Announcements

Announcements, March 12

THIS WEEK…

Walking the Stations of the Cross in Lent: The Stations of the Cross are an ancient meditation on Jesus’ trial, execution, and burial. Our Stations of the Cross, based on stations created by one of the parish’s founding members, are now hung around our Nave. You are invited to walk and pray the Stations of the Cross in our nave, any time during the season of Lent. Fridays at noon are a traditional time to do so. Call ahead to the church office (238-2781) or check in with Rev. Miranda  if you want to make sure the church is open when you’d like to come, or would like to walk the Stations with others. Our Stations booklet is based on Scripture and readings from Christian tradition.

Easter Flower Sign-Up: If you would like to sponsor and dedicate flowers for the Easter services, please see the sign-up sheet in the Gathering Area.

Rector’s Discretionary Fund Offering, Sunday, March 15: Half the cash in our collection plate, and any designated checks, will go towards the Rector’s Discretionary Fund this day and on every third Sunday. This fund is a way to quietly help people with direct financial needs, in the parish and the wider community. Thank you for your generosity.

Youth group this Friday in the parish center: middle high 5:00-7:30, senior high 7:00-9:30. Pizza and snacks provided! Contact Sharon for more information.

POSTPONED – WATCH FOR NEW DATE!: Taco/Potato Bar at the Parish Center: Sponsored by the St. Dunstan’s Middle and High School Youth Groups.?? This is an opportunity to see the Parish Center which was renovated as part of the Open Door Project and meet our youth group members. This is also a fundraiser for the two mission trips our youth groups will be embarking on this summer. (We will likely reschedule for May!)

Saturday Book Club, March 21, 10am: American Nations by Colin Woodard

According to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots. In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future. From the Deep South to the Far West, to Yankeedom to El Norte, Woodard (author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good) reveals how each region continues to uphold its distinguishing ideals and identities today, with results that can be seen in the composition of the U.S. Congress or on the county-by-county election maps of the 2016 presidential election.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Bite Size Climate, Sunday, March 22, 11:50 – 12:10: Many of us are fearful and sad about climate change and its many impacts. An important first step towards change is to be informed citizens who understand the issue and can talk about it with others – since we’ll all need to work together for change. Come watch a short video about composting and carbon catcher, and share ideas and questions about composting!

Dinner at Grace Shelter, March 22: Thank you to all of you who donated extra goodies for the Christmas time dinner. We have this dinner in March and again in June to finish out this calendar year. Presently we are serving about 120 men but during the summer it drops to about 80.

Ladies Night Out, March 27, 6pm:  We will meet at Monk’s Bar and Grill for tasty food and great conversation.  Monk’s is located at 8313 Murphy Drive in Middleton.  Everyone welcome to this opportunity for community.  Please let Marian Barnes know if you can make it.

Madison-Area Julian Gathering, Wednesday, April 8: We welcome everyone who is interested in learning more about contemplative spirituality in the Christian tradition.  We meet the second Wednesday of the month for a period of contemplative prayer, after which we discuss a reading from Julian of Norwich, a 14th Century English mystic who has been called “a theologian for our time.”  We would love to have you join us.  If you have questions, contact Susan Fiore, ObJN.

Would you like to pray with and for other St. Dunstan’s folk? Our Prayer Chain is an email list that receives updates about people and situations in need of prayer, in our parish and beyond. To join the list of people who receive these requests and holds them in prayer, email . You can also send prayer requests to the same address.

Announcements for E-news: If you have an announcement you would like to see in the weekly e-news or the Sunday News and Notes, we are happy to include it. Send announcements to the office at . We ask that all announcements be submitted by the end of the day on Wednesday, because we prepare the E-news and News & Notes on Thursday morning.  If you have an announcement or event you’d like to share but are uncertain whether it’s appropriate for the e-news, you can send it to Rev. Miranda .

DIOCESAN LIFE…

Camp Webb 2020 (June 21-27) is accepting applications now! Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, for children and youth grades 3 through senior high. It is held at a camp outside Elkhorn, WI. Camp tuition is $400, with a deposit of $100 due at the time of registration. St. Dunstan’s offers $150 in aid to all our campers, with additional assistance possible; contact Rev. Miranda () or our treasure Val McAuliffe () for financial assistance. Camp Webb usually fills up, so register soon! Use this link:

http://www.diomil.org/mission-and-ministry/children-and-youth-ministries/camp-webb/?fbclid=IwAR1ddRDpmAdFIEOhLgkNTLaKuf_RqvllYA86OJk-hLrcAoIXrLgQPQxiFJ8

Diocesan Prayer as we search for the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee: Gracious and loving God in whom we live and move and have our being: we pray for your guidance and wisdom that we may faithfully follow your calling in our lives and as we as the Diocese of Milwaukee discern the calling of our twelfth bishop. We give you thanks for the ministry of Bishop Miller and his family, especially for the health that has been brought to our diocese through his leadership. We pray for those whom you have called to serve on our Standing, Search, and Transition Committees, and for those who will respond to your call to enter into discernment with us to be our next bishop. Give us all listening and prayerful hearts for this most important task. This we ask in the name of the One who said, “Come, follow me.” Amen.

Sermons, Spiritual Practices, Stories

Sermon, March 8

Our lectionary – our Sunday cycle of Scripture readings – sometimes pairs our lessons by theme or topic. Sometimes there will be a thread that connects our Old Testament lesson with the Gospel or Epistle. Not always – sometimes we’re just reading along in each of our Scripture slots. But this is one of those Sundays – and the connection is pretty obvious. Paul, in the letter to the Romans, is talking about Abraham, from the book of Genesis. (By the way, our passage from Genesis is before Abram’s name is changed to Abraham by God. But I’m going to follow Paul in just using the more familiar name Abraham.)

In this section of his letter to the church in Rome, Paul is laying out the case for how there can be righteousness before God outside of the Law. He doesn’t believe, and doesn’t want to say, that the Law – the way of holiness of the Jewish people – was a mistake. But he does want to say that there’s something more fundamental, a deeper faithfulness and holiness of life, that underlies both Jewish law and the Christian way. So he turns to Abraham – the father of Israel’s covenant relationship with God. The one to whom God first says, I will be your God, and you and your family and descendants will be My people. 

When God addresses Abraham in today’s text and says, Go! Leave everything familiar! I have something new for you! – this is the first time God has spoken to a human since Noah, ten generations earlier, as far as the Biblical text is concerned. Abraham has never even heard of God – THIS God, the God Israel comes to know by the holy name I AM. And yet, Abraham listens – and obeys. Paul says, Right from the start, Abraham trusted in God – and that trust counted as righteousness, before and therefore outside of the covenant. 

So, what Abraham teaches us about faith is, Just trust God. 

Well. Paul is oversimplifying Abraham’s story a lot. Here are some things I think Abraham teaches us about faith. 

First, God knows our deepest hopes and longings… and may use them to draw us into God’s purposes and projects. When our story begins, Abraham and Sarah are middle-aged and well-off. They are not sitting around thinking, “If only we could leave everything we know, set off on a risky journey to an unknown destination, enter into a perplexing relationship with a mysterious divine being that makes both joyful promises and terrifying demands, and become the parents of a new people and a new faith.”

But there is something they really really want. They want a child. A child they can name as their own. Their longing for parenthood is a theme for their entire story. And, to put it bluntly, it’s what God uses to get them on board with God’s agenda. 

When God says, “I will make of you a great nation,” God is promising Abraham that he will have descendants. That promise gets clearer and clearer as it is repeated in chapters 13, 15, 17, 18, and 22. 

God is making Abraham and Sarah an offer they can’t refuse. God has a little plan to found a new nation, who will be God’s people and learn God’s ways. And God tells them, Leave everything; change everything; become the people I call you to be; and I will give you a child. 

Don’t be surprised if God uses your deepest desires to draw you into a larger purpose. I’ve seen it happen. God can be sneaky like that. Maybe those deep longings get fulfilled in the end – maybe they don’t. Maybe they get healed or transformed; maybe they remain a lifelong ache. But in the meantime you’ve been woven into the fabric of God’s work within and among us, God’s work of reconciling and restoring, connecting and renewing and making whole.  

