Announcements

Announcements, April 13

TONIGHT AND THE DAYS AHEAD… 

Maundy Thursday Service & Meal: Our Maundy Thursday liturgy (April 13, 6pm) includes a shared meal as we remember Jesus’ final meal with his friends before his crucifixion. Our offerings tonight will go to support the work of Briarpatch Youth Services. If you wish, bring your offering in coins to remind us of Judas’ betrayal.

Nightwatch Vigil: From 9pm – midnight tonight, following our Maundy Thursday service, and from 6am – noon on Good Friday,  members of St. Dunstan’s are invited to keep a vigil of prayer in the church, in pairs. Sign up in the Gathering Area for your desired shift. Talk with Connie Ott with any questions.

Friday, April 14 – Good Friday

12pm, 4pm & 7pm Good Friday services

Children are encouraged to attend the 4pm service.

               Offerings will go to the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Saturday, April 15 – Holy Saturday

8pm: Great Vigil of Easter. Light incense will be used.

               A portion of our offerings will go to Episcopal Relief & Development.

Sunday, April 16 – Easter Sunday

Egg hunt for children follows both 8am & 10am services

AFTER EASTER… 

Volunteers Needed for DeCanstruction, Sunday, April 23, 7:00pm: Help take apart the giant sculptures built from cans and boxes of food, as part of this year’s CanStruction competition, a food- and fund-raiser for Middleton Outreach Ministry. This year’s CanStruction will take place at West Towne Mall, and structures can be viewed there all week, starting Monday, April 17. To help with the “de-Canstruction” work, you must be reasonably able-bodied (but not everybody has to do heavy lifting). Sign up in the Gathering Area if you’d like to join this year’s team; we are looking for a team of 4 – 6 people.

Looking for Coffee Hosts for April 30 and the month of May! Please consider being a coffee host. Contact Janet Bybee for more information.

Looking for Greeters: Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s off to work we go! Well it’s really not work, more like fun. We’re looking for some of you who might be interested in Greeting on Sunday mornings at the 10am service. Let Bernice Mason.

Gospel of John Study Group Resumes, April 19 & 26, 6:30-8:30pm at the McAlpine’s: This year the Daily Office Lectionary has us reading the Gospel of John from the last week of Epiphany through the second week of Easter. All are welcome as we conclude our reading of this challenging and important Gospel. We meet at the McAlpine home in Fitchburg; check your directory or call the church office at 238-2781 for more information.

Islam from the Heart of our Muslim Neighbors: Forthright Questions and Honest Answers, Saturday, April 22, 9am – 1pm, hosted by St. Dunstan’s Church: This event, organized by a coalition of local advocacy groups, will be a unique opportunity to meet local Muslims and to ask questions about the practices and beliefs of Islam, to address the many misconceptions that feed our divisions.

Men’s Book Club, Saturday, April 22, 10am: The book is All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. Warren wrote the book in 1946 to enormous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1947. It’s about Huey Pierce Long, Jr., self-nicknamed The Kingfish, who was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his death from assassination in 1935. There is something about Huey, his combination of magnificent abilities and a genuine if primitive idealism with bottomless corruption and lust for power, which fascinates the literary was well as the political mind.

Outreach meeting, Saturday, April 29, 8-10am: All are welcome to join our conversations about how St. Dunstan’s can best serve the world with our resources and our hands. We begin with an optional potluck breakfast at 8am.

Spring Clean-Up Day, Sunday, May 7, 12-2pm: Join us after the 10 am service to enjoy a time of shared work on our beautiful grounds, tidying them up and preparing for the growing season. A list of tasks will be posted in the Gathering Area ahead of time. Wear or bring your scruffy clothes and work gloves. Lunch will be provided! A list of tasks will be posted by Sunday, April 23rd.

– Lunch Host(s) Needed for Clean-Up Day! Would you like to prepare a simple meal to feed our workers? We could use your help. Food expenses can be reimbursed. Contact Rev. Miranda at 238-2781.

Church Seasons & Holy Days, Sermons

Palm Sunday homily

The Church holds up this story as uniquely important. This death, and what follows, are our core story, The Story. But its power, its uniqueness, comes from who Jesus was, from his first followers’ experience of God present in Jesus in a way unlike any other person in history. That as the author of the letter to the Philippians says, in Jesus, God set aside infinity to join us in mortality.

The death itself – and the events that lead up to it – were far from unique. Indeed, there’s much in this story that’s too familiar. There are no monsters in this story. Only ordinary people, driven by ordinary motives, ordinary fears, ordinary resentments.

Start with the leaders. Leaders bear a special responsibility for what happens on their watch. So surely we can point fingers at the leaders in this story, and say, There. There are the monsters. The chief priests, the scribes, the elders – they are the institutional and moral leadership of first-century Judaism. They are the leaders and teachers of the faith. They knew it was wrong to kill an innocent man; how did they let this happen? Well – Jesus was not actually innocent. I know there’s a lot of talk about Jesus as an innocent victim, but he’d basically done the stuff they said he did. Stirred up the people. Spoken dismissively about Sabbath-keeping and other practices. Busted stuff up in the Temple. And worst of all, blasphemed, by claiming a uniquely close relationship with God – a fundamental challenge to the core of Jewish faith, that there is only one God. They’re genuinely afraid that Jesus is sparking a popular movement that will dilute or even destroy the faith they’ve sustained for so many centuries. And these religious leaders weren’t only responsible for the faith, but also for the wellbeing of the people. They are legitimately afraid that the unrest swirling around Jesus will turn into a rebellion that will inevitably lead to a violent crackdown by the forces of Rome, the great empire occupying and ruling Judea. The high priest Caiaphas says, It’s better for one man to die than to have the whole nation destroyed. He’s not wrong – although that doesn’t make it right.

What about Pilate, the Roman governor of the province? There’s some scholarly speculation that Pilate must have been out of favor in Rome to have been sent to Judea, a miserable, impoverished backwater full of religious zealots. Why would a governor representing the greatest empire in the world, backed with all the superior military force of Rome, bend in the face of a scrappy crowd of Judeans? Because he feared a riot – that his soldiers would have to put down, violently, which might spark other riots, and would definitely mean having to write some awkward letters to Rome. Pilate is a man with great power, true, but he’s also part of a system, and others have power over him. Pilate’s interest is in stability and peace, even if it’s an unjust peace, a cruel peace. Can we call him a monster?

What about the soldiers and officers? There are two different groups in this narrative. First, there’s the armed group that comes to arrest Jesus, probably a mix of Temple guards and some irregulars. Jesus shows a kind of wry compassion for them – they are, after all, his people. It’s the Roman soldiers later, the soldiers of the governor, who are truly cruel, hurting and mocking Jesus. And yet as much as we’d like to find monsters there – there are seventy years of social science research, sparked by the desire to understand the Holocaust, that has shown again and again and again that it is all too easy to get a group of human beings to start thinking of another group of human beings as less than human. We hate each other so easily. To call these Roman soldiers monsters is to deny our innate capacity to dehumanize and destroy.

