God Shows Up

God Shows Up

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

John 1:14

There’s a hidden gift of the PC(USA), an online journal on justice called Unbound which is Presbyterian in its roots but ecumenical in its approach. The editors pulled together a Womanist Advent Devotional called Another Starry Black Night—sorry; I should have sent this to you earlier! But you can catch up pretty quickly.

I took the title of this column from the devotional’s Christmas Day entry, written by Rev. Traci Blackmon, Associate General Minister and Vice President of Justice and Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ. Christmas is proof that in God’s timing, God showed up for us in Jesus Christ. But the essay that resonates for me today is called “Body Language,” written by Shantell Hinton Hill, a Disciples of Christ minister working with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. She writes about the priest Zechariah, who spent his life praying to God, seemingly without answer. Indeed, his prayers were preceded by hundreds of years of unanswered prayers of his people. And though his yearnings—for peace, for salvation, even for children for himself and his wife Elizabeth—extended beyond childbearing years, he persevered in his priestly duties. As Rev. Hill wrote:

. . . [T]he people of Judea were struggling under the weight of a tyrannical regime of a king who had no honor. According to religious and historical scholars, King Herod ruled his empire with an iron fist – using security measures to both suppress the contempt of the people and stop them from protesting his authority…………………… It is against this backdrop that Zechariah maintained his commitment to his priestly orders and continued showing up to serve in the temple.

Advent is a season of expectancy, but when things are especially conflicted, and it feels like our prayers are going unanswered, we wonder if God is listening, or even if God cares. Lately I have been troubled by the many acts and attitudes that make me think we have lost the ability to honor the humanity in others. Rage erupts into not just violence, but humiliation and burning vengeance. Government officials seek retribution rather than caring for the people they are supposed to serve. Even advocates for justice seem to get so caught up in their cause that they lose sight of the persons involved, glossing over acts of rape or reducing individuals to collateral damage or involuntary martyrs.

There are all sorts of reasons to mourn the loss of our sense of shared humanity. For me, in this season of Advent, I think how God loves us humans so much that God would become one of us in Jesus Christ. If God cares that much for us, and if Jesus calls us to see him in even the “least” of us, how can we fail to appreciate the divine spark in each person?

Practically speaking, I see the little ways we choose efficiency over appreciating all that God has put into each life. Lately I’ve thought about how difficult it is to recognize all the ways we identify ourselves, especially in the spectrum of gender identities and disabilities. I confess that I have not spent much time trying to understand the many ways people see themselves and their sexuality, and one thing I know about being disabled is that every one of us is disabled in a different way, and things change as time goes on. So how do we easily categorize people if there are almost as many categories as there are people?

The only thought I have right now is that we need to slow down and choose to stop and listen to others, and accept how they see themselves, rather than look for the most expedient way to organize them into manageable boxes. I like to think that this can be done in church more than most of the rest of the world, even if that means we don’t get everything done that we think the world expects of us.

Now I’m probably the last person to suggest we slow down and just enjoy the people God has put in our life. Maybe like every other preacher, we preach what we need to hear. In any case, some of us are better than others at connecting with people one-on-one, and others can see more clearly systems and concepts that impact many lives. Obviously there is value in both perspectives: we cannot see the person without understanding how the brokenness of the world impacts them, and we lose our effectiveness in advocating for systemic change if we dismiss the people we claim to be speaking for.

As we look ahead to the promise of Jesus’ birth, may we take the time to consider the humanity of Christ. May we remember that God showed up for all of us—in a poor, displaced child in an occupied land, born after many centuries of pleas for justice. That little child grew up to tell his friends that we now must show up—and see what God sees in our fragile but intricate humanity, what God sees and loves so much as to join us in our human state. May we take the time and trouble to see the humanity in each other, and to love God’s children as we love ourselves. And in so doing, may we be bearers of Christ’s peace.

with love,
Wendy

Keep Alert

Keep Alert

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”

Mark 13:32-33

As we begin the season of Advent, I have been overwhelmed with the sense that Jesus came to earth at a time when we humans needed him the most. But we don’t always recognize when God intervenes in our lives. Advent at its best is a season when we are encouraged to keep alert to God’s love, and to nurture our expectant hope for God to save us in ways we cannot imagine.