The second thing I think Abraham can teach us about faith is that trusting God is hard. In our passage from the letter to the Romans today, Paul is quoting from Genesis chapter 15. Here’s the passage: “God brought Abraham outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And Abraham believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:5-6) A few verses later, Paul says,“Abraham did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.”

Paul makes it sound like Abraham’s faith in God’s promises was immediate and complete. And that’s just not true. In Genesis chapters 17 and 18, first Abraham, and then Sarah, literally laugh at the idea that God is going to bring forth a child from their aged bodies. 

Abraham has something most of us don’t: God flat-out tells him God’s plans for his life. Most of us don’t get a memo that clear. We look for the places where our deep joy meets the world’s deep need, or where there’s a problem that we’re able to solve, or where we are able to use our gifts and skills to add to the world’s measure of hope, wholeness, and delight… And we try to walk in that direction, as best we can. 

But God tells Abraham exactly what God wants Abraham to do, and what Abraham will get out of it; and Abraham STILL struggles to trust God. We see Abraham’s struggle with trust not only in the fact that God has to keep repeating Godself – God repeats God’s promise literally six times in ten chapters – but also in Abraham’s actions.

Right after today’s Genesis passage, there’s a famine in the area where Abraham and his family are staying. So they go into Egypt, where there’s more food. And Abraham has an idea. He tells Sarah, his wife, “I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.” (12:11-13)

The artist James Tissot painted wonderful pictures of some moments in this cycle of stories. Here is Abraham explaining this plan to Sarah. 

SOOOO they go into Egypt and everyone admires Sarah and Abraham tells everyone that she’s his sister. And word gets to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, about this beautiful foreign woman, and he takes her into his household. No problem, right? Abraham should be delighted to have his sister become a companion to the King of Egypt! 

Except not so much. Fortunately, God is looking out for Sarah, if Abraham isn’t! Mysterious plagues affect the whole palace. One commentator suggests we imagine an awkward bedroom scene – perhaps Pharaoh is examining his sores and lamenting aloud, “Why is this happening?” And Sarah says, “Welllllll….” Pharaoh calls Abraham and says, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’, so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and be gone.” (12:18-19)

Okay, well, Abraham has just met God; maybe it’s understandable that he doesn’t really trust God yet. Except that MUCH later, in chapter 20, the EXACT SAME THING happens again with King Abimelech of Gerar. This time, after it’s revealed that Sarah is his wife, Abraham explains: Well, she IS actually my half-sister so it’s not a lie. And Abraham continues – I quote:  “When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, He is my brother.’” Not only does Abraham not trust God enough to look out for him and Sarah, and undertakes this weird lie that keeps putting his wife into risky situations, he’s now BLAMING GOD for putting him in the situation by sending him out to wander the world – and giving him such a beautiful wife…!

Paul concludes his passage on Abraham with these words: “No distrust made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what God had promised.”

I mean. 

Paul knows his Genesis, I’m sure. He’s brushing aside all the complexity of the story because he’s just using it to make a point. He doesn’t want to rehash the whole Abraham cycle like I do. But I don’t think he’s doing anybody any favors by insisting that it’s a simple, one-time choice to trust God’s goodness and God’s purposes in your life. He knew better. We know better. Trusting God is hard. Which brings me to point number three. 

The third thing I think Abraham can teach us about faith is that there’s a really fine line between following God’s call, and taking over from God. God has promised Abraham a child, a child of his own body. But years go by and it doesn’t happen. So Abraham and Sarah decide to take matters into their own hands. Sarah has an Egyptian slave-girl named Hagar. She says to Abraham, “Look, God has prevented me from having children. Why don’t you spend some time with my slave-girl? Maybe I can have children through her.” It’s a strange idea to us but this kind of quasi-surrogacy shows up again in the Jacob stories; it made some kind of sense in context. 

So Abraham follows Sarah’s suggestion, and Hagar gets pregnant. But far from being the ideal solution, it tips the household into crisis. Hagar is proud of her pregnancy and feels contempt towards Sarah; Sarah is bitterly jealous. She goes to Abraham in a rage, demanding that he do something. Abraham says, I dunno, she’s your slave, do what you want! And Sarah treats Hagar so harshly that she runs away into the wilderness. (Genesis 16:1-6)  

Nobody is admirable in this chapter of the story. 

The angel of the LORD finds Hagar in the wilderness, and tells her that she will bear a son, that she will become the mother of a great nation; and… that she must return to her mistress and submit to her. Tissot painted this scene too.

Hagar’s encounter with God in the wilderness is actually pretty remarkable. God is establishing a lineage, a tribe, with Abraham and Sarah – patriarchal and defined by ancestry. But here God acknowledges and includes a woman, an ethnic and racial outsider, as part of God’s story. Hagar is the first person in Scripture to name God: She calls God El-Roi, the One who Sees. 

God honors Abraham and Sarah’s mistake in making Hagar a tool, an object, in their quest for a son. But the story is pretty clear that it was a mistake. 

The thing is, I have 100% done things like this. Nothing quite this dramatic, mind you, but – I have definitely gotten impatient with God and taken matters into my own hands, making choices that I could see later had not been for the best. I know the feeling of getting a glimpse of God’s intentions and then doubling down on MAKING IT HAPPEN. 

It takes ongoing, thoughtful discernment to know the difference between the places where we should take steps towards what we need or want or hope for, and when we should wait and watch and listen for God to take the next step, or show us the path. Maybe that sounds abstract to some of you – but I have versions of this conversation with people ALL THE TIME. About seeking wellness, or clarity in a relationship, or a new career or place to live, or discerning a vocation – so much more. Having the courage to change the things we can, the serenity and trust to wait for God’s action or God’s guidance on the things we can’t, and above all, the wisdom to know the difference, is daily and lifelong spiritual work. Abraham and Sarah got it right sometimes and wrong sometimes. So do most of us. 

In the end Abraham and Sarah’s journeys of striving to trust and follow God look a lot like most of ours. Not a simple, total, one-and-done commitment, as Paul suggests. Instead, this is a story of wondering and wandering, struggle and yearning, mistakes and missteps, seeking and only sometimes finding. 

But it’s also a story of God’s faithfulness and God’s patience. God doesn’t give up on Abraham and Sarah – even when they stray far from God’s hopes for them, even when they do stupid and hurtful stuff. God bears with them; God keeps working in their hearts and lives – for their sake and for the sake of all those whom God seeks to bless through them. 

So it is with us, beloveds. Faith in God – trust in God, a better translation – isn’t like a college degree that you achieve and then just have from then on. It is wondering and wandering, struggle and yearning, seeking and only sometimes finding. What we can trust is that God is patient with us; God persists; and that the good things that God wants to do for us, and through us, are robust and flexible enough to survive our worst choices. With apologies to Paul, that is how I find encouragement in Abraham’s faith.

Announcements

Announcements, March 5

THIS WEEK…

Youth group this Friday in the parish center: middle high 5:30-7:30, senior high 7:00-9:30. Pizza and snacks provided! Contact Sharon for more information.

The funeral for Sharon Bloodgood will be on Saturday, March 7, at 2pm. All those who care for Sharon and her husband John are invited to attend. Members of the parish who would like to contribute to a light reception following the service, or help with set-up or cleanup, should contact Barbara Karst or Connie Ott.

Examen Talk, 9am, Sundays in Lent, starting March 8: The Examen is a simple and profound method of prayerful reflection on our own lives. At 9am on Sundays, March 8 through 29th, we’ll simply do the Examen together, prayerfully and conversationally. What were some good moments and hard moments of the past week, & what might they tell us about ourselves and about what God is doing in our lives?

Children’s Choir Rehearsal, immediately after 10am worship, March 8 and 15: Kids who would like to help learn and lead music at St. Dunstan’s are invited up to the music loft immediately after worship. (A snack will be waiting there; please let us know of any special dietary needs!) The kids will eat snack in the loft, then transition into their practice time. There will be a clear ending time for the practice, as well; we expect to wrap up around noon or shortly thereafter.

Spirituality of Parenting Lunch, Sunday, March 8, 11:30am: All who seek meaning in the journey of parenthood (at any age or stage) are welcome to come for food and conversation. Child care and a simple meal provided.

