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Last week was Ash Wednesday, when we are reminded of our own mortality.\u00a0 If someone put ashes on you, it\u2019s likely they also repeated this snippet from Genesis from the end of the punishment God stated to Adam at the time of the Fall.<\/p>\n
So last Wednesday, I was thinking of my own mortality as I awaited the ashes.\u00a0 I am now of the age when I think of mortality once in a while.\u00a0 It occurred to me that I now have an opportunity to be reminded of my mortality\u2014or more precisely, my physical frailty\u2014because I\u2019ve been having trouble with my eyes for several weeks now.\u00a0 I was diagnosed with moderate glaucoma a few years ago.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t impact my eyesight; the only reason I know is because my cousin told my sisters and me about the incidence of normal-pressure glaucoma in our family (it\u2019s more common in Japanese).\u00a0 Due to an allergic reaction to my current prescription, my eyesight is affected as I try new eye drops I can tolerate.<\/p>\n
As it happens, several of us on your Presbytery staff are being reminded of our human limitations.\u00a0 This coming Wednesday morning is the funeral mass for Twila\u2019s mother, Loretta Guimond.\u00a0 And this last Friday, Lauren Evans had emergency surgery to remove her gallbladder.\u00a0 Twila will be out of the office Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and Lauren was told by her doctor to take two weeks to recuperate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is tough for us, because as one pastor noted, we are a \u201cget it done\u201d kind of staff.\u00a0 Lauren was especially disappointed because she just started her work with Monte Vista Grove, and the people there were so welcoming to her as she began to meet with them.\u00a0 So I ask for your prayers for healing, and ask your patience as we need to slow down somewhat, and tend to some earthly cares.\u00a0 (Also, I will be in Georgia all next week, doing continuing education with my cohort of presbytery executives.)<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s getting easier for me to spend the Lenten season contemplating our mortal weakness.\u00a0 But because we live on this side of Good Friday, we know that we are not condemned to be dust for eternity.\u00a0 We are an Easter people, living in the hope and promise of eternal life that Jesus brings.\u00a0 In his resurrection, Jesus Christ vanquished the death sentence that this world gave him, and he saved us from the punishment that God gave Adam:\u00a0 \u201cJust as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 (1 Corinthians 15:49)<\/p>\n
This last weekend, several things happened that gave me hope even in my Lenten disciplines.\u00a0 First, Char Sevesind, former leader of South Hills Presbyterian, finally got to go home from a month in the hospital, recovering from surgery.\u00a0 Prayers of healing for her and her home nurse, husband Don (who has been a godsend for the presbytery, especially helping with the properties of South Hills, Baldwin Park, and West Covina).\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Northminster Presbyterian Church called Charlie Campbell to be their pastor with great optimism and gratitude.\u00a0 They have experienced significant transformation in recent years with Jake Kim.\u00a0 As they move forward with their installed pastor, they hope to build on their new outlook and lessons they\u2019ve learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And on Saturday, I attended an event at Chapman University.\u00a0 I was looking forward to the event, partly to see Cisa Payuyo, associate director of Chapman\u2019s Office of Church Relations and a national leader of the Disciples of Christ for many years.\u00a0 Cisa shares a common link with Dave Tomlinson, David Cortes-Fuentes, James and Charlene Jin Lee, Diane Frasher, Frank Hsieh, Bong Bringas, Zihong (Bob) Huang, Deidra Goulding, Brian Gaeta-Symonds, Jack Rogers and several other former pastors of this presbytery (and many others I am failing to mention), and myself\u2014we have all been teachers or students at SFTS\u2019 Southern California campus.\u00a0 I have not seen Cisa for several years, so it was a blessing to reconnect.\u00a0 I also heard briefly of the events of her life, which included a medical issue that blocked her ordination path.\u00a0 But the joyous news is that from this life-threatening crossroads, she has emerged as strong and vibrant as ever, and she is scheduled to be ordained this Pentecost!<\/p>\n
Indeed, we are mere mortals, created out of the stuff of this universe, imperfect and subject to illness and grief, pain and sin that cause fear, anger, and oppression.\u00a0 And yet, we are created by God who is almighty and creative beyond imagination, and in Christ we are loved beyond our shortcomings and mortality.\u00a0 So even as we accept our frailty and need for God, let us also hold fast to the faith and our own experience of God\u2019s life-giving love in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And, empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us go out and share Christ\u2019s good news of new life to all the world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In faith,
Wendy<\/p>\n
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You are dust,and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19 Last week was Ash Wednesday, when we are reminded of our own mortality.\u00a0 If someone put ashes on you, it\u2019s likely they also repeated this snippet from Genesis from the end of the punishment God stated to Adam at the time of the Fall. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27728,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23261\/revisions\/27728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}