Many of us follow the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love in the four Sundays of Advent, so I heard two sermons on keeping alert to hope yesterday. As I heard the pastors preach, I thought about the people of Gaza, and how can they have hope? I did remember that the release of some of the Israeli hostages gave families hope, even for the families whose loved ones were not released. But the people of Gaza don’t have a finite (though horrendous) number of individuals who have been abducted; virtually all the residents of Gaza are under attack, if not by bombs, then hunger, or lack of water, or loss of medical help, or exposure to the cold. Told to flee their homes in the North, they face attacks in the South.

And yet, miraculously, some Palestinians and Israelis hold on to hope, and work together for peace. I have mentioned the Parents Circle Families Forum, also known more descriptively as the Bereaved Families Forum. They are Israelis and Palestinians who have bonded over their shared grief, as all of them hold in common having lost a family member by the violence in Israel/Palestine. They have a trilingual Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/theparentscircle.org which includes resources and comments from members of the group. Though they have experienced tragedy at the hands of the other in this tight-knit conflict, they have chosen to see each other as humans as a solution for true peace. In a recent CNN interview, one of the former directors mentioned in passing that “anger is a very bad advisor.”

The bereaved families continue to dialogue, even during this war. In an open invitation for people to share with each other, they state:

Humanity begins with listening……. Almost two months in which we are flooded with horrifying testimonies, listening in pain and shock to the cries of loss, stories of heroism, sirens and the sounds of explosions, we invite each and every one of you to dare and expand the range of listening. Let’s listen, together, from the bottom of the heart.

Tova Boxbaum is an Israeli who was born after her parents lost a child in the Holocaust, whose brother was killed while serving in the military, and whose cousin was one of the eleven Israeli athletes killed in 1972 at the Munich Olympics. She grieves the loss of her family members, but writes:

[O]nly when the occupation is over, all children between the sea and the Jordan River will have a life of justice and freedom – there will be safety for my loved ones too. Security will not be achieved through force and more killings, but through political agreements. Vengeance will provoke more vengeance, the loss will aggravate, and the hand outstretched for peace will find another outstretched hand.

When thousands of children are killed, innocent people will suffer profoundly, and when incitement leads to increased fear, hatred, and racism – it’s important to me more than ever to be a part of the Bereaved Families Forum with Palestinians who share the same fate and the same values. Together we preserve humanity and hope for brighter and better days.

It does seem that grief helps people move beyond their regular fears and assumptions and resentments. I was in a highly irritated mood when the Synod Assembly began on Saturday morning. Incoming moderator Yvonne Harmon from Northminster in Diamond Bar opened the meeting with a reflection, and she mentioned how she has learned to let God lead her through the difficult times she has experienced after her husband died on New Year’s Day eleven months ago. My irritability dissolved in the face of her gracious faithfulness, and was replaced with gratitude as the reports from the presbyteries revealed a season of resurrection hope, humble sharing, and mutual care in the Presbyterian Church in Southern California.

And as I sat in Interwoven yesterday, burdened by the despair over what is happening in God’s special land, I found hope in the babies in the gathering; I think there have been four or five births this year. But as I rejoiced in this body of loving, welcoming, and joyous disciples, I remembered how many of them have seen tragedy, illness, or conflict with their former churches which has led them to find healing at Interwoven. What a blessing, that we are able to offer a new church family for people from every generation and race to worship and serve and love together. If you are free Christmas Eve afternoon, Interwoven will be holding a musical celebration at 3 pm at their new home at Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church, 4848 Eagle Rock Boulevard.

