Blog Archives

1/22: 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany & Annual Meeting

1/26/2023

Annual Meeting report is included in the weekly email.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always be
acceptable in your sight, oh Lord our strength and our redeemer.

The last line of our Gospel lesson tells us that Jesus went throughout Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and
curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

We’ve got some good news to proclaim today:
On our annual meeting Sunday.

We’ve had a great year:
Proclaiming the good news of the kingdom together:
Both in this building,
And in the world beyond.

Like Andrew and Peter:
We’ve been called to be followers of Jesus.
And while we’re certainly not perfect at,
There’s some things that we’ve been doing pretty well.

Our Sunday worship attendance has remained steady in the past year:
Something that many congregations are still struggling with since the beginning of the pandemic.

Our attendance on both Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve, Were higher than the previous year.

This year we celebrated a baptism,
A wedding,
And two confirmations!

Our financial pledges for the upcoming year came in over $1500 higher than last
year.

We’ve made some advances in our worship too.

We finally got our big screen TV:
Allowing us to put the service up for everyone to see.

This has reduced our need for a Sunday bulletin:
Which has saved us both time and money!

I want to give a very sincere and special thank you to Mark and Sam Metko.
They have worked terribly hard,
To not only get the screen up and going:
But I’m certain they’ve put in HOURS of work getting everything onto a
powerpoint for all of us to see.

If you’re interested in helping with the compilation of those powerpoints:
Or in being the power point “clicker” on Sunday morning:

Please let us know!

And while We’re on the subject of worship:
We have to give our sincere thanks to our fabulous music team.

Mark, Tim, and Steve.
Our worship would absolutely not be what it is without you,
And your tireless commitment to help us each week to make a joyful noise to the
Lord.

You all know as well as I do:
How important music is to our worshipping community.
And not only that:
But its part of what makes us particularly unique. (especially in the Episcopal
Church)

But there are other things that make us unique!

We continue to be a part of the Order of Saint Luke.
This past year, we hosted our first healing conference since before the pandemic:
And the Holy Spirit was most certainly present!

A big thank you goes to Jan Peskie for all of her hard work in keeping us going in
our healing ministry.
Besides the conference, and the offering of healing prayer after services,

Jan has also lead a small group throughout the year in various book studies,
prayers, and fellowship.

It has been a great joy of mine to attend many of those events,
And those events are expanding!

This winter,
The OSL group is moving further out in the fox valley,
And meeting or a book study in Appleton.

It’s been a wonderful way to connect with other healing prayer ministers in our
area,
And to study and pray for one another.

The Healing prayer ministry was also essential in our Blue Christmas service this
year.
We had a beautiful service,
With a soup meal before hand.
And I’ certain that the whole experience was healing for those who attended.

What else makes us particularly unique?
Our food pantry!
The food pantry continues to be sign of Jesus’ love in our community.
And not only through it’s gift of feeding people in need:

It’s also been a sign of Jesus’ love through the overwhelming amount of gifts and
donations that people in our church—and beyond—have donated to keep the
pantry going.

LuAnne Nelson has a true God-given gift for this ministry:
And I can’t express enough my gratitude to her and her commitment and care.

And of course:
Our Thrift store!
St. John’s Thrift store has been through MANY changes in the past year.

Besides a debacle getting a new furnace put in:
The biggest and most wonderful change has been with our new Manager.

Our own Pam O’Brien stepped up this spring to manage the store,
And she has been doing a wonderful job.

I can tell you that the work at the thrift store is CONSTANT and never-ending.
There’s always donations coming in to sort through, and put out,
And it is HARD work!

Pam has taken this in stride:
And, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention her husband Pat:
Who can often be found helping out at the store as well.

Both Pam and LuAnne will give us a brief update at our meeting following the
service.

And truly: to both LuAnne and Pam:
THANK YOU.
For being not only ambassadors of St. Johns,
But for being ambassadors of Jesus by bringing this ministries out into the world.

Finally,
We couldn’t run this church without our vestry!