What about the bystanders, the crowds in the story? One minute they’re so excited to see Jesus, shouting Hosanna! and waving palms; the next minute they’re shouting that he should be crucified! Well – those events were actually several days apart, and they weren’t the same crowd, even though in our liturgy today we treat them as if they were, as we take on their voices. The crowd greeting Jesus at the city gate was full of those who had heard about this man and hoped he would bring about a new era of freedom and prosperity. The crowd before Pilate was probably the kind of crowd that gathers for executions and bloody accidents. But let’s be honest: I’m sure there were many people who were part of both crowds. Because it’s not that hard for us to turn on someone, especially someone who disappoints us. Who turns out not to be the savior we’d hoped for. We see that dynamic most clearly in Judas, whom I can’t help but pity. He wanted change – big, immediate, transformative change. And when Jesus’ agenda turned out to be slower and subtler, he turned against him – and then turned again, and was overcome by deadly remorse.

And then there are the disciples, Jesus’ friends and followers. If it were only up to me, this is the voice I’d have us read together in the story. It’s tradition in many Episcopal churches for the congregation to be the voice of the crowd that shouts out, “Crucify him!” And that’s important to some of you, so I have left that custom be; but if I were to locate contemporary Episcopalians in this story, it would be as the disciples. The disciples, who follow him – but only so far. Who believe in him – but often really don’t understand him. Who love him, truly – but not as much as he needs them to. Who are right there with him, ready for action, while they’re all seated around the table together, with a good meal and a glass of wine inside them, but when it comes to taking to the streets – well, a lot of us have to think twice. We have jobs and families and reputations to protect. This discipleship thing can get to be more than we anticipated, real quick.

There are no monsters in this story. And yet the story reminds us, every year, how quickly and easily resentment and reluctance, complacency and fear, can make us part of something monstrous.

Announcements

Announcements, April 6

TONIGHT & THE WEEK AHEAD… 

Stations of the Cross & Supper, Thursday, April 6, 5:30pm: All are invited to come walk the Stations of the Cross in our nave at St. Dunstan’s, sharing Scripture, prayer, song, and meditations from Christian tradition. We will share a simple meal after praying the Stations. This event is this week’s Sandbox worship, our regular Thursday evening gathering.

The Stations of the Cross in Downtown Madison, Friday, April 7, 12pm: Walk the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross on the streets of a modern city.  As we walk the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross, we will reflect together on how we can trace those events in the geography of Madison today – our issues, stories and struggles. We will start on the sidewalk near Way of the Cross Park, at the corner of Henry, across from the Overture Center, and end in the garden at Grace Church on the square. The total walk will be about 1.5 miles, and it takes about 1 hour. All are welcome. If you would like to read one of the stations, talk with the Rev. Miranda Hassett.

Palm Saturday, Saturday, April 8, 11am-12pm: Kids, parents, grandparents and friends are invited to make Easter Crafts and communion bread, and to take part in a gentle, age-appropriate and participatory telling of the whole Easter story, presented by the youth and adults of our church. This event is best suited for kids ages 3 to 10; our Middle Schoolers are invited to help present the Easter pageant. All are welcome!

Palm and Passion Sunday, April 9, 8 and 10am: We begin our liturgy with a Palm Procession, recalling Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, then proceed to the reading of the Passion Gospel according to Mark. This is a solemn and powerful service, and our doorway into Holy Week.

Sunday School, Sunday, April 9, 10am: This Sunday, our 3 year olds to kindergarten class will learn about the Faces of Easter, while our Elementary class will explore Palm and Passion Sunday. Older children are invited to stay in church for the Passion Gospel.

Maundy Thursday Meal Sign-up: Our Maundy Thursday liturgy (April 13, 6pm) includes a shared meal as we remember Jesus’ final meal with his friends before his crucifixion. Sign up in the Gathering Area to contribute lentil soup, hummus, olives, or other items. Thanks for all your offerings!

Night watch Vigil Sign-Up: From 9pm – midnight on Thursday, April 13, following our Maundy Thursday service, and from 6am – noon on Good Friday, April 14, members of St. Dunstan’s will keep a vigil of prayer in the church, in pairs. Sign up in the Gathering Area for your desired shift. Talk with Connie Ott with any questions.

Easter Flower Dedications Due by Wednesday, April 12: If you’d like to make a donation towards our Easter flowers, in memory or in honor of a beloved person or special occasion, please sign up in the Gathering Area or contact the church office at 238-2781 or . Suggested donation is $25. All dedications must be received by next Wednesday.

Looking for Coffee Hosts for Easter and for April 30, 2017! Please consider being a coffee host. We especially need people for Easter and the last Sunday in April. Contact Janet Bybee  for more information.

The Holy Ground Project: Several people have “staked out” their spots to visit on our grounds, over the course of this season – and some have started to note their observations of nature, here or around town, in our parish Nature Observation Book in the Gathering Area. If you would like to participate, take a wooden stake  and claim a spot – or pick one of the stakes already out on the grounds. Visit every week or so and look closely, to see nature at work as first spring, and then summer, unfolds.

Madison-Area Julian Gathering, April 12, 1:00-2:45 PM: Julian of Norwich was a 15th Century English mystic who wrote a book about a series of revelations which opened her to the depths of God’s unconditional love for us.  At a Julian Gathering we support each other in the practice of contemplative spirituality.  Each meeting includes time for contemplative prayer, fellowship, and reading/discussion of Julian’s book.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Sunday, April 9 – Palm & Passion Sunday

Thursday, April 13, 6pm: Maundy Thursday Meal & Worship

               Offerings will go to Briarpatch Youth Services.

Friday, April 14 – Good Friday

12pm, 4pm & 7pm Good Friday services

Children are encouraged to attend the 4pm service.

               Offerings will go to the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Saturday, April 15 – Holy Saturday

8pm: Great Vigil of Easter. Light incense will be used.

               A portion of our offerings will go to Episcopal Relief & Development.

Sunday, April 16 – Easter Sunday

Egg hunt for children follows both 8am & 10am services

AFTER EASTER… 

Looking for Greeters: Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s off to work we go! Well it’s really not work, more like fun. We’re looking for some of you who might be interested in Greeting on Sunday mornings at the 10am service. Let Bernice Mason know.

Gospel of John Study Group Resumes, April 19 & 26, 6:30-8:30pm at the McAlpine’s: This year the Daily Office Lectionary has us reading the Gospel of John from the last week of Epiphany through the second week of Easter. All are welcome as we conclude our reading of this challenging and important Gospel. We meet at the McAlpine home in Fitchburg; check your directory or call the church office at 238-2781 for more information.

Islam from the Heart of our Muslim Neighbors: Forthright Questions and Honest Answers, Saturday, April 22, 9am – 1pm, hosted by St. Dunstan’s Church: This event, organized by a coalition of local advocacy groups, will be a unique opportunity to meet local Muslims and to ask questions about the practices and beliefs of Islam, to address the many misconceptions that stoke our divisions.