Last Wednesday, we held a preview of our Presbytery-wide Lenten series, and even in this preview session, in my small group I learned something precious from folks who I thought I knew. Even as we focus on ways that false narratives have separated and caricatured people of different races, I heard from presbytery friends of experiences and vulnerabilities of all kinds that make us such sensitive, complex, wonderful, faithful children of God.

So in this season of expectancy, may we who are feeling despair keep alert to the light of Christ coming into the world. Let us keep alert to hope. As Walter Burghardt wrote,

You must be men and women of ceaseless hope, because only tomorrow can today’s human and Christian promise be realized . . . Every human act, every Christian act, is an act of hope. But that means you must be men and women of the present, you must live this moment—really live it, not just endure it—because this very moment, for all its imperfection and frustration, because of its imperfection and frustration, is pregnant with all sorts of possibilities, is pregnant with future, is pregnant with love, is pregnant with Christ.

with hope,

Wendy

Looking towards Lent

Looking towards Lent

The gifts Christ gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-13

This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, but it seems like the holiday rush began last July—or certainly, people have been shopping or decorating their yards for various holidays all fall. I sense that folks are hungry to celebrate the holidays this year, like we haven’t been able to for four years!

So I don’t blame folks for looking ahead to Christmas—but Lent?!

Actually, Easter comes early in 2024 (how often does Easter land in March?), so Ash Wednesday comes on Valentine’s Day. And the Presbytery is going to try something new—we are proposing that folks participate in a Presbytery-wide Lenten series. We are even suggesting that churches encourage their members to participate in this instead of doing a Lenten study for their congregation alone. And we wanted to offer this before people start ordering Lent study materials.

Intrigued? We have invited pastors to a Zoom-based sample of this series tomorrow, Tuesday, at 2 pm. A couple of pastors have told me that they could not attend that day, so they have sent the invitation to someone else in the church, like the elder in charge of adult education. That’s fine; since we want as many people involved as possible, I’m sharing the Zoom link here if you want to experience the session, as a way of planning for your faith community for Lent:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82768963576?pwd=LPBw6bGOQBaBpoflj4nuVgMUy9MDsj.1
Meeting ID: 827 6896 3576
Passcode: 309803

One tap mobile
+16694449171,,82768963576#,,,,*309803# US

This series is called “Growing as the Beloved Community,” and will be led by Dr. Tracey Shenell. Tracey is a church change consultant and coach, and has been a pastor in non-denominational churches, but she has just embarked on a six-month agreement to provide pastoral services with TE Bear Ride with Filipino Community United Presbyterian Church in Azusa. Most importantly, she is a prophetic speaker and leader for all of us as we explore who God has made in us, and in each other. This series will offer us the opportunity to get to know fellow members of San Gabriel Presbytery in a deeper way, which has been a request of presbytery members for years. We are grateful for the diversity of our presbytery, but unless we share with each other more deeply in a guided and safe environment, we will not move beyond assumptions and possibly misleading narratives about who is in this presbytery family.

What does this have to do with Lent? Traditionally, Lent was a time of preparation for baptism, which would happen during Easter weekend. The preparation would include reflecting on who we are, and how much God loves us, that God would come to save us in Jesus Christ. As John Calvin wrote in opening his Institutes of the Christian Religion,   
Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

As we gather and reflect on ourselves and each other, we will know ourselves better, but perhaps more importantly, we will have a broader understanding of God’s creative genius in giving us a rich diversity of cultures, experiences, perspectives, and identities in the people of God.

Of course, the experience will be much richer with participation from more people from across the presbytery, so we are hoping to see all of you—if not tomorrow, then soon after Ash Wednesday.

Christ has indeed gifted us with partners in ministry with a variety of calls, and we will be an even more faithful and effective body of Christ as we come to appreciate who God has called into our presbytery family—and as the Presbytery’s mission statement states, we will help to transform San Gabriel Valley by “becoming a mosaic of Godly diversity in a deeply divided society.”

