, but sure in the knowledge they will get there. When I read this for the first-time many years ago, I wept. I totally identified with these people of God and was determined I would live in hope. I asked for God to give me faith like a rock and He said “Yes.” I knew I would need it. As I am writing this reflection, we as a nation are going through confusing and troubling times. We pray for the most positive and redeeming outcome. We hang on to hope based in God’s love and persevere through faith. We know that God will make right all that has been wrong. That is the promised New Creation. I recently had a discussion with my ninetyfour-year-old Dad about our current situation. I said to him that I was sorry he was having to live the last years of his life under this cloud of crisis. He said, “God is going to make all that has been wrong right!” I replied “That’s right, Dad! You’ve
got it!” That is our Christian hope, and it is sure. We know because we have faith in our God who is Love. We may not see it now, but it is there waiting for us in eternity. My dad gets it! (He listened well to my lessons! Ha!) It is my deepest desire that our kids “get it.” God called me into Children’s Ministry to be a vessel of this message of Faith, Hope, and Love. I am so grateful. Love in Christ, Halleta The Christian Hope Book of Common Prayer - Catechism page 861 Q. What is the Christian hope? A. The Christian hope is to live in confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose for the world. 11
Generosity and Gratitude their life has been transformed by us being the hands and feet of God’s love.
by Justin Lindstrom
Thank you, Christ Church! Your
generosity is amazing. When we put out the call through our Ways to Help from Home, you responded. Donations and gifts of all kinds have poured in so that we have been able to meet and exceed the demand for the services that we provide. Beyond the actual gifts, I know there is a deep love for people behind each box of cereal, each homemade mask, each encouraging note, and each monetary gift. And our people realize that too. You need to know that people are so appreciative of what we give them because they know too that they are being given love and hope through groceries, toiletries, clothing, and more. The relationships we have forged with
the community are powerful and life changing for us and for the neighbors we serve. Time and time again, I am honored and privileged to hear someone say how much love they feel when they come, how much the prayers mean to them, and how
It is with much gratitude that I say THANK YOU! Thank you for all you do and all that you are. Your outpouring of love, your support of outreach, has sustained me and brought me much hope. Your love, grace, care, and willingness to serve in many different ways has given me hope and has filled me with gratitude. Peace, Justin+
Outreach 2020: Year to Date X Sidewalk Saturday continues to serve our community every Saturday from 8 - 11 a.m. X We average 113 households given groceries each week. X This translates to an average of 739 people receive food each month. X 240 breakfast tacos are made and given out each week. X Richard Albanese creates a Prayer Card each week that is given out with each bag of groceries. X Fresh bread has been donated from Bryant and Anne Marie Markette of Broadway Daily Bread. X Fresh milk was donated for each household for six weeks by Dick and Kristen Tips. X 100’s of reusable masks have been given out. X 500 one-time use masks were donated. 12
X Significant monetary and gift card donations have come in, in the tens of thousands, that have helped us meet the higher demand for services. X Every week over 100 lbs. of food is donated by parishioners to help meet demand. X Around 500 homeless bags (toiletries, food, or clothing) have been lovingly put together and donated to CAM. X We were asked by the Food Bank of San Antonio to be a pop-up Food Distribution site. Over 2500 lbs. of food (fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, meat, canned goods) were handed out. X The Outreach Committee has given out almost $35,000 to our community outreach partners in order to support their services. X The Neighborhood Faith Convening Group provided two meals for the 160 residents of the Homeless Veteran’s Center.
Insuring our Future Great Commission Society by Patrick Gahan
Thirty-three years ago, Kay and I took
out a life insurance policy to benefit my high school. Often, I have shared with you how that little Christian school atop Sewanee mountain saved my life. It certainly set me on the road to the priesthood. In thanksgiving, Kay and I named the school as the sole beneficiary and owner of the policy. When I die, they will receive a significant gift of gratitude from the two of us.