I want to thank
Jason Marks,
Jenny Marks,
Mary Kamp,
Cheryl Weyers,
Kathy LeClair,
And Dan LeClair.

Our vestry not only helps with the day-to-day running of the church:
But they are an amazing and essential support to me as your priest.

Thank you: to each of you:
For your ministry this past year.

But there’s an especially big thank you here:
And that’s to Dan LeClair.

As of our annual meeting today:
Dan is retiring from TWENTY years of service on the vestry.

That’s a SUPER long time!

Dan was the Senior Warden when Fr. Paul retired in 2016:
Which was a major transition to oversee.

He also oversaw the paying off of our building mortgage in 2019,
And then of course:
The long and grueling 5 year search process ending in my arrival here.

Dan was the first person I had contact with when I was discerning whether we
would be a good fit.
And I’ll always be grateful that that first contact was with someone as committed
to the church, genuine, thoughtful, and FUN person like Dan.

Just to be clear:
Dan isn’t going anywhere.
He’s just not going to be serving officially on the vestry.

If you would:
Please join me in giving a big round of applause thank you to Dan for his long-time
service to our church.

At the actual meeting:
We’ll vote on our vestry members for the upcoming year.

Finally:
We would not be where we are as a church:
We would not be WHO we are as church:
Without each and every one of you.

Thank you:
For your faithful commitment to St. Johns:
For your unwavering commitment to Jesus:
And for your willingness to show up:
To be with each other,
And see the Living God.

I’m grateful for each and every one of you:
And I know that God rejoices in your presence.

I can’t wait to see what God will lead us to do in 2023!

Amen.

Annual Meeting Discussions

1.) Vestry Slate
a. Kathy LeClair
Cheryl Weyers
Jason Marks
Jenny Marks
Sam Metko

2.) Convention Delegates and Alternates
a. Significant because we’ll be voting on the trialogue.
b. Saturday October 21 st
i. Either in Fond du Lac or Menasha

3.) Discussion on Common Cup
4.) Discussion on Ecumenical Ash Wednesday Service
5.) Discussion on Earlier Service Time

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Second Sunday after the Epiphany

1/16/2023

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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always
acceptable in your sight Oh Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

There’s a lot going on in today’s Gospel reading.
It’s like there’s a number of different stories:
A number of major themes in only a dozen verses.

First, John the baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and proclaims:
“here is the Lamb of God.”

Second, John the Baptist reminds us that he baptized Jesus:
And the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove.

Third: John proclaims that Jesus is the very Son of God.

Fourth: Two of John’s disciples call Jesus rabbi: or “teacher.”
And Jesus invites them deeper into the mystery with the simple phrase:
“Come and See”

Finally, Andrew and Peter decide to follow Jesus, and proclaim:
“We have found the Messiah.”

There are a lot of important theological points in this short reading.
“Here is the Lamb of God.”
“This is the Son of God.”

And “We have found the Messiah.”
Each one could be the subject of its own sermon.

There’s so much going on,
That we might want to ask more questions than the one question that the
disciples asked in today’s reading: “Where are you staying?”

We might also want to ask, What does all of this mean?
These big theological points?
We might ask Jesus: “What exactly are you up to?”
“What’s your purpose?”
And maybe even, “What do you want of us?”

To all of these questions,
And to many others,
Jesus gives us the same answer that he gave those two disciples:
“Come and See.”

Within the answer to this question, is an invitation.
An invitation to a new life:
An invitation to new relationship: With Him.
With Jesus: The Lamb of God, the rabbi and teacher, the Son of God, the Messiah.

What exactly is this Lamb of God? Come and see.
Who is the true Messiah? Come and see.

Why should we follow you, Jesus? Come and see.
What do you want us to do? Come and See.

It sounds simple enough.
But is it really?

How often, in today’s world,
Are we willing to accept an invitation to just, “Come and see?”

People today like to have all the details.
To know the schedule.
To know the risks.
And know the rewards.