I am very hopeful that this series will be a profound gift for our presbytery. Tracey conducted a series for Santa Barbara Presbytery, and they recommended her highly. As I’ve mentioned this to folks around the presbytery, several leaders shared that this will be a great opportunity for their congregations, especially if we have participation from across the presbytery. So please step forward in faith, and offer yourselves to your San Gabriel ministry partners, that we may draw closer as one body of Christ, called to be a glimpse of God’s kin-dom for a troubled world.

And may we prepare our hearts for that wonderful season of anticipation, as we enter into the season of Advent this Sunday. Blessings to you, and may we rejoice in the gift that God has offered us—in Jesus Christ, and in all whom Jesus loves.

 

Happy Holy Days,

Wendy

Giving Thanks for this Presbytery

Giving Thanks for this Presbytery

You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us;
    none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.

Psalm 40:5

This last Saturday was a wonderful day for San Gabriel Presbytery. A few of our retired pastors, who have been to more presbytery meetings than anyone can count, were kind enough to share with me how gratified they were by the meeting. We definitely felt the power of the Holy Spirit moving through us as we considered several milestones and decisions for the future.

This was one of the only in-person meetings we have held since COVID, and the hospitality was wonderful. Praise Community Church, whose pastor is our incoming moderator, Rev. Dr. Peter Tan- Gatue, provided a welcoming and well-planned venue for the meeting, in partnership with GKI LA, who also worships at this site, and who offered some of the lunch, assisted with the meeting, and sang beautifully in worship. This was an important year for both churches, as Praise celebrated their 75th anniversary, and GKI LA celebrated their 10th anniversary and were requesting to be chartered as a member congregation of San Gabriel Presbytery. Their enthusiasm was infectious; even a small thing like the practice of clapping after every report was an encouragement as we addressed many different business items through the morning.

November is Native American Heritage Month, and we make an effort to honor the people who have lived in and cared for this land for so many centuries. This year was special, because we have renewed our connections with and advocacy for the Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, largely thanks to the leadership of RE Mona Morales Recalde, elder at La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church, enrolled member of the Gabrieleno/Tongva tribe, and elected commissioner of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission. Mona opened the meeting with a land acknowledgement and prayer, and explained the importance of land acknowledgements. She also shared the enduring relationship between tribe and presbytery; the tribal headquarters is at La Casa de San Gabriel community center, a ministry of the Presbytery.

Our November meeting is always busy, because we take care of several annual actions each November (all these items except my report were included in the Presbytery packet):

  • We approved the 2024 budget, and kept the apportionment at $70/member.
  • We elected leaders for the new year, and thanked those whose terms have We look forward to the leadership of incoming Moderator Peter Tan-Gatue and RE Helen Darsie, who was elected Vice Moderator, as RE Pat Martinez-Miller now chairs the Executive Commission and TE Dave Tomlinson completes his moderator track.
  • We also elected RE Melinda Forbes and TE Deidra Goulding to be commissioners to the 2024 General Assembly in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • I gave my annual report to the Presbytery. the I am attaching it HERE in case you are interested
  • We presented the meeting schedule for 2024
  • We look ahead to WinterFest, which is held in conjunction with the first meeting of the new

    WinterFest 2024 will be held with Zoom sessions Wednesday-Friday, Jan. 31-Feb. 2, 7-9 pm, and an in- person plenary session at Northminster Presbyterian in Diamond Bar on Saturday, Feb. 3, 10 am-noon with lunch following. The plenary speaker is Dr. Tracey Shenell, who will focus on Growing as the Beloved Community. The weeknight Zoom sessions include:

    • a panel of new pastoral leaders and their vision of ministry for their generation,
    • Mona Morales Recalde will discuss the Gabrieleno/Tongva people and their care of creation,
    • training on responding to our unhoused neighbors who come onto our church campuses, and
    • skills training for leaders on financial management and legal

    One of the topics that the new pastoral leaders will touch on is social enterprise, and there is an incentive for churches to send intergenerational teams to WinterFest 2024—and five such church teams will each receive a $100 gift certificate for Homeboy Industries, to be used for food or merchandise through their website, or better yet for a visit to their campus in Downtown Los Angeles. Homeboy Industries is one of the best-known social enterprise ministries in our area, offering training and job opportunities for people coming out of gangs and incarceration, led by Jesuit priest Father Gregory Boyle.