You may consider making a gift of life insurance to Christ Church. You can do so in one of three ways: 1. Like Kay and me, purchase a new policy naming Christ Church as the beneficiary. 2. If you have an existing policy whose financial security you no longer need, you can name Christ Church as the owner and beneficiary of the policy. This approach may allow you a current federal income tax deduction. 3. You can simply name Christ Church as a beneficiary of an existing policy, while not transferring ownership. This avenue does not allow for an immediate income tax deduction; however, the income given
to Christ Church will be removed from the taxable portion of your estate. When considering any of these opportunities, please consult your CPA, attorney, or financial advisor. Well beyond any financial savings you may enjoy from this gift, consider the act of thanksgiving it signifies, and the joy you’ll experience in making this provision. Christ Church has been a saving element in all of our lives and has certainly set us on a higher road. Let’s act on our gratitude. Your brother, Patrick+ 13
PAGE TURNERS – From the Rector’s Book Stack Eugene Peterson
in Reversed Thunder contends that The Revelation of John is the last word of the Bible and that last word cannot be improved upon. For Peterson, like the string of enchanted Bible readers before him, Revelation is the lyrical punctuation point to the sixty-five books that precede it. The Revelation does not so much invite us into another world but rather to wake up and see the world God has given us with our eyes coming fully open again. He declares, “It is a world in which children are instinctively at home and in which adults, by becoming as little children,” can perceive, as well (Matthew 18:3). By the time Peterson wrote Reversed Thunder, he had served as pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church for twenty-six years. Therefore, Peterson sees John as a pastor caring for his congregation more than anything else. And like our congregation, worship is the centerpiece of our life together. Revelation is the community gathered in adoration to worship before the throne of the Lamb of God. Marthe Curry gave me the book just before the Covid-19 pandemic incarcerated all of us in our homes. I slowly and meditatively read the thirteen chapters over the Easter season we spent “sheltering in place.” I took many pauses during the reading to pray and then write in my journal. A day or so before I read the last lines of the book, which I delayed as long as possible, I made this entry: Robert Browning had it quite wrong in his assertion, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” People have used this as the clarion call to strive for heaven, but Peterson, reflecting on the New Jerusalem, states that heaven descends. We do not aspire or ascend to heaven. And heaven is descending now. Paul told the Corinthians, ‘And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 3:18). The vision of the Heavenly City is 14
expansive. It will envelop us and bring our humanity out into an open space where we can “be transformed into his image,” into our true humanness. P.S. I was so inspired by the book that I bought a hardbound copy of it from a rare book seller. So absorbed was I in Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland, that I read it both morning and night. I generally read a novel or lighter non-fiction in the evening and theology or Biblical studies in the morning. A half-chapter into Dominion, the novel I was reading was put on the “maybe later” stack, while I clamored out of bed in the early AM to read as many pages as possible before work. Myron East warned me when he gave me the book that it was captivating. The draw of Holland’s book comes out of its central proposition: Christianity has so imbedded itself in our world’s culture that even without any living Christians, its precepts would live on in many areas of our day-to-day lives. True, Holland’s proposition intrigued me, but what kept pulling me into the text was the rich history of our faith that he shares in such fascinating ways. Beginning with the Persian King Cyrus in 6th century BC Babylon, Holland ends 500 pages later with Huxley, Dawkins, Tolkien, and the Beatles in the 20th century West. Reading this book, I have learned how Columbus, Wycliffe, Luther, Henry, Tyndale, and others are irrevocably meshed together, rather than seeing them as individual luminaries. Regarding America, Holland, an Englishman, adds, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were not self-evident truths. They came from the scriptural conviction that all people were created in God’s image. The truest and ultimate seedbed of the American republic was the book of Genesis.” Dominion is both greatly entertaining and highly educational. For Christians who want to
know “where we came from,” this is the book…just be ready to give up some sleep. Holly Jones gave me Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn. I put it aside but quickly picked it up again once the economic and social fallout of Covid-19 began to surface across our country. Kristof is a New York Times columnist and Sheryl WuDunn, also with the Times, is his wife. The fact that the authors are married makes the book all the more engrossing, for the story grows out of Kristof ’s hometown in Yamhill, Oregon. Returning home often, Kristof and WuDunn are nearly undone by the descent of his town and, more tragically, the destruction of his friends. Two of Yamhill’s large families rode the No. 6 bus with Kristof to school. The Knapps and the Greens put a gaggle of kids on that bus. Now, in their middle adult years, four have perished in each of the two families. Drugs, alcohol, despair, obesity, diabetes, unemployment, loss of social cohesion, and lack of all hope have strangled Yamhill. From the eye of that small storm brewing in out-of-the-way rural America, a behemoth tempest is rumbling across our land, whose leading edge we have witnessed in the marches all over our cities and towns. As I write this, San Antonio is set to endure the eighteenth night of protests. While the catalyst for this upheaval is racial discrimination, the root cause is shrinking opportunities, wages, and assistance for the working class. The authors lament that over the last 50 years since the end of the GI Bill after WWII, America no longer has an up escalator. Read the book and you will see it is past time to reform our nation’s healthcare, education, prison, drug treatment, and employment apparatuses. People want to work and partake of the fortuitous opportunities of this land. We need to offer them an escalator up so they may do so.
Photo Album
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Christ Episcopal Church 510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX 78212 www.cecsa.org
The Message (USPS 471-710) is published bi-monthly by Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Periodical postage paid in San Antonio, TX. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Volume 22, Number 4.
San Antonio Food Bank Pop-up