Madison-Area Julian Gathering, Wednesday, March 11, 1pm: A Julian Gathering is open to everyone and you are welcome at all times.  We support each other in the practice of contemplative prayer and contemplative spirituality, and have the quintessentially Anglican writings of St. Julian of Norwich at their core.  They are for all who want to deepen their life of faith through the practice of contemplative prayer, for beginners as well as those already practicing. For additional information, contact Susan Fiore, ObJN.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Taco/Potato Bar at the Parish Center on March 20, 6:00pm: Sponsored by the St. Dunstan’s Middle and High School Youth Groups. This is an opportunity to see the Parish Center which was renovated as part of the Open Door Project and meet our youth group members. This is also a fundraiser for the two mission trips our youth groups will be embarking on this summer.

Saturday Book Club, March 21, 10am: American Nations by Colin Woodard

According to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots. In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future. From the Deep South to the Far West, to Yankeedom to El Norte, Woodard (author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good) reveals how each region continues to uphold its distinguishing ideals and identities today, with results that can be seen in the composition of the U.S. Congress or on the county-by-county election maps of the 2016 presidential election.

Dinner at Grace Shelter, March 22: Thank you to all of you who donated extra goodies for the Christmas time dinner. We have this dinner in March and again in June to finish out this calendar year. Presently we are serving about 120 men but during the summer it drops to about 80.

Would you like to pray with and for other St. Dunstan’s folk? Our Prayer Chain is an email list that receives updates about people and situations in need of prayer, in our parish and beyond. To join the list of people who receive these requests and holds them in prayer, email . You can also send prayer requests to the same address.

DIOCESAN LIFE…

Camp Webb 2020 (June 21-27) is accepting applications now! Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, for children and youth grades 3 through senior high. It is held at a camp outside Elkhorn, WI. Camp tuition is $400, with a deposit of $100 due at the time of registration. St. Dunstan’s offers $150 in aid to all our campers, with additional assistance possible; contact Rev. Miranda () or our treasure Val McAuliffe () for financial assistance. Camp Webb usually fills up, so register soon! Use this link:

http://www.diomil.org/mission-and-ministry/children-and-youth-ministries/camp-webb/?fbclid=IwAR1ddRDpmAdFIEOhLgkNTLaKuf_RqvllYA86OJk-hLrcAoIXrLgQPQxiFJ8

Diocesan Prayer as we search for the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee: Gracious and loving God in whom we live and move and have our being: we pray for your guidance and wisdom that we may faithfully follow your calling in our lives and as we as the Diocese of Milwaukee discern the calling of our twelfth bishop. We give you thanks for the ministry of Bishop Miller and his family, especially for the health that has been brought to our diocese through his leadership. We pray for those whom you have called to serve on our Standing, Search, and Transition Committees, and for those who will respond to your call to enter into discernment with us to be our next bishop. Give us all listening and prayerful hearts for this most important task. This we ask in the name of the One who said, “Come, follow me.” Amen.

Announcements

Announcements, February 27

THIS WEEK…

Ladies Night Out, February 28, 6pm: All ladies from the church are welcome to gather at the Olive Garden, 7017 Mineral Point Rd. Consider joining us for food and conversation. 

Welcome Adam McCluskey as our Preacher on Sunday, March 1: This year Rev. Miranda is inviting some members of the parish to share the blessing and responsibility of preaching on Sunday mornings, so that we can hear a wider range of voices making sense of Scripture and bringing it into our lives and hearts. Next Sunday, our preacher will be Adam McCluskey. Adam is a 2012 MDiv graduate of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York, NY. He joined St. Dunstan’s as a parishioner in 2018 after six years as Christian Education Director at Calvary Episcopal Church in Batavia, IL. Adam is currently a stay-at-home dad and lives on the West Side of Madison with his wife, Philosophy Walker, and their three-year-old son, Wren.

Stewarding Land for Justice, Creation Care, and Evangelism, Sunday, March 1, 9am: Rev. Miranda and Carrie Tolejano recently participated in the kickoff retreat for the ChurchLands learning cohort, a pilot program to help Episcopal churches reflect on how to use their land. Interested? Come hear some highlights of what we talked about, and how you might be part of the conversation at St. Dunstan’s in the months ahead!

Birthday and Anniversary blessings and Healing Prayers will be given this Sunday, March 1, as is our custom on the first Sunday of the month.

MOM Special Offering, Sunday, March 1: On Sunday, half the cash in our offering plate and any designated checks will be given to Middleton Outreach Ministry’s food pantry. Thank you for your generous support!

The funeral for Karen Woods will be on Sunday, March 1, at 1:30pm. All those who care for Karen, Katie Ping and Danielle are invited to attend. Members of the parish who would like to contribute to a light reception following the service, or help with set-up or cleanup, should contact Connie Ott.

Buildings & Grounds Shared Work Session, Monday, March 2, 7pm: Come work along on small and medium maintenance, repair and improvement tasks around the church. Right now we are especially seeking people with design and carpentry skills to help plan & install some upgrades for our music loft stairs and railings. All are welcome! Note: there will not be a sit-down meeting at this gathering.

Lent Resources: We have two take-home Lent resources available starting this Sunday, for observing this season in your daily life. One resource is the “Breaking the Chains” resource, which invites you to make a paper chain & then break the chains day by day, doing the activities suggested on each paper link as you go. This is a good resource for all ages. The second resource is a booklet called “Practicing Courage with All your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind,” a booklet with reflections and invitations to reflect on the themes of fear, trust, and courage in our own lives. This is a good resource for grownups.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

The funeral for Sharon Bloodgood will be on Saturday, March 7, at 2pm. All those who care for Sharon and her husband John are invited to attend. Members of the parish who would like to contribute to a light reception following the service, or help with set-up or cleanup, should contact Barbara Karst or Connie Ott.

Examen Talk, 9am, Sundays in Lent, starting March 8: The Examen is a simple and profound method of prayerful reflection on our own lives. At 9am on Sundays, March 8 through 29th, we’ll simply do the Examen together, prayerfully and conversationally. What were some good moments and hard moments of the past week, & what might they tell us about ourselves and about what God is doing in our lives?

Spirituality of Parenting Lunch, Sunday, March 8, 11:30am: All who seek meaning in the journey of parenthood (at any age or stage) are welcome to come for food and conversation. Child care and a simple meal provided.

Madison-Area Julian Gathering, Wednesday, March 11, 1pm: A Julian Gathering is open to everyone and you are welcome at all times.  We support each other in the practice of contemplative prayer and contemplative spirituality, and have the quintessentially Anglican writings of St. Julian of Norwich at their core.  They are for all who want to deepen their life of faith through the practice of contemplative prayer, for beginners as well as those already practicing. For additional information, contact Susan Fiore, ObJN.

Dinner at Grace Shelter, March 22: Thank you to all of you who donated extra goodies for the Christmas time dinner. We have this dinner in March and again in June to finish out this calendar year. Presently we are serving about 120 men but during the summer it drops to about 80.

The Rite of Reconciliation is a simple practice of offering up our sins to God for cleansing and healing. Sin often has to do with habits of mind and action that tend to separate us from God, from one another, and from our truest selves. Most of us can easily name two or three ongoing struggles in our lives – areas where we strive, and sometimes fail, to be healthier and kinder and more ethical people. You may seek the Rite of Reconciliation at any time, but Lent is an appropriate season for self-reflection and penitence. If you would like to experience the ministry of Reconciliation, contact Rev. Miranda to make an appointment.

Have you been baptized? The Prayer Book tells us, “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.” From the earliest years of Christianity, the season of Lent (which begins February 10) was when new Christians studied the faith and prepared for baptism at Easter. If you have never been baptized, or aren’t sure, and would like to learn more about this rite, please contact Rev. Miranda.

Would you like to pray with and for other St. Dunstan’s folk? Our Prayer Chain is an email list that receives updates about people and situations in need of prayer, in our parish and beyond. To join the list of people who receive these requests and holds them in prayer, email . You can also send prayer requests to the same address.