– Helpers wanted for Muslim Neighbors event! We need 2 – 3 St. Dunstan’s folk to open the building, make coffee, and support this event. If you’d like to help out, let Rev. Miranda know or contact the church office at or 238-2781.

Men’s Book Club, Saturday, April 22, 10am: The book is All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. Warren wrote the book in 1946 to enormous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1947. It’s about Huey Pierce Long, Jr., self-nicknamed The Kingfish, who was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his death from assassination in 1935. There is something about Huey, his combination of magnificent abilities and a genuine if primitive idealism with bottomless corruption and lust for power, which fascinates the literary was well as the political mind.

Outreach meeting, Saturday, April 29, 8-10am: All are welcome to join our conversations about how St. Dunstan’s can best serve the world with our resources and our hands. We begin with an optional potluck breakfast at 8am.

Spring Clean-Up Day, Sunday, May 7, 12-2pm: Join us after the 10 am service to enjoy a time of shared work on our beautiful grounds, tidying them up and preparing for the growing season. A list of tasks will be posted in the Gathering Area ahead of time. Wear or bring your scruffy clothes and work gloves. Lunch will be provided! A list of tasks will be posted by Sunday, April 23rd.

– Lunch Host(s) Needed for Clean-Up Day! Would you like to prepare a simple meal to feed our workers? We could use your help. Food expenses can be reimbursed. Contact Rev. Miranda at 238-2781.

 

Big Questions, Sermons

Sermon, April 2

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Our Sunday readings are walking us towards the cross. In John’s Gospel, the raising of Lazarus from the dead stirs up the people of Bethany and nearby Jerusalem – more and more begin to believe in and follow Jesus, and the religious leaders, who think Jesus is at best a fraud and at worst a tool of the Devil,  and who are legitimately afraid that unrest among the people will bring a violent crackdown from the occupying Roman forces – the religious leaders decide that it would be a good idea if something were to happen to Jesus. The Palm Sunday Gospel, Jesus’ triumphal and confrontational march into the city, follows this story almost immediately.

Our Sunday readings are walking us towards the cross, and beyond that, towards Easter, and resurrection – the Church’s 50-cent word for rising again from the dead. Two weeks from today, we’ll be shouting, Christ is Risen! We’ll be singing about how Jesus trampled down death by death, and bestowed life upon those in the tomb. Death no longer has dominion over us! God wipes away all tears! Love wins!

Except… people still die.

So… what are we talking about?

Part of this Gospel is often chosen for funerals. And last week I realized that I often preach at funerals about what the Church teaches – and trusts – about death. I almost never do so on Sunday morning. But everybody here has someone you love on the other side of that river. We all have somebody we miss. We all have somebody we dread losing. We all wonder.

And yet the Church and her representatives, have the audacity to stand up here in our funny clothes and say it doesn’t matter. That it’s not real. That they’re in a better place now. As if that made it OK.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus talked a lot about eternal life – a new life in God beyond our earthly existence.  So it became Christian conviction and teaching, from the very beginning, that physical death is not an absolute end, but leads into another kind of life. The resurrection of Jesus at Easter opens the door to the resurrection of everybody.

But what does Jesus mean, when he talks about eternal life? When he tells his friends and followers that even though they die, they will live? When he promises that his beloved ones will not perish, but have life everlasting?

I think part of the struggle here is that we come to Jesus with a simple, human question: What happens after we die? And frankly Jesus is not very interested in that question. He’s human enough to weep at the death of a friend, in today’s Gospel, but he’s also God enough to know that death is smaller than we think it is. What he really wants us to think about is life, and what it means to be alive – now, and always. But still: we carry the question in our hearts. Where is my grandpa now? Your father? Your sister? Your child? Can they see us? Are they okay? Are they… at all?

The New Testament doesn’t give us a clear or consistent view of what happens to the dead. Jesus tells the thief crucified beside him that they’ll be together in paradise that very day, but other texts assume – as Martha does in today’s Gospel – that the dead will sleep until the Last Day, when they will be awakened to new life forever with God. The images of life beyond the grave are varied, too -from the city thronged with holy crowds in Revelation, to the intimate image of Jesus preparing rooms for his friends in his Father’s house, from the 14th chapter of John’s Gospel. (There is very little to support the popular image of Heaven as a place up in the clouds, where people are issued wings and harps.)

The plain fact is, the early Christians didn’t know what happens after death, and neither do we. There’s a mystery here which only time will resolve. The writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, while he was dying, was visited by a friend, who said to him, “You seem so near the brink of the dark river that I almost wonder how the opposite shore may appear to you.” And Thoreau replied simply, “One world at a time.”

But – if we Christians don’t offer freedom from the inevitability and grief of death – if we can’t offer proof that there’s something more, something better, on the other side – then what can the Church offer in the face of death, besides beautiful words?

Well: even though there’s no proof, there is that promise and hope of something more. Jesus seems very sure that death is not the end – though we have no clear picture of what comes after. But we have to be careful with that assurance of eternity – the Church and its people have sometimes used it to shame or shut out people’s real and profound grief. Even if your loved one IS in a better place now, free from pain and struggle, it hurts that they’re gone. If Jesus wept for Lazarus, there is no shame in weeping for our beloved dead.

Another thing the Church offers in the face of death is the consolation of community. I’ve heard from many of you, in conversations over the years, that one of the most substantive gifts of belonging to a church, to this church, has been companionship in the hardest times. Of opening up about something painful –  a broken relationship, a sick child, the death of a parent – and finding that there are three or four people in the room who have walked that road, and are willing to walk it again with you, offering solace, kindness, and help.

Yet another thing the Church offers is the sense of a bigger picture, a longer perspective. In a recent essay on this topic, Peter Wehmer wrote, “There is…, for me at least, consolation in the conviction that we are part of an unfolding drama with a purpose. …I may not have a clue as to what that precise purpose is,

but I believe… that the story has an author, that difficult chapters need not be defining chapters, and that even the broken areas of our lives can be redeemed.” His words remind me of the voice of today’s Psalm, Psalm 130, a voice of resignation, patience, hope: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O God – hear my voice!… I wait for you, O God, my soul waits for you.”

Please understand: I am not claiming, here, that everything happens for a reason, that even tragedy is God’s will for you. I do not believe that, and you’ll never hear me preach it. But I do believe in grace, in God’s patient, persistent work to weave good from evil, to heal, restore, renew. It’s not easy, or fast, or certain; but it’s possible.

What can the Church offer in the face of death, besides beautiful words? Well… actually, beautiful words can be a real gift and comfort. I don’t know if I love beautiful, holy language, prose and poetry, because I’m a lifelong Episcopalian, or if I’m a lifelong Episcopalian because I love beautiful language. But at my grandfather’s funeral two weeks ago, I found myself reflecting on how we address death, as Christians in the Episcopal tradition.

We have sister churches both Catholic and Protestant who handle the mystery of death and what comes after by developing detailed doctrines and theories. We Episcopalians tend instead to let it rest in mystery – but not a mystery we pass over in silence; rather one we dwell with, or perhaps dance with, in poetry and prose, art and song.

