August 9, 2011

In a city where bad news is the norm and the horrific is not unexpected the shooting yesterday of a three year old child goes straight to the heart. Anger at the shooters, sorrow for the family, numbness at the unrelenting violence are the emotions that collide. We pray for our city, for the family of little Carlos and for those who see no problem with a firing a gun in neighborhood where children are at play and families make their homes. Lord, have mercy.
Lakeshore will worship in two settings this Sunday.  Many will be at Redwood Glen for the church retreat and will gather for worship there.  Many will also gather in the Sanctuary at the regular time for our regular service.  Wherever you are I trust that you will join with the community of faith to sing together, to turn to the Scripture, to listen for the good news and to lift our prayers as a community.
At the Lakeshore service the central Scripture will be Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32.  In this text Paul continues to explore one of the central concerns of his ministry, the relationship between Judaism and the new Christian community.  He is clear that while they are not one in the same, neither are they antithetical traditions.  He is certain that God has not turned God’s back on one community in order to show God’s face to the other. He is clear that God sheds God’s grace on both the older faith and newer way.  Chapter eleven concludes with this mysterious and promising sentence – “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”  The argument needs to be handled delicately but Paul is saying that the sin which is part of every human life and every human community provides an opening for the mercy of God, which is universal, to come alive.  My sermon is titled “The Case For Sin.”

Prayers of the Congregation

• All who serve our country all who are grieving loved ones who have lost their lives in war
• The Peace of Oakland
• The economies of which we are a part (global, national, state, local)
• Paige Bence, John Lee and family on the death of their niece Hayley
• Thanksgiving with Kimberly Bolich on her marrige on August 6
• Idella Berry (Alameda Hospital)
• Virginia Cheatham (Medical Hill Rehabilitation Center)
• Bette Pancoe (Summit Hospital SNF)
• Carol and Steve Leichter
• Kay Baxter and Family
• Magaret Alexander and Family
• Sandra Dunn for her cousin Clovis
• Ann Fields for her family and thanksgiving that she can read without glasses
• Mary Karne for Mildred
• Susan Joachim
• Edna Dorenzo
• Warren Parker for Camille
• Larry Hutchings for the family of June Brioli
• Cordia Lee for Paige and John, for Euca and Elijah, for the employees of Alta Bates Summit Hospital
• Safe travels for all who will be attending the Church Retreat
• Bonnie Sato (chemotherapy continues)
• Our Muslim friends and neighbors as they observe Ramadan
• Those experiencing food scarcity and famine in the Eastern Horn of Africa
• The Baptists of Zimbabwe
• All our shut-ins

Announcements

The Hopkins Family will present the Coffee Hour this Sunday in honor of Ethan as prepares to leave for Ottawa University.
The deadline for Scholarship Applications has been extended to this Sunday.  Contact the Church Office.
Lakeshore’s LOC (Our OCO Community Organizing Committee) will meet Wednesday evening, August 10, in the Library at 6:30. Please join in this essential effort to improve our city.
Congratulations to our own LeAnn Snow, Dean and Professor of Old Testament at ABSW, on being named as a Delegate to the “United Nations World Conference on the Impact and Implications of the Global Financial and Economic Crisis on Sustainable Development & Climate Change Proposals for an Integrated Global Response to the Crisis” to be held in London August 23-26.
I used a prayer by Harry Emerson Fosdick for the Pastoral Prayer on Sunday, August 7.  The date of the prayer is approximate but likely it was first offered in the 1930’s. In light of the bad economic news we are being inundated with I found this portion of the prayer particularly meaningful.  “We lay before thee our deep solicitude about the world.  O God, grant thy people intelligence, and the grace to use it for mankind’s good!  Not only our evil destroys humanity but our stupidity.  We crucify Christ because we know not what we do.  Save us from the insanity that throws away the gracious gifts of opportunity that are ours.”
Prayers of gratitude for the life and witness of retired Senator Mark Hatfield (R, Oregon) who understood so well the cost of war and warring madness.  Senator Hatfield passed away on August 7.