DIOCESAN LIFE…

Camp Webb 2020 (June 21-27) is accepting applications now! Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, for children and youth grades 3 through senior high. It is held at a camp outside Elkhorn, WI. Camp tuition is $400, with a deposit of $100 due at the time of registration. St. Dunstan’s offers $150 in aid to all our campers, with additional assistance possible; contact Rev. Miranda or our treasure Val McAuliffe for financial assistance. Camp Webb usually fills up, so register soon! Use this link:

http://www.diomil.org/mission-and-ministry/children-and-youth-ministries/camp-webb/?fbclid=IwAR1ddRDpmAdFIEOhLgkNTLaKuf_RqvllYA86OJk-hLrcAoIXrLgQPQxiFJ8

Diocesan Prayer as we search for the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee: Gracious and loving God in whom we live and move and have our being: we pray for your guidance and wisdom that we may faithfully follow your calling in our lives and as we as the Diocese of Milwaukee discern the calling of our twelfth bishop. We give you thanks for the ministry of Bishop Miller and his family, especially for the health that has been brought to our diocese through his leadership. We pray for those whom you have called to serve on our Standing, Search, and Transition Committees, and for those who will respond to your call to enter into discernment with us to be our next bishop. Give us all listening and prayerful hearts for this most important task. This we ask in the name of the One who said, “Come, follow me.” Amen.

Announcements

Announcements, February 20

THIS WEEK…

Making Music Together at St. Dunstan’s: A Visit with Paul Vasile: Paul is a church musician, composer, and consultant. His expertise includes helping faith communities express their core values and theological commitments through music; expanding ideas and practices of shared music-making; and helping bring people with different backgrounds and expectations together around a common vision for making sacred music together.

Paul will meet with choir members on the evening of Thursday, February 20th; lead an open-to-the-public song and music jam on Friday evening, the 21st; lead a congregational workshop on shared music-making on Saturday the 22nd from 10am to 3pm; and worship with us on Sunday. More information is available on a handout at church.

We look forward from benefiting from Paul’s skills at helping us build musical capacity, confidence, and participation for all!

Safeguarding God’s Children, February 22, 9am-Noon, St. Dunstan’s Parish Center: Safeguarding training is required for anyone on vestry or who works regularly with kids and youth, and recommended for all regular church volunteers. It’s an opportunity to learn about how to help our church be a safe environment for kids and youth.  To register for one of the classes visit this website (make sure you register for the Madison location): http://www.diomil.org/safeguarding-gods-children-class-with-trainer/

For more information on Safeguarding classes and the Safe Church Program, please visit the Safe Church page on the diocesan website.

Last Sunday All-Ages Worship, Sunday, February 23, 10am: Our last Sunday worship is intended especially to help kids (and grownups who are new to our pattern of worship) to engage and participate fully. NOTE: Our 8am service always follows our regular order of worship.

Lent Resources: We have two take-home Lent resources available starting this Sunday, for observing this season in your daily life. One resource is the “Breaking the Chains” resource, which invites you to make a paper chain & then break the chains day by day, doing the activities suggested on each paper link as you go. This is a good resource for all ages. The second resource is a booklet called “Practicing Courage with All your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind,” a booklet with reflections and invitations to reflect on the themes of fear, trust, and courage in our own lives. This is a good resource for grownups.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, Tuesday, February 25, 5:00 – 6:30pm: Tasty food and intergenerational fellowship! We’ll gather at 5:00pm with prayer and song, share a meal, and mark the turning season by burying Alleluias. Friends welcome! Suggested donation of $5 per adult, $10 per household. Kids eat free. All proceeds go to support the St. Dunstan’s Campership Fund, which helps cover costs for St. Dunstan’s kids to attend Camp Webb, our diocesan summer camp.

Chris Barnes is organizing helpers for the meal this year. Talk with Chris at church; or email and we’ll put you in touch!

Ash Wednesday services will be at noon, 4pm, and 7pm on Wednesday, February 26. The 4pm service is especially intended for kids and families.

“Ashes To Go”: If you are unable to attend one of our Ash Wednesday liturgies but it’s important for you to receive the imposition of ashes on this day, Rev. Miranda will offer Ashes to Go by the main driveway from 8 – 9am and 5 – 6pm.

Ladies Night Out, February 28, 6pm: All ladies from the church are welcome to gather at the Olive Garden, 7017 Mineral Point Rd. Consider joining us for food and conversation.

Tree of Wishes: Back in May of 2012, a group of students whose families were experiencing homelessness wrote some of their wishes on ribbons – revealing that even among their family’s struggles, they have hopes and dreams. The Tree of Wishes is a traveling piece of art to raise awareness of homelessness and its impact on kids and youth. The Tree will be with us in February and March. Take a look and say a prayer for those experiencing homelessness in our community today.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Welcome Adam McCluskey as our Preacher on Sunday, March 1: This year Rev. Miranda is inviting some members of the parish to share the blessing and responsibility of preaching on Sunday mornings, so that we can hear a wider range of voices making sense of Scripture and bringing it into our lives and hearts. Next Sunday, our preacher will be Adam McCluskey. Adam is a 2012 MDiv graduate of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York, NY. He joined St. Dunstan’s as a parishioner in 2018 after six years as Christian Education Director at Calvary Episcopal Church in Batavia, IL. Adam is currently a stay-at-home dad and lives on the West Side of Madison with his wife, Philosophy Walker, and their three-year-old son, Wren.

Stewarding Land for Justice, Creation Care, and Evangelism, Sunday, March 1, 9am: Rev. Miranda and Carrie Tolejano recently participated in the kickoff retreat for the ChurchLands learning cohort, a pilot program to help Episcopal churches reflect on how to use their land. Interested? Come hear some highlights of what we talked about, and how you might be part of the conversation at St. Dunstan’s in the months ahead!

Examen Talk, 9am, Sundays in Lent, starting March 8: The Examen is a simple and profound method of prayerful reflection on our own lives. At 9am on Sundays, March 8 through 29th, we’ll simply do the Examen together, prayerfully and conversationally. What were some good moments and hard moments of the past week, & what might they tell us about ourselves and about what God is doing in our lives?

Spirituality of Parenting Lunch, Sunday, March 8, 11:30am: All who seek meaning in the journey of parenthood (at any age or stage) are welcome to come for food and conversation. Child care and a simple meal provided.

The Rite of Reconciliation is a simple practice of offering up our sins to God for cleansing and healing. Sin often has to do with habits of mind and action that tend to separate us from God, from one another, and from our truest selves. Most of us can easily name two or three ongoing struggles in our lives – areas where we strive, and sometimes fail, to be healthier and kinder and more ethical people. You may seek the Rite of Reconciliation at any time, but Lent is an appropriate season for self-reflection and penitence. If you would like to experience the ministry of Reconciliation, contact Rev. Miranda to make an appointment.

Have you been baptized? The Prayer Book tells us, “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.” From the earliest years of Christianity, the season of Lent (which begins February 10) was when new Christians studied the faith and prepared for baptism at Easter. If you have never been baptized, or aren’t sure, and would like to learn more about this rite, please contact Rev. Miranda.

Would you like to pray with and for other St. Dunstan’s folk? Our Prayer Chain is an email list that receives updates about people and situations in need of prayer, in our parish and beyond. To join the list of people who receive these requests and holds them in prayer, email . You can also send prayer requests to the same address.

DIOCESAN LIFE…

Camp Webb 2020 (June 21-27) is accepting applications now! Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, for children and youth grades 3 through senior high. It is held at a camp outside Elkhorn, WI. Camp tuition is $400, with a deposit of $100 due at the time of registration. St. Dunstan’s offers $150 in aid to all our campers, with additional assistance possible; contact Rev. Miranda () or our treasure Val McAuliffe () for financial assistance. Camp Webb usually fills up, so register soon! Use this link:

http://www.diomil.org/mission-and-ministry/children-and-youth-ministries/camp-webb/?fbclid=IwAR1ddRDpmAdFIEOhLgkNTLaKuf_RqvllYA86OJk-hLrcAoIXrLgQPQxiFJ8

Diocesan Prayer as we search for the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee: Gracious and loving God in whom we live and move and have our being: we pray for your guidance and wisdom that we may faithfully follow your calling in our lives and as we as the Diocese of Milwaukee discern the calling of our twelfth bishop. We give you thanks for the ministry of Bishop Miller and his family, especially for the health that has been brought to our diocese through his leadership. We pray for those whom you have called to serve on our Standing, Search, and Transition Committees, and for those who will respond to your call to enter into discernment with us to be our next bishop. Give us all listening and prayerful hearts for this most important task. This we ask in the name of the One who said, “Come, follow me.” Amen.