    In addition, several very important decisions and commitments were made on Saturday:

    • The Presbytery commissioned RE Jorge Gomez and RE Rosario Orosco to provide pastoral services to Iglesia Presbiteriana Emmanuel in Claremont.
    • The Presbytery affirmed a six-month pastoral leadership team for Filipino Community Presbyterian Church in Azusa, with TE Bear Ride and Tracey Shenell.
    • The Presbytery received TE Deetje Tiwa, who is acting as interim pastor for GPIB-USA in Claremont. Dr. Tiwa’s leadership with the National Indonesian Presbyterian Council will help GPIB-USA to discern their relationship with the PC(USA), and San Gabriel Presbytery.
    • The Presbytery voted to authorize the chartering of GKI LA, who will be the first Indonesian member congregation of San Gabriel TE Pipi Dhali, who is a minister member of the Presbytery already, is pastor of this very gifted and committed fellowship, and the leaders worked hard with the Presbytery to come into alignment with the PC(USA) Constitution, as reported by team leader TE Ann Oglesby-Edwards.
    • The Presbytery approved the recommendations from the Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church Administrative Commission, expanding the AC membership and its commission to three parts:
      • Continuing care for the existing Eagle Rock congregation, with help from Deidra Goulding, who was hired to provide pastoral care and manage day-to-day property issues
      • Oversight of a major renovation of the property, which will be funded by the Presbytery and a capital campaign
      • Coordinating with the leadership of Interwoven, who will move to Eagle Rock and utilize the renovated campus as their home base for their multi-faceted ministry, including worship, a preschool, and a social enterprise employing young people in the

    This ambitious commitment was supported by the Executive Commission and COM, and may utilize the proceeds from the sale of the St. Andrew’s church property ($1.7M).

    • Justice Peacemaking and Mission awarded grants of $34,000 to CaliCenter, a multi-faceted community program at Puente de Esperanza in La Puente, and $15,000 to the Free Choice Food Pantry at Community Presbyterian Church in El Monte.

    Finally, the Presbytery showed your extraordinary generosity again by giving gift cards which the Gabrieleno/Tongva tribe will use to assist any Native American in need in the area, and cold-weather and travel gear for migrants being released from the Desert View Detention Annex in Adelanto.

    And we had a wonderful, joyous lunch together as we celebrated each other and the many ways God is working through us for the sake of the Gospel and our community.

    God is surely blessing us, that we may be a blessing. Thanks be to God!

     

    Happy Thanksgiving,

    Wendy

    Giving Thanks for the Secret Kingdom

    Giving Thanks for the Secret Kingdom

    Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

    John 18:36

    I don’t know about you, but sometimes I want to laugh at Jesus’ many efforts to get people to understand what the kingdom of heaven is like. I don’t know if it’s a failure of language, or God’s kingdom is just too far out of our imagination, but it seems like no matter what he says, at least I don’t get it.

     

    It’s not that I don’t get glimpses of the kingdom. My “a-ha” moment came when a Native Hawaiian man talked about his journey. Like many Hawaiian men, he joined the US Army and was a very patriotic American. But over time he became more troubled about who he was and why he was fighting for the nation that illegally took over his native land. He went through a period of great anger until he came to accept his identity as a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, a kingdom that was invisible to most of the world. But because he was committed to the kingdom and its values, he was able to have aloha even for people who treated him with disrespect, because he knew who he was, and how his people were a gift to the larger world.