And two weeks ago, I found that it was the strength and grace and felt truth of those songs and Scriptures that both freed my tears, and – eventually – dried them. It was the beautiful words we say and sing that opened my heart to trust in the eternal life Jesus promises,  and reaffirmed my hope in a better beyond.

Receive them into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.

All we go down to the dust, yet even at the grave we make our song… 

There’s a gathering of spirits, there’s a festival of friends, and we’ll take up where we left off, when we all meet again. 

And even you, most gentle Death, waiting to hush our final breath – you lead back home the child of God, for Christ our Lord that way hath trod. 

Changed from glory into glory,  till in heaven we take our place, till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.

Announcements

Announcements, March 30

The Holy Ground Project: Choose a spot on the grounds to visit and look closely, to see nature at work. Visit it every couple of weeks this spring and beyond to see how it changes. Take a stake from the Gathering Area to mark your spot. You can borrow a magnifying glass to look closely. If walking outside is hard for you, choose one of the squares on our windows to look out of, and notice the advancing spring that way. This project is an invitation from our Creation Care Task Force, in the spirit of our mission to cultivate love of God’s creation.

THIS WEEKEND…

Ladies’ Night Out, Friday, March 31, 6pm: Due to weather, we canceled last month’s event, so we will be meeting at Amber Indian Restaurant at 6913 University Avenue in Middleton. Please come join us for good food and good conversation.

Architects’ On-Site Design Process, Sunday, April 2: On April 2nd, the next part of our planning and design process with Engberg Anderson Architects will take place right under our roof here at St. Dunstan’s!  Beginning at 9AM that morning, and continuing into the early afternoon, architects from EA will set up shop in our building in the Meeting Room.  They will be working on concept drawings and sketches for different ways in which the various ideas generated by all of you over the last several weeks can best be incorporated into our building – whether by renovating the space we have, or by looking at modest ways to expand it as needed.  The process promises to be interesting, a bit messy, and a lot of fun!  Bill and Mike, and members of your Discernment committee, hope you will take the time to stop by, see what they are working on, ask questions and share your comments on their work.  The more input they get from the members of St. Dunstan’s, the better their work will reflect our goals, dreams, and the mission of our parish.  Make plans to allow time for a visit, either before leaving church, or by returning later in the day.

Birthdays and Anniversaries will be honored and Healing Prayers will be given this Sunday, April 2, as is our custom on the first Sunday of the month.

MOM Special Offering, Sunday, April 2: This Sunday, half the cash in our offering plate and any designated checks will be given to Middleton Outreach Ministry’s food pantry. Here are the current top-ten, most needed items: canned meat, all types; shelf stable milk; quinoa, barley, other whole grains; salt, pepper, spices; protein/granola bars; low sugar canned/dried fruit; cooking oil/olive oil; honey or sugar; laundry detergent; toilet paper & paper towels. Thank you for all your support!

Maundy Thursday Meal Sign-up: Our Maundy Thursday liturgy (April 13, 6pm) includes a shared meal as we remember Jesus’ final meal with his friends before his crucifixion. Sign up in the Gathering Area to contribute lentil soup, hummus, olives, or other items. Thanks for all your offerings!

Night watch Vigil Sign-Up: From 9pm – midnight on Thursday, April 13, following our Maundy Thursday service, and from 6am – noon on Good Friday, April 14, members of St. Dunstan’s will keep a vigil of prayer in the church, in pairs. Sign up in the Gathering Area for your desired shift. Talk with Connie Ott with any questions.

Evening Eucharist, Sunday, April 2, 6pm:  Join us for a simple service before the week begins. All are welcome.

Looking for Coffee Hosts for Easter and for April 30, 2017! Please consider being a coffee host. We especially need people for Easter and the last Sunday in April. Contact Janet Bybee for more information.

Looking for Greeters: Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s off to work we go! Well it’s really not work, more like fun. We’re looking for some of you who might be interested in Greeting on Sunday mornings at the 10am service. Let Bernice Mason know.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Stations of the Cross & Supper, Thursday, April 6, 5:30pm: All are invited to come walk the Stations of the Cross in our nave at St. Dunstan’s, sharing Scripture, prayer, song, and meditations from Christian tradition. We will share a simple meal after praying the Stations. This event is this week’s Sandbox worship, our regular Thursday evening gathering.

The Stations of the Cross in Downtown Madison, Friday, April 7, 12pm: Walk the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross on the streets of a modern city.  As we walk the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross, we will reflect together on how we can trace those events in the geography of Madison today – our issues, stories and struggles. We will start on the sidewalk near Way of the Cross Park, at the corner of Henry , across from the Overture Center, and end in the garden at Grace Church on the square. The total walk will be about 1.5 miles, and it takes about 1 hour.  All are welcome. If you would like to read one of the stations, email the Rev. Miranda Hassett at .

Palm Saturday, Saturday, April 8, 11am-12pm: Kids, parents, grandparents and friends are invited to make Easter Crafts and communion bread, and to take part in a gentle, age-appropriate and participatory telling of the whole Easter story, presented by the youth and adults of our church. This event is best suited for kids ages 3 to 10; our Middle Schoolers are invited to help present the Easter pageant. All are welcome!

Palm and Passion Sunday, April 9, 8 and 10am: We begin our liturgy with a Palm Procession, recalling Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, then proceed to the reading of the Passion Gospel according to Mark. This is a solemn and powerful service, and our doorway into Holy Week.

Sunday School, Sunday, April 9, 10am: This Sunday, our 3 year olds to kindergarten class will learn about the Faces of Easter, while our Elementary classes will explore Palm and Passion Sunday.

Gospel of John Study Group, Wednesday nights, March 8 – April 26, omitting Holy Week, 6:30-8:30pm at the McAlpine’s: This year the Daily Office Lectionary has us reading the Gospel of John from the last week of Epiphany through the second week of Easter. If you’d like to read it and reflect on it with others, there is still room in the study group hosted by the McAlpines in Fitchburg. Please call the office at 608-238-2781 for more information.

Madison-Area Julian Gathering, April 12, 1:00-2:45 PM (NOTE TIME CHANGE): Julian of Norwich was a 15th Century English mystic and anchoress. [In the Middle Ages, certain women and men chose to live a life intensely devoted to prayer permanently enclosed in a small room, called an anchorhold, attached to a parish church.] Little is known about Julian’s life, but she wrote a book, as far as we know the first in English written by a woman, about a series of revelations which opened her to the depths of God’s unconditional love for us in Jesus Christ. Thomas Merton called her “the greatest theologian for our time.” At a Julian Gathering we support each other in the practice of contemplative prayer and contemplative spirituality.  Each meeting includes time for contemplative prayer, fellowship, and reading/discussion of Julian’s book.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Sunday, April 9 – Palm & Passion Sunday

Thursday, April 13, 6pm: Maundy Thursday Meal & Worship

               Offerings will go to Briarpatch Youth Services.

Friday, April 14 – Good Friday

12pm, 4pm & 7pm Good Friday services

Children are encouraged to attend the 4pm service.