Sermons

Sermon, Feb. 16

  1. Today’s Gospel – Continuing the Sermon on the Mount 
    1. The most complete sermon we have from Jesus.
    2. Shared in Luke & Mt – gotten from a common source whom Mark didn’t have. 
    3. What Jesus has said so far: 
      1. The “blesseds” (Beatitudes) – says, the people who are blessed, lucky, happy, might be very different people from the people who LOOK blessed, lucky, and happy by the world’s standards.
      2. He calls on those who follow him to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Living the way God calls you to live has a ripple effect on the people and community around you. Your holiness isn’t just for you or for God; it’s for others.
  1. Today’s portion: Faithfulness to the Laws of Scripture, of Torah. 
    1. Jesus: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
    2. He goes on to touch on a number of subjects from the Torah – murder, adultery, divorce, vows, revenge, how to treat enemies – and says that he’s not here to throw out these core practices of holiness, but to call people to even deeper faithfulness. 
      1. Not just avoiding outright murder – a rather minimal standard! – but striving not to demonize or diminish others, and seeking reconciliation whenever possible. 
      2. Not just keeping your promises, but living with such integrity that you don’t have to make promises – if you say Yes or No, people know you mean it. 
      3. Not just disciplining your body to avoid violating your marriage vows, but disciplining your mind, heart, and imagination to fidelity as well. And likewise, taking those vows seriously enough not to end them lightly. 
        1. Jesus’ words about divorce here can hit some people hard. Pay attention to his exact wording: it’s really clear that divorce in this setting was something men did to women. And since women only had standing and security through connection with a man, divorce was terribly destructive for a woman and potentially her children as well. Jesus’ teaching here is really  about defending the vulnerable.
      4. With all these topics, Jesus says: Go farther – much father – than the Law demands. And in a specific direction – the direction of minimizing harm. Of mercy and integrity. 
    1. Notice Jesus is being selective in the elements of the Law he invokes here! 
      1. The 613 commandments in the Torah cover everything from faithful worship to just business practices, from acceptable foods to what to do if a dead lizard falls into your food storage jars. 
      2. Jesus teaches elsewhere that many of the laws of Judaism are not that important for the people of his new movement. 
      3. And the Church discerned early on that Christians didn’t need to practice circumcision or keep Jewish food rules – remember “Arise, kill, eat”, from a few weeks ago? 
      4. The parts of the Law that seem to matter most to Jesus – the parts he is here to fulfill rather than abolish – are the parts that have to do with how we treat one another. And not only our actions but our hearts – because Jesus knows what we all know: what’s in our hearts shows in our actions. 
  1. Next portion of the Sermon on the Mount builds on this – 
    1. Cut off this year by a short Epiphany season. 
    2. As in today’s passage, Jesus quotes the Law & then describes how his followers should live beyond the Law. 
    3. ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” 
      1. Quoting a legal teaching from the Torah. Clearest statement, Leviticus 24: “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.”  
    4. “But” – says Jesus – “I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” 
    5. “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer the other one as well.” This saying is more famous in the version from Luke’s Gospel: “Turn the other cheek.” Have you heard that?… 
    6. It has a long history of being used to advise people to put up with bad treatment. To let bullies or abusers have their way. To be passive in the face of harm and injustice. 
    7. Does that sound like advice you want to get from Jesus? … Well, here’s the good news: Lots of people think that is NOT what Jesus is saying. It’s more interesting than that. 
    8. I did some research about this for our youth retreat last winter, and found some stuff worth sharing. I’m going to need a couple of volunteers… at lest one of you needs to be right-handed. 
  1. TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK
    1. Mt says, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” Who’s right-handed? – OK, A, you’re the striker. B, you’re the person being struck; which is your right cheek? 
      1. A,  use your dominant right hand to pretend to strike B on the right cheek. Don’t actually make contact, just show us what you would do. … So that’s a backhand, right? That’s a gesture with a lot of social context. Do you backhand a social equal, or someone you think is inferior?…. 
        1. It’s how you hit a child or a slave or someone you think is less than you. How a Roman soldier might smack a local peasant whom he thinks was looking at him funny. 
    2. So Jesus is talking about a specific kind of social situation: A superior striking an inferior. Somebody with power striking someone with less power or no power, with the intent to punish and shame them. 
    3. What do you think the powerful person expects to happen after they backhand this servant or peasant or whatever? … they certainly don’t expect them to stay here and ask for more! 
    4. Let’s continue our demonstration. If B here turns their left cheek to invite another blow, suddenly A has to strike with their open hand – it’s a different gesture, right? 
      1. (Dismiss volunteers!) 
      2. Look, it’s hard to be sure what these gestures meant in the distant past. … 
      3. But we have a clue in a Jewish legal text from maybe 100 years later, the Bava Qamma (8.6), which says that if a person slaps another person with open hand, he must pay him 200 zuz; if he strikes him with the back of his hand, he must pay him 400 zuz. 
      4. That difference isn’t about injury; it’s about honor. The backhand is more humiliating. Another Talmud text describes the backhand as a gesture of public shame. 
      5. Some interpreters argue that the open-handed slap – or maybe a blow with a fist – is more how you strike a social equal. So the person turning the other cheek upsets the social dynamics. 
    5. I don’t want to try to hard to lock down what this might have meant. But I do think it’s clear that Jesus is talking about a backhanded strike, a blow intended to humiliate; and that offering the other cheek instead of scuttling away would put the striker off-balance, both physically and socially. 
  1. There are similar arguments to be made about the next verses as well – the coat and shirt, and walking the second mile. 
    1. To unpack the simpler one very briefly: when Roman soldiers, the occupying army, were on the move around Judea, they were allowed to demand that Judeans carry their pack and equipment for a mile. Just, “Hey! You! Carry this!” Jesus says, If anyone – the “anyone” here is a Roman soldier – forces you to go one mile, go the second mile. Don’t just do what you have to do; go farther. Make it a kindness – a favor. 
    2. Like turning the other cheek, at first glance it looks like submission, like passivity – but when you think about it, especially in the context of the stark social divisions of Jesus’ time, these are actions that pose a subtle and uncomfortable challenge to the status quo. 
      1. In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” (Romans 12:20)
    3. The 20th century movement for non-violent resistance drew significant inspiration in this teaching of Jesus. What Jesus is preaching here isn’t, Just let the bad guys have their way. It’s responding to injustice and cruelty by visibly refusing to cede your humanity, your agency. And that, ideally, makes the oppressor feel uncomfortable and maybe even ashamed. 
  1. Jesus concludes this portion of his sermon with these words, more or less: “So what if you love those who love you? So what if you’re kind to those who are kind to you? Almost everyone does that. You are called to more.”
    1. I don’t think I need to unpack that – it speaks for itself. 
      1. It is one of Jesus’ teachings that nudges me now and then – and sometimes bites me.
      2. What credit is it to me if I love those who love me? So what if I’m kind to those who are kind to me? How have I loved my enemies lately? Where am I called to go the second mile? 
    2. Beloved in Christ, we live in challenging times, politically, socially, ecologically. 
      1. A lot of people are fearful, angry, or despairing…and with reason. 
      2. Between the climate crisis, global health challenges, and the travails of our democracy, the news cycle can feel overwhelming. Paralyzing. 
    3. Henri Nouwen, a great spiritual writer, talks in one of his books about responding to the news as a person of faith, of spirit. 
      1. He suggests that when there’s breaking news, we might ask ourselves, How does this call for my repentance anew? How does this call for my conversion anew?  (Here and Now)
      2. To use the vocabulary of our discipleship practices: How does this call me to turning? To metanoia, a change of mind and heart that bears fruit in a changed life? 
      3. What might disruptive kindness, subversive mercy, look like in the face of today’s challenges? 
    4. I don’t even have answers to these questions for myself, let alone for all of you. But I think they’re timely questions.
      1. For this chapter in our walk with the Gospel, when Jesus calls his followers to a paradoxical path of loving resistance, wherever sin shreds human dignity. 
      2. For this moment in the church’s year, with Lent around the corner – a fine time to wonder: is there something I might set aside for a season, to make more space in my life for turning towards mercy.
      3. And for this season in the life of our world and our country, when we seem in desperate need of more both kindness and more courage. 

