January 18, 2016

Those of you who know me well know that although I am a fairly frequent traveler, I am also a fairly reluctant traveler. I need to go to Seattle later this week to meet with some Evergreen Baptist Association leaders. I thank you for your prayers both for safe travel and for the ongoing vitality of our beloved regional family of churches.
Pastor Tanner will be our preacher on January 24 as we continue to lift the theme of “Light Through the Cracks.” Her sermon will be “Light, Loss and Life” and will be taken from I Kings 19: 9-13. She will reflect on her personal experiences of loss, and how God’s light guided her.  As I did this past Sunday,  she will use a painting from Cliff Scott’s collection to illuminate her theme.
I have quoted from “To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings” by John O’Donohue in the Midweek Message before. This week I quote from one of the blessings in the book, “A Blessing of Angels.” I find that O’Donohue’s words represent well the hope of “Light Through the Cracks.”

“May the Angel of Imagination enable you to stand on the true thresholds, at ease with your ambivalence and drawn in new directions through the glow of your contradictions.
May the Angel of Compassion open your eyes to the unseen suffering around you.
May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places where your life is domesticated and safe, take you to the territories of true otherness where all that is awkward in you can fall into its own rhythm.”

Prayers of the Congregation

• All who are grieving
• Charlene and Jerry Wolf for their neighbor, Wayne, who was injured in a fall
• Katrina Lau (health concerns)
• LeAnn Flesher for her father (health concerns)
• Joan Thatcher (health concerns)
• The members of our community who are caregivers
• All our shut-ins
• Aries Broadnax as he undergoes shoulder surgery
• Gloria and Phil Meads for Angela and Alfonso
• Kay Baxter for Stacey (employment) and Jamie
• Thanksgiving for the work of Ceasefire in Oakland and other cities
• Thanksgiving for the ministry of the Evergreen Baptist Association
• Thanksgiving for the ministry of Oakland First Baptist Church, a ministry that began in 1854
• Thanksgiving for the steady rain

Announcements

The Ceasefire Nightwalk will begin at At Thy Word Church, 8915 International Boulevard, this Friday, January 22 at 6:30.
Mark you calendars to come out to our Sanctuary for “A Place To Reflect” on Friday evening, January 29, from 5:30-7:30. The sanctuary will provide a sacred space to sit, be, think, pray, mediate, and engage God’s Spirit. There will also be a labyrinth to walk, interactive art-prayer and meditative movement. All ages are encouraged to drop by.