               Offerings will go to the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the     Middle East.

Saturday, April 15 – Holy Saturday

8pm: Great Vigil of Easter. Light incense will be used.

               A portion of our offerings will go to Episcopal Relief & Development.

Sunday, April 16 – Easter Sunday

Egg hunt for children follows both 8am & 10am services

Light incense will be used at the 10am service.

Men’s Book Club, Saturday, April 22, 10am: The book is All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren. Warren wrote the book in 1946 to enormous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1947. It’s about Huey Pierce Long, Jr., self-nicknamed The Kingfish, who was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his death from assassination in 1935. There is something about Huey, his combination of magnificent abilities and a genuine if primitive idealism with bottomless corruption and lust for power, which fascinates the literary was well as the political mind.

Outreach meeting, Saturday, April 29, 8-10am: All are welcome to join our conversations about how St. Dunstan’s can best serve the world with our resources and our hands. We begin with an optional potluck breakfast at 8am.

 

 

Announcements, Job Postings, Music, Worship

Seeking a Director of Music Ministry

St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Madison, WI, seeks a Director of Music Ministry whose skill, enthusiasm, and collaborative spirit will help us develop the musical aspect of our worship and life as a faith community. Our Sunday worship is eclectic and lively, while deeply grounded in our traditions and patterns of liturgical and sacramental worship; we also strive to be intentionally inclusive of children and youth. We love to sing together, and have many members who are interested in sharing skills as vocal or instrumental musicians. We love the core music of our Episcopal tradition, both hymnody and choral anthems, but we also sing and enjoy music from other churches and traditions, including gospel, Taize, and “paperless” song.

Skills and Knowledge Required:

  • Proficiency at piano/keyboard
  • Choral conducting, including from the keyboard
  • Familiarity with liturgical worship
  • Effective time management and communication
  • Collaborative musical leadership for choir, children’s choir, and congregational singing

Skills and Knowledge Preferred:

  • Organ skills
  • Familiar with Episcopal hymnody and liturgical music
  • Prior experience working in a faith-based setting

Qualities Sought:

  • Inviting and approachable demeanor toward staff and volunteers
  • Encouraging and joyful, able to build excitement around our musical programming
  • Collaborative and interested in helping develop our music ministry
  • Flexible; willing to try new approaches
  • Able to work with musicians of all ages and abilities

This is a part-time position, 12 hours/week, $12,000 – 14,000/year depending on education and experience. Position open until filled. All applicants are welcome, as we are an inclusive parish.

Send a cover letter or statement of interest, and your resume, to .  Questions? Call 608-298-7381.

Announcements

Announcements, March 23

TONIGHT…

Dance, sing and pray for peace, Thursday, March 23, 6pm (dinner at 5:30pm):  Learn and experience the simple and moving songs and Dances of Universal Peace inspired by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Led by Conie Borchardt, Certified Dance Leader and Music Director at St. Mary’s Episcopal in St. Paul, MN. Dances for Universal Peace accommodates people of all skill levels and levels of physical ability. This is a special edition of our weekly Sandbox Worship; please note that this week we will eat dinner first, at 5:30pm.

THIS WEEKEND…

Reflections on the Water of Life, 9am: Gather in the Meeting Room at 9am for a simple time of conversation and prayer, based on reflections on water from Episcopal and Anglian leaders around the world. If you can’t attend but would like to read along, the reflection guide can be downloaded at: https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/trinity-institute/2017/lent

Last Sunday All-Ages Worship, Sunday, March 26, 10am: Our last Sunday worship will focus on the Gospel story of the Man Born Blind. Last Sunday Worship invites kids’ full participation in our liturgy. We always welcome suggestions about how to meet that goal more fully! NOTE: Our 8am service always follows our regular order of worship.

Middle School Lunch & Learn, Sunday, March 26, 12-1pm: Rev. Miranda invites the 10-and-up youth of the parish to meet with her for lunch after church once a month. We’ll dig into faith, Scripture, life, and our questions about all three. We’ll wrap up by 1pm and can arrange rides home for the kids if that helps the parents’ schedules.

Liturgy Planning Meeting, Sunday, March 26, 6:30pm: All interested people are welcome to come plan ahead for Holy Week and Easter season, and to share ideas for our worship.

Grace Shelter Dinner, Sunday, March 26, 7pm: Every fourth Sunday, a loyal group of St. Dunstan’s folk provides dinner for residents at the Grace Church shelter, and breakfast the next morning. See the signup sheet in the Gathering Area to help out. To learn more, talk with Rose Mueller.

St. Dunstan’s Care Network: Did you know that St. Dunstan’s has a Care Network that helps provide meals for those in our parish family who may need them while they go through a life-changing event?  We have several families in our community who are expecting new babies that we would like to help in this way.  If you are interested in joining our network, there are a couple of ways to do this.  The easiest is to go to our website www.stdunstans.com.  Go to the Home Page, select the drop down “Fellowship & Learning” and click on the “Sharing Meals” tab.  From there, click on the link that takes you to the Care Network log in page, where you will find instructions on how to sign up. The other way to find our page is to go to http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/652914/.  Meal calendars for sign up will be posted as they are created.  This Care Network is NOT just for new babies!  If you know (or ARE) someone in the parish who could benefit from this service, please contact me, Shirley Laedlein. Thank you!

Looking for Coffee Hosts for Easter and for April 23 and 30, 2017! Please consider being a coffee host. We especially need people for Easter and the last two Sundays in April. Contact Janet Bybee  for more information.

Looking for Greeters: Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It’s off to work we go! Well it’s really not work, more like fun. We’re looking for some of you who might be interested in Greeting on Sunday mornings at the 10am service. Let Bernice Mason know.

Greeters Needed for Holy Week Services: We need some help providing welcome for members and guests at our services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Great Easter Vigil. Please sign up in the Gathering Area or contact Pamela in the office at or 608-238-2781. Thank you for serving!

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Ladies’ Night Out, Friday, March 31, 6pm: Due to weather, we canceled last month’s event, so we will be meeting at Amber Indian Restaurant at 6913 University Avenue in Middleton. Please come join us for good food and good conversation.

Architects’ On-Site Design Process, Sunday, April 2: On April 2nd, the next part of our planning and design process with Engberg Anderson Architects will take place right under our roof here at St. Dunstan’s!  Beginning at 9AM that morning, and continuing into the early afternoon, architects from EA will set up shop in our building in the Meeting Room.  They will be working on concept drawings and sketches for different ways in which the various ideas generated by all of you over the last several weeks can best be incorporated into our building – whether by renovating the space we have, or by looking at modest ways to expand it as needed.  The process promises to be interesting, a bit messy, and a lot of fun!  Bill and Mike, and members of your Discernment committee, hope you will take the time to stop by, see what they are working on, ask questions and share your comments on their work.  The more input they get from the members of St. Dunstan’s, the better their work will reflect our goals, dreams, and the mission of our parish.  Make plans to allow time for a visit, either before leaving church, or by returning later in the day.