 

Further reading…

Walter Wink on Jesus’ teachings about nonviolence:

https://cpt.org/files/BN%20-%20Jesus%27%20Third%20Way.pdf

A really interesting exploration of slapping in ancient texts:

http://www.jgrchj.net/volume10/JGRChJ10-3_Cook.pdf

Announcements

Announcements, February 13

THIS WEEK…

Reading Genesis In Babylon, Thursday evening, February 13: Genesis 1-11 is the prelude for the Bible’s story, and in regular dialogue with the stories of Babylon. Abraham is said to have come from that region; Jews spent a generation in exile there. So, after Epiphany youth & adults are invited to a six-week study, reading three Babylonian stories (Atrahasis, Enuma Elish, Gilgamesh) and wondering about how Genesis 1-11 interacts with them. Thursday evenings 7-8:30 at St Dunstan’s, Jan 16 – Feb 20, Fr. Tom facilitating. The Reading Genesis 1-11 in Babylon series concluded with Gilgamesh on February 13—so no meeting on February 20.

Youth Group this Friday in the Parish Center: Middle High 5:30-7:30, Senior High 7:00-9:30. Pizza and snacks provided! Contact Sharon.

Saturday Book Club, February 15, 2020 at 10 am: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Getting a copy of the book – I regret you are on your own. The Public Library has 300 holds on it, and it is not on the Book Club list. Perhaps not surprising, since it has topped the New York Times best-seller list for at least 20 weeks.

Sunday School at St. Dunstan’s: Our Sunday school classes for kids meet during 10am worship on the second and third Sundays of most months (February 9 & 16). We have three Sunday school classes: for kids age 3 through kindergarten, for grades 1 – 3, and grades 4 – 6. Kids are welcome to try it out at any time, and parents may come along too! If you’d like to get involved, contact Sharon.

Tree of Wishes: Back in May of 2012, a group of students whose families were experiencing homelessness wrote some of their wishes on ribbons – revealing that even among their family’s struggles, they have hopes and dreams. The Tree of Wishes is a traveling piece of art to raise awareness of homelessness and its impact on kids and youth. The Tree will be with us in February and March. Take a look and say a prayer for those experiencing homelessness in our community today.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Making Music Together at St. Dunstan’s: A Visit with Paul Vasile: Paul is a church musician, composer, and consultant. His expertise includes helping faith communities express their core values and theological commitments through music; expanding ideas and practices of shared music-making; and helping bring people with different backgrounds and expectations together around a common vision for making sacred music together.

Paul will meet with choir members on the evening of Thursday, February 20th; lead an open-to-the-public song and music jam on Friday evening, the 21st; lead a congregational workshop on shared music-making on Saturday the 22nd from 10am to 3pm; and worship with us on Sunday. More information is available on a handout at church.

We look forward from benefiting from Paul’s skills at helping us build musical capacity, confidence, and participation for all!

Safeguarding God’s Children, February 22, 9am-Noon, St. Dunstan’s Parish Center: Safeguarding training is required for anyone on vestry or who works regularly with kids and youth, and recommended for all regular church volunteers. It’s an opportunity to learn about how to help our church be a safe environment for kids and youth.  To register for one of the classes visit this website (make sure you register for the Madison location): http://www.diomil.org/safeguarding-gods-children-class-with-trainer/

For more information on Safeguarding classes and the Safe Church Program, please visit the Safe Church page on the diocesan website.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, Tuesday, February 25, 5:00 – 6:30pm: Tasty food and intergenerational fellowship! We’ll gather at 5:00pm with prayer and song, share a meal, and mark the turning season by burying Alleluias. Friends welcome! Suggested donation of $5 per adult, $10 per household. Kids eat free. All proceeds go to support the St. Dunstan’s Campership Fund, which helps cover costs for St. Dunstan’s kids to attend Camp Webb, our diocesan summer camp.

Chris Barnes is organizing helpers for the meal this year. Sign up in the Gathering Area to help with setup, food prep, or cleanup; talk with Chris at church; or email and we’ll put you in touch!

Ash Wednesday services will be at noon, 4pm, and 7pm on Wednesday, February 26. The 4pm service is especially intended for kids and families.

Ladies Night Out, February 28 at 6pm:  All ladies from the church are welcome to gather at the Olive Garden, 7017 Mineral Point Rd. Consider joining us for food and conversation.

Stewarding Land for Justice, Creation Care, and Evangelism, Sunday, March 1, 9am: Rev. Miranda and Carrie Tolejano recently participated in the kickoff retreat for the ChurchLands learning cohort, a pilot program to help Episcopal churches reflect on how to use their land. Interested? Come hear some highlights of what we talked about, and how you might be part of the conversation at St. Dunstan’s in the months ahead!

Have you been baptized? The Prayer Book tells us, “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.” From the earliest years of Christianity, the season of Lent (which begins February 10) was when new Christians studied the faith and prepared for baptism at Easter. If you have never been baptized, or aren’t sure, and would like to learn more about this rite, please contact Rev. Miranda.

DIOCESAN LIFE…

Camp Webb 2020 (June 21-27) is accepting applications now! Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, for children and youth grades 3 through senior high. It is held at a camp outside Elkhorn, WI. Camp tuition is $400, with a deposit of $100 due at the time of registration. St. Dunstan’s offers $150 in aid to all our campers, with additional assistance possible; contact Rev. Miranda () or our treasure Val McAuliffe () for financial assistance. Camp Webb usually fills up, so register soon! Use this link:

http://www.diomil.org/mission-and-ministry/children-and-youth-ministries/camp-webb/?fbclid=IwAR1ddRDpmAdFIEOhLgkNTLaKuf_RqvllYA86OJk-hLrcAoIXrLgQPQxiFJ8

Diocesan Prayer as we search for the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee: Gracious and loving God in whom we live and move and have our being: we pray for your guidance and wisdom that we may faithfully follow your calling in our lives and as we as the Diocese of Milwaukee discern the calling of our twelfth bishop. We give you thanks for the ministry of Bishop Miller and his family, especially for the health that has been brought to our diocese through his leadership. We pray for those whom you have called to serve on our Standing, Search, and Transition Committees, and for those who will respond to your call to enter into discernment with us to be our next bishop. Give us all listening and prayerful hearts for this most important task. This we ask in the name of the One who said, “Come, follow me.” Amen.

Current Events, Sermons, Stories

Sermon, Feb. 9

Are you grieving today, weighed down with loss? Are you timid, fearful; do you struggle to speak up for yourself and find what you need? Is your yearning for justice eating you up inside? You are LUCKY! You are HAPPY! You are BLESSED! 

Jesus is standing on a mountaintop – or at least a hilltop – and preaching about what it means to live a holy life. There’s surely an intentional echo here of Moses on Mount Sinai, receiving the Ten Commandments, and teaching Israel how God calls them to live. And just as holy laws of the Torah called Israel to live differently than neighboring peoples, so too do Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount.

There’s a lot here that did not align with conventional wisdom and cultural norms. Our Bible translation – most Bible translations – begin each of these lines with “Blessed.” But the Greek word there can just as easily be translated as Happy or Lucky.  I like that translation, because I think Jesus is being provocative at least as much as he’s being pious, here. In Luke’s version of this sermon, Jesus seems to call out the people in the crowd who are laughing – because these teachings make no sense!

The poor? The meek? The lost and lonely? The merciful and the peacemakers – those softies and suckers? Those wingnuts who won’t stop talking about justice, who get themselves arrested or beaten for what they believe is right? Lucky. Happy. Blessed. Every last one of them.  What nonsense. 

Holy nonsense, divine foolishness, is a big theme in the early chapters of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. In chapter 1 he writes: God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. (1 Cor 1:25) In chapter 2 he urges, Your faith must not rest on human wisdom, but on the power of God. (1 Cor 2:5) And in chapter 3, he concludes, The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. (1 Cor 3:19)

On one level, Paul is concerned that other Christian teachers who have visited Corinth may be taking liberties with the Gospel – and getting away with it because they are such eloquent speakers. The people don’t realize that they’re changing the message because they sound so smart. Paul says, Just because somebody SOUNDS wise and insightful doesn’t meany they are. Bad and wrong things can be preached in beautiful, persuasive words. History certainly justifies his concern. 

At a deeper level, though, Paul is pointing to the paradox at the heart of Christianity: Christ crucified and risen. The one we call Savior and Lord was executed by the government. Not much of a Messiah! And then – we claim – he came back from the dead. Everyone knows that’s impossible. 