We rarely accept an invitation to just “come and see.”

We carefully explore all our options:
We search for information and compile lists of pros and cons.

And of course:
It IS important to make informed decisions.
Informed decisions help us to avoid repeating some of life’s biggest mistakes.

But sometimes, we’re invited to just “come and see.”

With no explanation:
No schedule.

And when it comes to Jesus:
This is a risk worth taking.
But do we accept the invitation?

Are we ready for what we might see?
Because if we’re honest:
When we come and see:
We’re moved to do more.
To see again:
To do more work.

When we accept the invitation to come and see:
We become aware that there’s more for us to give:
More for opportunities for us to surrender.
More risks to take.

If we choose to become disciples of Jesus, and to give our time, talent, and
treasure, what do we get for our trouble?
It doesn’t end there.

Because we receive the same invitation:
Come and see.

Jesus invites us to experience a reality that’s different from the world that
cherishes wealth, power, and control.
It’s an invitation to love the poor and serve the needy, without condition.
It’s an invitation to surrender our lust for power,
And give up our need for control:
Or our need to be right.
And what are the consequences of that?

The same invitation:
Come and see.

The invitation is offered again and again,
In a constant cycle.
Come and see.
Come and see.

It never ends.
It leads to more and more.

And we really do need to come and see in order to understand--
Or even begin to understand what Jesus is up to.
Come and see:
Again and again.

Take a risk,
And try again:
To see more and more.

So come and see the Lamb of God.
Come and see the one on whom the Spirit descended like a dove.
Come and see the son of God.
Come and see Jesus the rabbi, who teaches the way of salvation.
Come and see Andrew and Simon Peter, who drop their nets and leave behind
everything to follow Jesus.

Come and see what Jesus is up to.
Come and see his purpose.
Come and see what he wants for us.
And come and see what we gain when we accept the invitation.

Even if you think you know what Jesus is up to:
Come and see again.
Even if you think you know his purpose:
Come and see again.
Even if you think you know what he wants us to do:
Come and see again:
With an open heart each time.

That invitation was offered to those disciples thousands of years ago.

And it’s offered to us today, tomorrow, and every day.
Take the risk:
Knowing that the cycle of invitation will continue again and again.

Come and see:
And be enriched in Christ:
In speech and knowledge of every kind.

Come and see:
And learn again that God is faithful:
That you are called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Come and see:
So that you too can declare with confidence:
As the first two disciples did:
“We have found the Messiah.”

Amen.

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Triologue Discussion

1/9/2023

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Today's Sermon was a conversation on the Trialogue that our diocese has entered into. Members present were asked to share hopes, fears, or questions they have about the process. For more information on the trialogue, go to https://www.episcopalwisconsin.info/

If you have comments or questions about he trialogue, please reach out to Portia at any time.

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January 02nd, 2023

1/2/2023

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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be always
acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Merry Christmas!
It IS still Christmas!

And today, we specifically get the great joy of celebrating the feast of the
Holy Name.

It’s a special feast day in the Christian World:
And it rarely falls on a Sunday
(So we don’t get to formally celebrate it that often.)

Our gospel text today is an excerpt of what we read on Christmas Eve:
(Which is also unusual to hear on a Sunday!)
We normally just get our Christmas reading:
And then MAYBE the reading about the wisemen visiting.

But this year:
Due to Christmas falling on a Sunday:
We get to hear the familiar Christmas story yet again.

This time:
With one extra sentence added which is this:
“After eight days had passed (since Jesus’ birth)
It was time to circumcise the child;

And he was called Jesus:
The name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And today is:
EIGHT days,
Since our celebration on Christmas eve:
We’re commemorating (in real time)
The Jewish ceremony of circumcision and naming:
Taking place 8 days after birth.

It’s a special day in the Christmas season:
And it IS still Christmas:
As today’s Gospel reading clearly illustrates to us.

So I thought it might be nice:
To share wit you the Christmas message from our Bishop.