Birthdays and Anniversaries will be honored and Healing Prayers will be given next Sunday, April 2, as is our custom on the first Sunday of the month.

MOM Special Offering, Sunday, April 2: Next Sunday, half the cash in our offering plate and any designated checks will be given to Middleton Outreach Ministry’s food pantry. Here are a few current most needed items: canned meat, all types; shelf stable milk; protein/granola bars; toilet paper & paper towels. Thank you for all your support!

Evening Eucharist, Sunday, April 2, 6pm:  Join us for a simple service before the week begins. All are welcome.

The Stations of the Cross in Downtown Madison, Friday, April 7, 12pm: Walk the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross on the streets of a modern city.  As we walk the fourteen traditional Stations of the Cross, we will reflect together on how we can trace those events in the geography of Madison today – our issues, stories and struggles. We will start on the sidewalk near Way of the Cross Park, at the corner of Henry, across from the Overture Center, and end in the garden at Grace Church on the square. The total walk will be about 1.5 miles, and it takes about 1 hour.  All are welcome. If you would like to read one of the stations, contact Rev. Miranda Hassett.

Palm Saturday, Saturday, April 8, 11am-12pm: Kids, parents, grandparents and friends are invited to make Easter Crafts and communion bread, and to take part in a gentle, age-appropriate and participatory telling of the whole Easter story, presented by the youth and adults or our church. This event is best suited for kids ages 3 to 10; our Middle Schoolers are invited to help present the Easter pageant. All are welcome!

Madison-Area Julian Gathering, April 12, 1:00-2:45 PM (NOTE TIME CHANGE): Julian of Norwich was a 15th Century English mystic. She wrote a book, as far as we know the first in English written by a woman, about a series of revelations which opened her to the depths of God’s unconditional love for us in Jesus Christ. Thomas Merton called her “the greatest theologian for our time.” At a Julian Gathering we support each other in the practice of contemplative prayer and contemplative spirituality.  Each meeting includes time for contemplative prayer, fellowship, and reading/discussion of Julian’s book.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Sunday, April 9 – Palm & Passion Sunday

Thursday, April 13, 6pm: Maundy Thursday Meal & Worship

Friday, April 14 – Good Friday

12pm, 4pm & 7pm Good Friday services

Children are encouraged to attend the 4pm service

Saturday, April 15 – Holy Saturday

8pm: Great Vigil of Easter

Sunday, April 16 – Easter Sunday

Egg hunt for children follows both 8am & 10am services

Announcements

Announcements, March 16

TONIGHT…

Lent Madness at Sandbox Worship, Thursday, March 16, 5:30pm: Lent Madness is a playful way to learn more about some of the women and men we honor for shining God’s light in their times. Tonight we’ll talk about Amelia Bloomer and Philipp Melanchthon. Dinner follows our worship.

THIS WEEKEND…

Guest Celebrant and Preacher: Please welcome the Rev. Laura Norby as our preacher and Father John Rasmus as our Celebrant this Sunday. If you need a priest’s support during Rev. Miranda’s absence this weekend, you can reach Father John through the office 238-2781. Rev. Miranda will be out of the office from March 17 through 20.

Rector’s Discretionary Fund Offering, Sunday, March 19: 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. Please give generously.

Sunday school, Sunday, March 19, 10am: This Sunday, our 3 year olds to kindergarten class will learn about the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, while our Elementary classes will learn about Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman.

Evening Eucharist, Sunday, March 19, 6pm: Join us for a simple service as the week begins. All are welcome.

Young Adult meetup at the Vintage, Sunday, March 19, 7pm: The younger adults of St. Dunstan’s are invited to join us for conversation and the beverage of your choice, at the Vintage Brewpub on South Whitney Way. Friends and partners welcome too.

Reflections on the Water of Life, 9am: Gather in the Meeting Room at 9am for a simple time of conversation and prayer, based on reflections on water from Episcopal and Anglian leaders around the world. If you can’t attend but would like to read along, the reflection guide can be downloaded at: https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/trinity-institute/2017/lent

St. Dunstan’s Care Network: Did you know that St. Dunstan’s has a Care Network that helps provide meals for those in our parish family who may need them while they go through a life-changing event?  We have several families in our community who are expecting new babies that we would like to help in this way.  If you are interested in joining our network, there are a couple of ways to do this.  The easiest is to go to our website www.stdunstans.com.  Go to the Home Page, select the drop down “Fellowship & Learning” and click on the “Sharing Meals” tab.  From there, click on the link that takes you to the Care Network log in page, where you will find instructions on how to sign up. The other way to find our page is to go to http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/652914/.  Meal calendars for sign up will be posted as they are created.  This Care Network is NOT just for new babies!  If you know (or ARE) someone in the parish who could benefit from this service, please contact me, Shirley Laedlein.  Thank you!

Looking for Coffee Hosts for April 2017! Consider being a coffee host and talk with Janet Bybee for more information.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Recovery Eucharist POSTPONED:  Our planned Recovery Eucharist has been postponed. Look for a future date in April or May. Thanks for your interest!

Dance, sing and pray for peace, Thursday, March 23, 6pm (dinner at 5:30pm):  Learn and experience the simple and moving songs and Dances of Universal Peace inspired by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Led by Conie Borchardt, Certified Dance Leader and Music Director at St. Mary’s Episcopal in St. Paul, MN. Dances for Universal Peace accommodates people of all skill levels and levels of physical ability. This is a special edition of our weekly Sandbox Worship; please note that this week we will eat dinner first, at 5:30pm.

Last Sunday All-Ages Worship, Sunday, March 26, 10am: Our last Sunday worship will focus on the Gospel story of the Man Born Blind. Last Sunday Worship invites kids’ full participation in our liturgy. We always welcome suggestions about how to meet that goal more fully! NOTE: Our 8am service always follows our regular order of worship.

Gospel of John Study Group, Wednesday nights, March 8 – April 26, omitting Holy Week, 6:30-8:30pm at the McAlpine’s: This year the Daily Office Lectionary has us reading the Gospel of John from the last week of Epiphany through the second week of Easter. If you’d like to read it and reflect on it with others, there is still room in the study group hosted by the McAlpines in Fitchburg. Please call the office at 608-238-2781 for more information.

Liturgy Planning Meeting, Sunday, March 26, 6:30pm: All interested people are welcome to come plan ahead for Holy Week and Easter season, and to share ideas for our worship.

Ladies’ Night Out, Friday, March 31, 6pm: Due to weather, we canceled last month’s event, so we will be meeting at Amber Indian Restaurant at 6913 University Avenue in Middleton. Please come join us for good food and good conversation.

Architects’ On-Site Design Process, Sunday, April 2: On April 2nd, the next part of our planning and design process with Engberg Anderson Architects will take place right under our roof here at St. Dunstan’s!  Beginning at 9AM that morning, and continuing into the early afternoon, architects from EA will set up shop in our building in the Meeting Room.  They will be working on concept drawings and sketches for different ways in which the various ideas generated by all of you over the last several weeks can best be incorporated into our building – whether by renovating the space we have, or by looking at modest ways to expand it as needed.  The process promises to be interesting, a bit messy, and a lot of fun!  Bill and Mike, and members of your Discernment committee, hope you will take the time to stop by, see what they are working on, ask questions and share your comments on their work.  The more input they get from the members of St. Dunstan’s, the better their work will reflect our goals, dreams, and the mission of our parish.  Make plans to allow time for a visit, either before leaving church, or by returning later in the day.