Paul doesn’t try to make Christian faith palatable to intellectuals. He says, Yes, it’s nonsense – holy, necessary nonsense. Look, says Paul: God’s wisdom seems like foolishness to human understanding – to the people of this age – but it carries deep truth, and profound hope. If you think you are wise, maybe you need more holy foolishness – to understand what Jesus said and did, and begin the lifelong work of following him and growing into his likeness. 

Who here reads romance novels and is willing to admit it? 

The popular image of romance novels is of mediocre writing, formulaic plots, and probably overblown, cringey descriptions of hugging and kissing. They’re seen as frivolous and escapist. How could romance novels accomplish any good in the world?

Let me tell you a story – a story about one of the most successful romance novel writers of all time. Her name was Ida Cook, though she wrote under the name Mary Burchell. 

Ida was born in England in 1904, to a happy, affectionate family. She and her older sister, Louise, were fast friends and lifelong companions. Biographers note that both sisters were notably plain. As young women, they shared an apartment in London and worked at clerical jobs. In 1923, they discovered opera, and fell in love with it. They bought a gramophone, and started attending operas whenever they could. They became superfans of some of the great opera stars of the day – writing fan letters and waiting outside stage doors for autographs. How feminine. How frivolous. How foolish. 

One of their faves was an opera singer named Amelita Galli-Curci. They wrote to her telling her they planned to save up for two years to come to New York and hear her sing. She wrote back, promising them free tickets to ALL her operas if they could get there! So, of course, they saved up and made it to the Big Apple. 

They became friends with Galli-Curci, and started meeting other opera stars too. 

Meanwhile, Ida writes an article for a sewing magazine about the dress she made for their New York trip. Then she starts writing and publishing short romantic stories… and then she’s invited to start writing for Mills and Boon, the major romance publisher in the UK. (Think Harlequin!) She’s good at it, and suddenly she’s making pretty good money.

Naturally, the sisters use that money to travel and see more opera all over Europe, especially in Germany. In 1934 they’re in Germany when a singer they know introduces them to another woman, asking the Cooks to look after her, since she’s traveling to England soon. Of course they agree. When they ask their new friend why she’s moving to England, she explains, “I’m Jewish – didn’t you know?”

Ida and Louise learn about what’s happening in Germany. The growing pressure on the Jews, the rising tide of danger and fear. Jews who can afford to leave, and have connections or opportunities abroad, are getting out. And Ida has a realization. She thinks about all the money she is making with her novels – and she realizes she could be using it to save lives. 

It’s hard to look back on now, knowing what we know, but both Britain and the United States were reluctant to accept Jewish refugees. They didn’t make it easy. To leave Germany for Britain at this point, in the mid-1930s, you needed to have proven income or cash reserves. The question wasn’t whether you were in mortal danger in your home country, but whether you would be a drain on public resources when you arrived. Practically, you needed someone in England to be your guarantor – to attest that you had resources and would be provided for.  

Ida starts using her book money to guarantee as many people as she can. And as requests for help start to stream in, the sisters organize friends to donate funds or be guarantors themselves. Ida buys an apartment where newly-arrived refugees can stay while getting settled in. The sisters keep traveling to Germany on weekends, to hear opera performances… and to connect with those seeking to leave the country, and help them along. They make heartbreaking decisions about who they can help, then work to get their visas through the British immigration system. 

Often, on their return journeys, they carried with them jewelry and other small, high-value goods belonging to the Jews they hoped to help leave Germany for England.The smuggling was necessary because Germany wouldn’t let Jews take their assets with them when they left; but they would certainly need assets to begin their new life in Britain. The smuggling was effective because people tended to ignore and underestimate Ida and Louise. One biographer describes them as “plain and anonymous in their tatty cardigans and Woolworth glass beads.” (Carpenter) Margaret Talbot writes, “The underestimation of women, especially women who might be dismissed on the basis of their looks, was a resource that Ida and Louise deployed for enormous good.” 

Talbot describes one case in which Ida and Louise were smuggling home a lot of valuable jewelry on behalf of a woman named Alice, who hoped to rejoin her jewels in England shortly. The sisters had a very anxious half-hour when German SS officers boarded the train at the German border to look for Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany. They had a plan: IF the SS men asked them to open their handbags, they were going to do their “nervous British spinster act and insist, quite simply, that we always took our valuables with us, because we didn’t trust anyone with whom we could leave them at home.” (Cook quoted in Talbot) 

Talbot writes, “The Cooks had found that telling a lie that made them look meek and foolish was sometimes their best bet.” Meek and foolish… In this case, looking like ordinary, plain, middle-aged, middle-class white women did the trick, and the SS left them alone. 

The situation in Germany continues to deteriorate. Visas are harder and harder to get. People are disappearing before the Cooks can help them. Ida writes, “We cried, of course. And then we would start again. What else could we do?” She spends more and more time writing; the more books she publishes, the more money, the more lives she can save. As paths to escape become more and more scarce, the sisters speak at church groups; they hassle their friends; they approach strangers in restaurants. Always the message is: People are dying. If we pool our funds and guarantee them someplace to live, we might be able to get them out. 

Ida’s persistence and passion sometimes shake loose possibilities against all odds. In the Twitter thread that first brought Ida to my attention, John Bull writes that in August 1939, Ida received a letter from a Polish Jewish boy being held in a detention camp in Poland. He was on a waiting list to enter the United States, meaning he had a chance to get a visa to enter Britain on the way. But he was number 16500 or so on that waiting list – meaning it might be three years. People were already dying of starvation and disease all around him; he knew he did not have three years. 

Europe is on the brink of war. There is not a moment to lose. Ida finds a church group that will agree to take him in; she scrapes together the money to serve as his guarantee. She goes to the Immigration Office to organize his visa, and talks to the clerk who normally handles her cases.  “The woman looks aghast: They can’t give this kid a visa. New rules as of yesterday. Only people number 16,000 on the US list or under [can get visas.] Ida tells her that this kid will die if they don’t get him out. They need to do something. Then the clerk comes up with a plan and tells Ida to trust her. ‘Go home, and take this with you,’ she says, handing Ida the completed and signed application form. The next day, Ida gets an official letter from the clerk: ‘Please submit the missing paperwork we finalized three days ago.’ The clerk had found a way around the rule change: fudging the date on the application so it looked like it was filed before the new rules. The visa goes through. The child escapes – on the last boat of child refugees that is allowed to leave Poland. The last life the Cooks manage to save. 

Ida and Louse were directly involved in 29 emigration cases, many of which were families. They were indirectly involved in many others, as well. 

Bull writes, “Ida and Louise weren’t special. They were normal people and, by Ida’s own admission, terrified almost every step of the way. But once they had their eyes opened to what was happening, they knew they had to help. And Ida worked hard to try and make others see that too.” Ida herself wrote, “Terrified, agonized need can be ignored if it is attached only to a name on paper. Change [that] to a human who stammers out a frantic story, weeps difficult tears and asks for nothing but hopes for everything, and show me the ordinary person who can refuse.”

I want to be clear that one heart-warming story does not redeem the Holocaust. Mary and Ida saved perhaps fifty people. Hitler and those who went along with his regime murdered perhaps 11 million. This isn’t a story about how everyday heroism and moral courage can turn the tide of history – though I have to believe that sometimes it can. This is a story about how everyday heroism and moral courage might make a tiny difference, here and there; and helps us keep our souls, no matter the circumstances. 

Where is wisdom and where is foolishness, in Ida’s life and times? The wisdom of this age is found in quotas and fees and forms, bureaucratic barriers and waiting lists. The whole apparatus that made it harder and harder and finally impossible for Jews to flee Hitler’s final solution. All rational, modern, and deadly. 

Holy foolishness shows up in the subversive, strategic meekness of two ordinary, extraordinary middle-aged opera fans using romance novel royalties to save one life, and another, and another. 

For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom. 

The Reverend Marcus Halley, dean of Formation for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, wrote recently: “To be Baptized is to … be brought into a way of life that is meant to pull a little more of the Kingdom of God into this world. We pray it in the Lord’s Prayer and are called to let it *happen* in us. Our vocation… might look like a ministry within the church, but most likely it will be a ministry somewhere deep behind enemy lines in God’s world…  Wherever sin shreds human dignity, there is room for God’s people to exercise their vocation of healing, mending, and making whole… I want the Church to offer everyday, ordinary people an opportunity to do the extraordinary.” 