He writes this to YOU:

Dear Friends,

From time immemorial people have gathered around campfires, fireplaces,
and stoves for warmth and light.

And the fire has been the center of community, whether of family, friends, or
strangers crossing paths on the way.
Before central heating, the hearth was the heart of any home.

One of my favorite paintings of the Nativity is ‘The Adoration of the
Shepherds’ long attributed to Rembrandt,
but now thought to be by one of his students.

In the painting, Jesus, lying in the manger, glows with warmth and light.
Mary and Joseph are illuminated as they kneel near the holy Baby.
Shepherds and others are gathered around Jesus as if drawing near to a fire
to escape the gloomy cold of night.

Whether or not Jesus actually glowed with light and warmth,
the painting points to the understanding that Jesus is the light of the Truth
and the warmth of the Love at the heart of everything.
He is the fire in the equation of reality enfleshed to reveal the truth of who
we are and who we are meant to be as beings created in the image of God.
He embodied the love that is lived within the Holy Trinity from eternity.

On Christmas, the manger became the hearth of the world bearing the light
and love of God into this cold and gloomy world.
There is goodness and beauty in the world for sure.
And in each of us.

But there is also the gloom of ignorance, dishonesty, prejudice, and greed.

There is the coldness of selfishness, division, meanness, and violence.
Increasingly, we are disconnected, isolated, anxious, fearful, and lonely.
At Christmas we are reminded that One has come to invite us to gather
together out of the gloomy cold and draw near the Fire that he is to be
enlightened and warmed by his truth and love.

In the coming year, may our congregations glow with the light and love of
Jesus.
May each member bear that light and love into the anxious, lonely, divided
world around us.
May we better see others in the light of God’s love.

May we especially bear that love to those who the world pushes into the
shadows.
Maybe part of our vocation as disciples of Jesus in these times is to be
connectors –
to remind ourselves and others of the truth that we belong to one another
and to engage with others regardless of affinity or agreement.
By doing so, we can take the light and warmth we have experienced from the
Hearth to the hearts of those we encounter.

Merry Christmas,
Bishop Matt

Since it’s still Christmas:
And Bishop Matt is urging us to glow with the light and love of Jesus:

I thought we’d better give our Jesse Tree, one more week to gather things for
its branches.

What can you find:
That helps you to glow with the light and love of Jesus?
OR what can you find:
That has been a symbol of the light and love of Jesus for you?

What can you find:
That when you see it in your house throughout the year:
Will remind you to go be the light of Jesus to everyone you come across?

Mine is this olive-wood statue of Jesus washing feet.

But it’s also a lot more than that.

My mentor, and former bishop
(Who you’ve heard me talk about a lot)

Bought this statue when he was on a trip to Jerusalem.
I remember when he got it.
He displayed it in his office:
As a reminder to himself:
To always strive to be a servant:
To serve the lowest of the low.

The neediest of the needy.

To: as Bishop matt is urging us:
Be the light of Jesus in the world.

When he died in 2020,
His wife sent this statue to me.

I keep it in my office here at the church:
And it is a constant reminder to me:
To be a servant:
To bring light in the darkness:
To bring people Jesus.

And it’s deeply personal too:
Because it reminds me of how much my mentor loved me.
That his wife would choose to give something so special to me.
And knowing how desperately I have been loved:
Pushes me to give that love:
That light I the darkness:
Right back into the world.

Or as my favorite bible verse says:
In the book of first John:
(and it’s perhaps no mistake: but a murmuring of God,
That my beloved mentor’s name was also “John.”)

But the book of first John says:
“We love because he fist loved us.”

Let’s take one more week:
Until the close of Christmas:
To finish out our tree:
With something to remind us:
To carry the Christian spirit of love:
Of warmth:
Of light in the darkness:
With us into the world:
Well after Christmas has ended.
Amen.

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Weekly Lessons and Sermon

1/22: 3rd Sunday after the Epiphany & Annual Meeting

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Triologue Discussion

January 02nd, 2023

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