     

    To me, that is a great description of who we are as citizens of the Kingdom of God. We continue to live in this world, and at least we Presbyterians don’t change our clothing or physical appearance to announce our real identity—but we live out our lives following the ways of God’s nation, which are not the ways of the world. We are blessed to be a blessing to others, even if they don’t know it.

     

    I was reminded of this at a recent community meeting. There were about 50 or 60 community leaders in attendance, all working to make life better in the Pasadena area. They asked everyone to introduce themselves, and I recognized eight Presbyterians present. But only three of us identified as Presbyterian. Perhaps because we are in a post-Christendom—certainly a post-denominational—world, people who are in helping professions, or who are leading new faith communities, know that a label like “Presbyterian” can be off-putting. But I know that all of these people are a blessing to the world, and perhaps they are able to bless even more people by keeping their church membership a secret.

    But there are times when we are meant to celebrate our Presbyterianness out loud, and this Saturday is it!

    We have the regular year-end decisions to make, electing the leaders for next year and approving the budget. But we will also be considering some significant milestones in the life of our Presbytery. This is the 50th anniversary year for our host church, Praise Community Church (formerly known as First Thai Presbyterian Church), and as it happens their pastor, Peter Tan-Gatue, will be our incoming Presbytery Moderator. This church has been a place of welcome and grace for the Thai community but now they are receiving members of many backgrounds. And they are the partnering congregation for GKI-LA. GKI-LA will be recommended for chartering in early 2024, which will make them the first chartered Indonesian congregation in San Gabriel Presbytery! They have a committed group of young gifted leaders in the church, and Praise’s session has been an excellent role model for them as they already act as a session in partnership with Pastor Pipi Dhali.

    In this meeting, we will also receive a recommendation from the Administrative Commission for Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church. For almost two years, the Presbytery has been working with the Eagle Rock congregation. Perhaps more than any of our churches, Eagle Rock was impacted by the COVID pandemic: they had several key leaders pass away, many of the church members struggled in their work in healthcare, their preschool had to close which depleted a major source of income, and their pastor took another call. The AC has worked to stabilize the church and continue to hold weekly worship for a regular but small group of members. The campus of the church has an excellent location and potential for various uses, and there are several partners in ministry who provide outreach to the community. But the plant needs significant work to restore the property, which scared off any prospective new ministries who might relocate there.

    The Eagle Rock AC is proposing a significant investment on the part of the Presbytery to renovate the property, and to welcome the new worshiping community Interwoven to make it their home base. Like many new church starts, Interwoven has envisioned themselves to be not only a place for worship but also for community development, and the Eagle Rock property has potential for supporting that. This will be a significant and very exciting commitment on the part of the Presbytery, enabled in God’s providence by the sale of the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church property, and by Interwoven pastor Harlan Redmond’s experience in funds development.

    In a troubled world, there is great need for God’s people to be channels of God’s grace. We do that in our lives in the world, acting out of faith to be a blessing for others, sometimes without anyone knowing how Christ leads and empowers us to serve. We also do that by acting as a body of Christ, taking bold actions of obedience, and showing a hurting world what great things God can do through us.

    I love how we are like leaven, raising up the world often without the world knowing it. But I also give thanks when we can be a glimpse of God’s kingdom, offering hope and inspiration especially for those who long to find a welcoming family of faith, who yearn for places of grace and reconciliation, who dream of moving beyond the cycles of poverty and struggle that constrain many of our neighbors. Thank God for the resources entrusted to us, and for all of us being willing to be that welcoming community— for new immigrants, for long-term residents who never knew the Presbyterian Church might be for them, for veterans of the faith, for young families and folks just coming to know who Jesus is, for cradle Presbyterians, for people with privilege looking for ways to share God’s generosity with the world, for folks who never thought God cared about them, for God’s children who just want to let others know the love we enjoy . . . that is who we are, and that is who God is for us. Thanks be to God!

    See you Saturday—and stay for lunch and celebrate!

    Peace,

    Wendy