Palm Saturday, Saturday, April 8, 11am-12pm: Kids, parents, grandparents and friends are invited to make Easter Crafts and communion bread, and to take part in a gentle, age-appropriate and participatory telling of the whole Easter story, presented by the youth and adults or our church. This event is best suited for kids ages 3 to 10; our Middle Schoolers are invited to help present the Easter pageant. All are welcome!

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Sunday, April 9 – Palm & Passion Sunday

Thursday, April 13, 6pm: Maundy Thursday Meal & Worship

Friday, April 14 – Good Friday

12pm, 4pm & 7pm Good Friday services

Children are encouraged to attend the 4pm service

Saturday, April 15 – Holy Saturday

8pm: Great Vigil of Easter

Sunday, April 16 – Easter Sunday

Egg hunt for children follows both 8am & 10am services

 

Big Questions, Sermons

Sermon, March 12

There’s so much I love in this Gospel story about Nicodemus, this man of wealth and status and learning who wondered if he was missing something, who snuck out to visit Jesus by night so as not to compromise his reputation. We have a picture of Nicodemus and Jesus, among our icons,  to make space among those passionate saints for those who are almost embarrassed by their belief, their longing to come close to the living God.

But today I’m going to leave our friend Nicodemus to your reflection, and focus instead on one phrase of this Gospel –  a snippet of verse 17, which alongside its more famous brother John 3:16 is one of the best-known texts in the Bible. And rightly so; John offers us here a simple, beautiful statement of what he understands as the point of the whole business: For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that through him, the world might be saved.

Saved. The world might be saved. Sothe, in Greek – a conditional future tense – the “maybe someday” tense – of the Greek verb sozo.

The verb, sozo, to save, and its related noun, soterio, salvation, are used throughout the New Testament, and beyond, in a wide range of ways with a common thread of meaning. Sozo can mean to save from a dangerous situation. To heal. To recover from illness or injury. To be restored. To survive an ordeal. To be rescued, to escape, to be freed. To keep, preserve, or protect. In the New Testament, the situations in which sozo is used run the gamut from real-world illness, danger, or bondage, to the metaphorical and spiritual conditions that mirror those outward realities. And the witness of the New Testament is that Sozo is the word for what God does, in us, for us. Sozo: the name for the central thrust and purpose of God’s action in human history and human lives. To free, heal, make well, rescue, deliver.  To save.

But. While the Church assures us that God’s saving grace has already seized us, marked us indelibly with love –  while we have seen God’s salvation at work in particular lives and situations –  While we may catch glimpses of God’s grace in human history, working among us to bend the long arc towards justice – we still feel ourselves to live in that conditional future space, in the “maybe someday” tense of salvation. The world might be saved.

I believe myself to be saved, but I wonder what it looks like in my daily life. I believe the world to be in the grip of God’s saving power, but I wonder how to cooperate, collude, conspire with God in working towards the salvation of everybody and everything.

Salvation isn’t everyday vocabulary for a lot of us; Episcopalians aren’t that kind of Christians, for better or worse. But there’s another word that I am hearing from many of you, and from brothers and sisters in faith, far and wide, these days: Resist. Resist.

Resist is a buzzword, a hashtag, a t-shirt right now, but Christianity has always been about resistance. As my seminary professor Kwok Pui-Lan recently wrote,  “We must recover that the Jesus movement  was a resistance movement against [the so-called] Pax Romana. Jesus was not a passive religious leader, but took an uncompromising stance against the Roman Empire.”

And while resistance to empire and political oppression is foundational to Christianity, the resistance to which Christ calls us is both broader and deeper. The Gospel of the Temptations of Christ, which we always receive on the first Sunday in Lent, shows us Jesus rejecting the motivations and aspirations of the world:  Seek power and esteem, Satan suggests. Seek self-fulfillment. Seek security. Instead, Jesus tells us: Seek the kingdom of God – which is profoundly different from the kingdoms of this world. Jesus’ teachings – like the Jewish faith which formed him – consistently stress that belonging to God means living by a different set of rules, and resisting the zero-sum, us-them, might-makes-right logic of the human world.

The last shall be first. The least shall be honored. Ninety-nine sheep abandoned to seek the one that wanders. The sin-stained and broken treasured above the righteous. The outsider named a member of God’s household. The stories of the first Christians, the stories of the saints, are stories of people called by God to push back against the injustices, divisions, and casual cruelties of their time and place.

Resistance is intrinsic to salvation. Salvation is what God does for us, beyond our power or even our understanding; resistance is how we live as people chosen, named, and called. We are baptized into God’s insistence that the world could be otherwise. It’s right there in our baptismal vows: We renounce – Renounce: synonyms – deny, reject, repudiate, resist – We renounce all spiritual forces of wickedness, and the evil powers of this world that corrupt and destroy God’s creatures; and we promise, with God’s help, to persevere in resisting evil.

Salvation and resistance go together like a horse and carriage. Salvation and resistance are both against oppression and bondage – the obvious and the subtle forms.Salvation and resistance are both about discovering your value and your freedom – and passing on that knowledge to others. Salvation and resistance are both about knowing, deep-down heart knowledge, that the world could be, should be otherwise. That another, better way is possible – for me, for all of us.

Salvation and resistance are closely linked – which makes sense, because I have the same question about both: How do I live this? How can we take salvation, our saved-ness, from something we say in church to something we carry into each day as a fierce and living hope? How can we take resistance from hashtag territory, from Facebook virtue-signaling and ritualized outrage, to a daily way of being in which our habits, acts, and choices lean in to God’s dream for the world?

I read something last week about resistance, about what it means, what it can look like –  and then when I looked at today’s Gospel, I thought, It’s the same. The ways we live it, let it shape us and shine out of us – the same. Listen – these words come from activist Brittany Packnett, on Twitter. She writes,

“I’ve been thinking about [all the] social justice buzzwords… Are we examining what they really mean? and if we measure up? We so often use words we don’t mean –  or worse yet, say words we aren’t willing to or don’t know how to live. I’ve been thinking a lot about what resistance means. We have an archetype of resistance. Loud. Brash. Confrontational. Those things matter. But resistance is so much more. Resistance requires that we confound the status quo, challenge acceptable norms through our actions.

“Joy is resistance. Oppression doesn’t actually have room for your happiness. You resist it when you find joy anyhow. Love is resistance. Think about the need to protect [transgender] kids. In a world that too often shows them hate, love pushes that status quo… Hope is resistance. If you let it, this fight will destroy the hope you have in our ability to change things. But change is fueled by hope. Rest is resistance. Music is resistance.Culture is resistance…. We have to give words meaning through our actions, not our rhetoric.”