Those wingnuts who won’t stop talking about justice, who approach strangers in restaurants about their cause, who smuggle jewels in their pocketbooks? The poor? The meek? The lost and lonely? The merciful and the peacemakers – the softies and the suckers? Those who mourn – the ones who can’t look away, who refuse to get numb, the sad ones, the angry ones? 

Lucky. Happy. Blessed. Every last one of them. What nonsense. May we all be so foolish. 

 

More on Ida Cook:

John Bull’s Twitter thread: 

https://twitter.com/garius/status/1220711078100897793

Louise Carpenter in Granta: 

https://granta.com/ida-and-louise/

Margaret Talbot in the New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/ida-and-louise-cook-two-unusual-heroines-of-the-second-world-war

The Rev. Marcus Halley on what church could be: 

https://twitter.com/word_made_FRESH/status/1220786885892747264

Announcements, Uncategorized

Announcements, February 6

THIS WEEK…

Reading Genesis In Babylon, Thursday evening, February 6: Genesis 1-11 is the prelude for the Bible’s story, and in regular dialogue with the stories of Babylon. Abraham is said to have come from that region; Jews spent a generation in exile there. So, after Epiphany youth & adults are invited to a six-week study, reading three Babylonian stories (Atrahasis, Enuma Elish, Gilgamesh) and wondering about how Genesis 1-11 interacts with them. Thursday evenings 7-8:30 at St Dunstan’s, Jan 16 – Feb 20, Fr. Tom facilitating. Texts: Gen 1-11, Myths from Mesopotamia translated by Stephanie Dalley, revised edition (Oxford University Press, 2000) – available cheaply online; we’ll also have several copies available to borrow.

This Thursday, February 6, we are finishing with The Creation Epic (pp 228ff). Next week, the first of two weeks on the Epic of Gilgamesh (pp 39ff).

Youth Group this Friday in the Parish Center: Middle High 5:30-7:30, Senior High 7:00-9:30. Pizza and snacks provided! Contact Sharon.

Sunday School at St. Dunstan’s: Our Sunday school classes for kids meet during 10am worship on the second and third Sundays of most months (February 9 & 16). We have three Sunday school classes: for kids age 3 through kindergarten, for grades 1 – 3, and grades 4 – 6. Kids are welcome to try it out at any time, and parents may come along too! If you’d like to get involved, contact Sharon Henes.

Deep Listening Training, 5 – 7PM, Sunday, Feb. 9: This training is for people who wish to learn how to deepen their presence with friends, family, clients, students, etc. The training is experiential, interactive, and practical. It draws on evidence-based approaches (especially Motivational Interviewing) to invite people into new ways of relating to one another. This training is especially good for folx in helping professions (ministry, health care, teaching, social work, advising), folx who offer emotional support to people in their lives, and folx who are drawn to ministry of presence generally. We’ll meet in the Meeting Room at St. Dunstan’s. Free & open to all members & friends of St. Dunstan’s.

Outreach Hearts:  At St. Dunstan’s we use hearts to represent offerings made by our Outreach Committee to organizations helping those in need locally, nationally, and internationally.   Each heart represents 100 dollars.  These hearts are presented at the offering to remind us that our gifts to others are gifts to God.  In January the Outreach Committee made the following Allocations:

$1,500 (15 Hearts) to Middleton Outreach Ministry

$500 (5 Hearts) to Bread For the World, an advocacy network that strives To reduce hunger through grassroots lobbying of Congress.

$500 (5 Hearts) to GSAFE,  an organization that works to create safer schools and communities for LGBTQ youth across Wisconsin

Madison-Area Julian Gathering Wednesday, February 12, 1:00 – 2:45 PM: We welcome everyone who is interested in learning more about contemplative spirituality in the Christian tradition.  We meet the second Wednesday of the month for a period of contemplative prayer, after which we discuss a reading from Julian of Norwich, a 14th Century English mystic who has been called “a theologian for our time.”  We would love to have you join us.  If you have questions, contact Susan Fiore, ObJN.

Saturday Book Club, February 15, 2020 at 10 am: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Getting a copy of the book – I regret you are on your own. The Public Library has 300 holds on it, and it is not on the Book Club list. Perhaps not surprising, since it has topped the New York Times best-seller list for at least 20 weeks.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Making Music Together at St. Dunstan’s: A Visit with Paul Vasile: Paul is a church musician, composer, and consultant. His expertise includes helping faith communities express their core values and theological commitments through music; expanding ideas and practices of shared music-making; and helping bring people with different backgrounds and expectations together around a common vision for making sacred music together.

Paul will meet with choir members on the evening of Thursday, February 20th; lead an open-to-the-public song and music jam on Friday evening, the 21st; lead a congregational workshop on shared music-making on Saturday the 22nd from 10am to 3pm; and worship with us on Sunday. More information is available on a handout at church.

We look forward from benefiting from Paul’s skills at helping us build musical capacity, confidence, and participation for all!

Safeguarding God’s Children, February 22, 9am-Noon, St. Dunstan’s Parish Center: Safeguarding training is required for anyone on vestry or who works regularly with kids and youth, and recommended for all regular church volunteers. It’s an opportunity to learn about how to help our church be a safe environment for kids and youth.  To register for one of the classes visit this website (make sure you register for the Madison location): http://www.diomil.org/safeguarding-gods-children-class-with-trainer/

For more information on Safeguarding classes and the Safe Church Program, please visit the Safe Church page on the diocesan website.

Altar Flowers: February dates available – sign up at church or by email! Honor a loved one or a special event with altar flowers on a special date! At church, sign up on the clipboard under the big calendar in the Gathering Area, and place a check or cash in an envelope labeled “Flowers” in the offering plate. From home, email with your preferred date and dedication, and make your gift online at donate.stdunstans.com. Thank you for beautifying our worship space!

Ash Wednesday services will be at noon, 4pm, and 7pm on Wednesday, February 26. The 4pm service is especially intended for kids and families.

Have you been baptized? The Prayer Book tells us, “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.” From the earliest years of Christianity, the season of Lent (which begins February 10) was when new Christians studied the faith and prepared for baptism at Easter. If you have never been baptized, or aren’t sure, and would like to learn more about this rite, please contact Rev. Miranda.

Camp Webb 2020 (June 21-27) is accepting applications now! Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee, for children and youth grades 3 through senior high. It is held at a camp outside Elkhorn, WI. Camp tuition is $400, with a deposit of $100 due at the time of registration. St. Dunstan’s offers $150 in aid to all our campers, with additional assistance possible; contact Rev. Miranda for financial assistance. Camp Webb usually fills up, so register soon! Use this link:

http://www.diomil.org/mission-and-ministry/children-and-youth-ministries/camp-webb/?fbclid=IwAR1ddRDpmAdFIEOhLgkNTLaKuf_RqvllYA86OJk-hLrcAoIXrLgQPQxiFJ8

Diocesan Prayer as we search for the 12th Bishop of the Diocese of Milwaukee: Gracious and loving God in whom we live and move and have our being: we pray for your guidance and wisdom that we may faithfully follow your calling in our lives and as we as the Diocese of Milwaukee discern the calling of our twelfth bishop. We give you thanks for the ministry of Bishop Miller and his family, especially for the health that has been brought to our diocese through his leadership. We pray for those whom you have called to serve on our Standing, Search, and Transition Committees, and for those who will respond to your call to enter into discernment with us to be our next bishop. Give us all listening and prayerful hearts for this most important task. This we ask in the name of the One who said, “Come, follow me.” Amen.

IN THE COMMUNITY…

Bridging Faiths for a Stronger Democracy, Thursday, Feb. 13, 6 – 8:30pm, First United Methodist Church (203 Wisconsin Ave).: Come learn about the intersection of faith and social justice, and the do’s and don’ts for tax-exempt faith communities. This event will be held live in Milwaukee and live-streamed to the Madison location, where a local conversation will be faiclitated. Register at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqKVeXHI9CFJ8OvGsXnsL1LZRJD-Dn9rw5lwmRdD_BZ7VrRA/viewform

6205 University Ave., Madison WI

St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church