April 4, 2011
The Midweek Message is being sent on Monday this week as I will be making a quick trip to Washington DC (leaving Tuesday/returning Thursday) for a formative meeting of the PICO (People Improving Communities through Organizing) National Clergy Caucus. I look forward to the meeting which will be led by a good friend of Lakeshore, The Reverend Michael-Ray Mathews, PICO’s National Director of Outreach and Recruitment.
In our worship on April 10 the central Scripture will be John 19:30 "It is finished." In considering this text, the sixth of the seven sayings of Jesus from the cross, it is important to keep these points in mind:
- These words are not a sigh of resignation but a cry of victory
- On the pages of Scripture and in the flow of history it is God who finishes things. It is the Creator who completes things and declares them good.
- John 1:18 reads "It is the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known." Jesus’ work of making God known reached its culmination on the cross.
- John 13:1b reads "Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." Jesus’ lifetime of showing us the full extent of his love was completed on the cross.
- In God’s economy every ending is a beginning. As Jesus died a chapter in the story of God and God’screation is completed and a new chapter begins.
Prayers of the Congregation
- John Hayes – at home under hospice care
- Harold Cotton – at home
- Kay Baxter – prayers for Jamie’s healing and for Stacey and Michael’s ministry, thanksgivng for friends
- Peter Virzi – for alcoholics and drug addicts
- Carol Leichter for her friend Tina who is mourning the death of her father
- Rwena Jackson for Sam Rogers
- Joan Patten for Sierra, Paula and herself
- All who are grieving
- All who are traveling
- Tess Benin and those she cares for
- Myrtis Anderson and those she cares for
- Paige Bence for her niece
- Ted and Doris Evans for Charlotte and Jenny
- Carolyn Matthews for William
- Sheila and Declan Brown for David, Deidre, Olivia and Sid
- LeAnn Snow for her cousin in chemotherapy
- Mia and Selena Smith
- Gerry Grosz for Miko and family
- Virginia Damretzky
- Edna Dorenzo
- Helen Harrison for Gloria and Hazel
- Brenda McCarthy for her nephew, Mr. Walt and self, thanksgiving that God is still in the miracle business
- Al Johnson and Roy Browner – adjusting to living in San Ramon
- Bette Pancoe for Jennifer, recovering from surgery, and herself
- Glenn Knight and family
- Geetha Thaker – medical residency in Tennessee
- The people of so many countries in various stages of revolt and significant change
- The peace of Oakland
- All who have lost their homes and property
- Sheila Sims for her parents
- Alonzo Reese
- Ann Fields for her family and herself
- The Joachim family
- Carol Norris for Jack and herself
- Barry and Andrea Breaux
- The work of Oakland Community Organizations and PICO
- George and Sylvia Lee
- Leona Sims and family
- Thanksgving with Georgia Smith that her son Freeman is home from the hospital
- Margaret Alexander and all those she cares for
- Jessie Lucas for his daughter in Kuwait
- Amy and Ryan Parker for the health of Amy’s grandmothers
- Wil Ash for LeRoy Coleman
The Hunger Task Force invites everyone to the Coffee Hour on Sunday. The ministries supported by HTF will be present.
Send me an email if you would like to attend Temple Sinai’s Freedom Seder on Thursday evening April 14. I need to let them know how many will be attending by the end of the week.