We live in “maybe someday” time – striving to trust that God’s salvation is already accomplished, even as we search the headlines and the landscapes of our lives for glimmers of hope and possibility. In this conditional future space, salvation and resistance overlap, intermingle, flow out of each other. One is God’s work and one is ours, but they’re so deeply intertwined that it’s hard to draw the line.

God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, as ugly and painful as it was, as it is. God sent Jesus to redeem, to rescue, to heal, to free. To save. And when we live as people whose lives and hopes are shaped by God’s salvation, it looks like resistance. It looks like… joy. Joy anyhow. It looks like love. Love that stands with, and stands for. It looks like hope. Like persistence and courage. It looks like rest, the radical work of caring for yourself. It looks like music, poetry, art, like creative or constructive work shared, like hard stories heard and honored, like learning even when it hurts, like remembering what’s easier to forget, like simple small kindnesses woven into our days. You’re already doing it. Already saved. Already resisting. And it’s always, always, calling you onward, farther, deeper, into the maybe-someday of God’s dream.

Kwok Pui-Lan’s blog post on theology in the 21st century: 

http://kwokpuilan.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-rich-past-for-positive-future-for.html

Announcements

Announcements, March 9

THIS WEEKEND…

Lenten Reading Book – Online and/or In-Person Meetings on Friday evenings, starting March 10: This year St. Dunstan’s Virtual Book Group will be reading Evicted by Mathew Desmond. The book follows 8 families struggling with eviction and poverty in Milwaukee. We will discuss the book on a private Facebook page (to be set up on March 1st). Because the book is very emotionally involving, Evy Gildrie-Voyles will host an in-person discussion group at St. Dunstan’s on Fridays March 10th, March 24th, March 31st and April 7th at 6:00pm. A light soup and salad supper will be provided. If you would like to join please sign up in the Gathering Area. There are many copies of the book available in the Middleton Public Library. If would like to have your own copy, please let me know so we can order you one. Any questions, contact Evy Gildrie-Voyles.

Welcoming the Stranger: Immigration Policy and Christian Responsibility, Saturday, March 11, 3 – 5pm, St. Dunstan’s Church.  You shall not oppress the stranger living among you, for you know the heart of a stranger; you were strangers in the land of Egypt.   – Exodus 23:9 Countless passages in both the Old and New Testaments call God’s people to be welcoming and compassionate towards the “resident alien,” people from other nations living as our neighbors. What does our core spiritual practice of welcome look like, when our national policies are making life increasingly difficult for immigrants? You’re invited to come learn about U.S. immigration policy; hear from the Rev. Oscar Rozo, Vicar of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Beaver Dam, about what he’s seeing as a pastor to immigrant Christians; and to discuss how we are called to respond. All St. Dunstan’s folk are welcome to attend.

Reflections on the Water of Life, Sundays in Lent at 9am, beginning March 12: Gather in the Meeting Room at 9am for a simple time of conversation and prayer, based on reflections on water from Episcopal and Anglian leaders around the world. If you can’t attend but would like to read along, the reflection guide can be downloaded at:  https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/trinity-institute/2017/lent

Sunday school, Sunday, March 12, 10am: This Sunday, our 3 year olds to kindergarten class will learn about the parable of the Good Samaritan, while our Elementary classes will talk about what it could mean to be “born again.”

Your Favorite Lecture: Islam 101, Sunday, March 12, 11:30am: Islam and Muslims are in the news, and many people have questions about the faith and its followers. Phil Hassett will share some basic information about Islam and answer your questions! All are welcome.

Gospel of John Study Group, Wednesday nights, March 8 – April 26, omitting Holy Week, 6:30-8:30pm at the McAlpine’s: Nicodemus, the Samaritan Woman, the man born blind, Martha & Mary of Bethany: just some of the witnesses the Gospel according to John assembles to enrich our own encounter with Jesus. This year the Daily Office Lectionary has us reading that Gospel from the last week of Epiphany through the second week of Easter. You’re still welcome to join; the conversation this week will focus on a portion of chapter 5. Call the church office at 238-2781 for more information and the McAlpines’ address.

Walking the Stations of the Cross in Lent: 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), 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: We will not have altar flowers in Lent, as part of our observance of a season of solemnity. If you would like to sign-up to sponsor and dedicate flowers for the Easter services, please see the yellow sign-up sheet in the Gathering Area.

Looking for Coffee Hosts for April 2017! Consider being a coffee host and talk with Janet Bybee for more information.

Camp Webb Scholarship Fund: Thanks to your generosity with Shrove Tuesday donations, we made over $200 for our Camp Scholarship Fund! If you’d like to support the kids and youth of St. Dunstan’s as they head to our diocesan camp this summer, you can make donations to that fund at any time – just write “Camp scholarship” on the memo line of your check or in the comment box at donate.stdunstans.com .

Monday Morning Art Group: Each Monday morning from 9:30 to 11:30 an adult group meets in the chapel area to share their creative arts and crafts projects, which might include drawing and painting to needlework.  It’s become a wonderful time to share some of our personal history, or more recent experiences and/or challenges.  Feel free to come along and join us! Because of improper ventilation for toxic materials, we ask that no paint solvents or smelly glues be required during this period.

THE WEEKS AHEAD…

Rev. Miranda’s Upcoming Travel: Rev. Miranda is traveling for a family gathering next weekend. She will be out of the office from March 17 through 20.  On Sunday, March 19, the Rev. Laura Norby will preach and Father John Rasmus will celebrate. If you need a priest’s support during Rev. Miranda’s absence, Father John will be available.

Rector’s Discretionary Fund Offering, Sunday, March 19: 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. Please give generously.

Sunday school, Sunday, March 19, 10am: This Sunday, our 3 year olds to kindergarten class will learn about the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, while our Elementary classes will learn about Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman.

Evening Eucharist, Sunday, March 19, 6pm: Join us for a simple service as the week begins. All are welcome.

Young Adult meetup at the Vintage, Sunday, March 19, 7pm: The younger adults of St. Dunstan’s are invited to join us for conversation and the beverage of your choice, at the Vintage Brewpub on South Whitney Way. Friends and partners welcome too.

Recovery Eucharist, Tuesday, March 21, 5:30pm: The Recovery Eucharist, celebrated in many churches around the country, is designed for those recovering from any addiction and for those who support them in their recovery.  Elements of the service are drawn from the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church and the AA Big Book. The Eucharist (Holy Communion) will be celebrated with grape juice instead of wine. All are welcome; feel free to invite a friend. A Beginners’ AA meeting follows at 7pm, in the Meeting Room; this AA meeting is held weekly at St. Dunstan’s, and anyone is welcome to attend.

Architects’ On-Site Design Process, Sunday, April 2: Two architects from the firm Engberg Anderson will spend the day in the Meeting Room, working on possible designs to address some of the challenges of our building that we have identified. They invite us to stop by and observe, ask questions, and share ideas. Come by between services, after the 10am service, or anytime during the afternoon!

6205 University Ave., Madison WI

St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church