Outreach meeting

The Outreach group will gather for a meeting on June 29 at 9:30am  Please mark your calenders and come if you have a passion for Good shepherd’s outreach ministries.  God bless,  Fr.  Mike

Choral Evensong June 1st @ 5pm (New time)

Good Shepherd will be participating in the MadisonArea Episcopal Churches Choral Evensong.  The Choral Evensong will be held at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Regent St in Madison at 5pm.  Bishop Miller will be presiding.  Hope to see you there.  God bless,  Fr.  Mike

Vacation Bible School

Good Shepherd will be teaming up with the Madison area Episcopal Church to have Summer vacation Bible school this Aug . 25- 29th.  From 9am to noon at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church for ages 3 to 9 years old.  Registration is available through St. Andrew’s Episcopal church website in Madison wisconsin

 

Christain Ed. meeting

The teachers and interested adult in Christian formation will be gathering this Sunday June 1st at 11:30 to touch base and gather questions, issues and topics for a Christian formation meeting to be held on June 22 Sunday at 11am.  The meeting on the 22nd will focus on goal setting and information sharing about Summer Vacation Bible school and training available this summer for our Rel. Ed teachers.  God bless,  Fr.  Mike

Get ready for the Faster Pastor

Well,  We did it!  Thanks to all who voted.  I was one of the top 6 vote getters on life102.5’s website so I get the opportunity to race on Friday June 13th at Madison International raceway.  The race is slated for between 7:30 and 8:30pm.  Please wear red and cheer for me(FM) as I race against 5 other area pastors.  I am also trying to raise $2000 for the priests professional and discretionary funds which I use to do outreach ministry and help those in need in our community.  If you would like to help meet our goal please stop by church and pick up an evelope in the Narthex (Call first to make sure someone’s there to help you 608 837 3308) or send a check to Good shepherd @ 3416 swansee ridge Sun Prairie, 53590 memo to faster pastor fund raiser.  Hope to see you on June 13th but if you can’t please keep me in your prayers and the mission and ministry of Good shepherd church.  God bless, and thanks again for all the support.  God bless,  FM

Pentecost 2 Rest, Trust, and stretch May 25, 2008

Matthew 6:24-34

²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor was spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of it’s

If you had to describe yourself concerning your relationship to Good shepherd Church, how would you do that? What words would you use? Member? Involved? Faithful? Servant? Committed? Loyal? Passionate?

Did any of us call ourselves servants of Christ? I bet a few of us did but the one that really caught my imagination was Stewards of God’s mysteries.

Steward’s of God’s mysteries.

In Isaiah God tells us we are inscribed on the palm of his hand. I have inscribed in the palm of my hand the date May 17, 1917. This date is the birthday of one of our parish family. Ruth is in the hospital for the 6^th time since the New Year. Her birthday was on her wrist band so I didn’t have to break the tradition of never asking a person their age. Ruth has been a steward of God’s mysteries for 91 years. I bet she could not articulate in those words but that is how she lives her life. With every breath she takes. This is a woman who understands she is written on the palm of God’s hand.

The opening collect says protect us from faithless fear and worldly anxieties. That no cloud of this mortal life may hide us from the light of that love which is immortal.

How would how we live change is we filtered each decision with the question of how this related to being stewards of God’s mysteries. How would that change our living in faithless fear and worldly anxiety?

The last line of the gospel says do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

The 1^st line of that Gospel says we cannot serve two masters for me the question of the day is God going to own your heart or is fear? Do we want to spend our lives striving to be stewards of God’s mystery or searching for what the harsh world is going to unleash on us next. The Gospel says as ultimate truth that worrying does not add a single hour to the span of your life.

You may ask that deeply theological question at this point, so what? What’s the point? The point is this; the scriptures today offer us a template, a guide for us to structure our lives. A measuring stick to put up against the decisions we have to make. I believe our lives and our world would be very different if we planned our course using the test of does this help or hurt my quest to be a steward of the mystery of God verses fear based test of how much is this going to cost or how much will this hurt. I don’t think we need to feed ourselves to the Lions but I also don’t think we can let fear keep us from God possibilities. Do we start a conversation by listing why we can’t or do we list how with God’s help every thing is possible.

We begin the season of Pentecost this week other wise known as ordinary time in the church year. I believe we turn ordinary time into extraordinary time by seeking with each breath to embody more fully the mystery of God.

In the name of God

Steward- One who actively directs affairs

¹stew·ard

Pronunciation:

\ˈstü-ərd, ˈstyü-; ˈst(y)u̇rd\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle English, from Old English stīweard, from stī, stig hall, sty + weard ward — more at sty, ward

Date:

Before 12th century

1: one employed in a large household or estate to manage domestic concerns (as the supervision of servants, collection of rents, and keeping of accounts)2: shop steward3: a fiscal agent4 a: an employee on a ship, airplane, bus, or train who manages the provisioning of food and attends passengers b: one appointed to supervise the provision and distribution of food and drink in an institution5: one who actively directs affairs : manager

Trinity Sunday Because I love you May 18, 2008

Matthew 28:16-20
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
My confession for this week is that I have always struggled with Trinity Sunday. This Sunday every year is some of my weakest preaching. This year may be different. I read an article by Fr. Jim Lemler who just finished as the director of mission for the Episcopal Church. His article was entitled Blah, Blah, Blah, love. Fr. Jim said that it is easy to turn the understanding of the trinity to the theologians but the trinity is really about God’s expression of love to us.
This got me thinking. About our relationship with God. Fr. Lemler says God’s love is dynamic and relational, not static and disconnected. I thought about my own relationship with God. Now I am not shy about how passionately in love with God I am, and yet I find myself fickle with me God more often than I would like to admit.
(Ask for volunteer and hold them in a hug for 30 sec… enough to get everyone feeling a little uncomfortable) We do not like to be smothered in relationship – even by God. It makes us uncomfortable like a hug that is held to long. I come close to God and then I back off from God much like a teenager testing their wings. Often I only remember to seek God when I am in need or it is convenient. It makes sense to me that God would need more than one avenue to get to me. God’s three persons are not for God it’s for you and me. It the best way for God to give us access to God. I never thought of the trinity about my access to God before.
This God of ours will go to the darkest part of us to bring us back to Godself. It’s not important that I understand the trinity it just important that it there so I can reach God. The more I reach God the more likely it is that I will try again and this God of ours even gave his own son. I see myself moving back and toward God I never feel God moving back from me. May you this day and always feel the love of God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen

Pentecost Light me up May 11, 2008

19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained
It is Pentecost Sunday the Birthday of the Church. It is a day of the heart because today is also Mother’s day. At the center of the church, at the center of a mom at the center of us all is our heart. For mothers the heart is a treasure chest, as Scripture says of Mother Mary she kept all these things in her heart. The Scripture also says that when Jesus or the Holy Spirit was upon them the believers’ hearts were on fire.
I want to read to you a couple of reflections on what Pentecost means then offer a question to be pondered.
Pentecost was not a private mystical experience it was a public outpouring of divine presence that touched them all
The peace that Jesus brings is an assurance of God’s transforming love to a world that is beset with confusion, fear and turmoil.
The significance of Pentecost is to show that the Church has been empowered by God’s spirit to carry on the ministry of Jesus ChristWhat is your heart made out of? Wet wood, dry wood, petrified wood, stone?
What kind of heart do you want to have or be known for?
What kind of hearts do we need to be true followers and do God’s will?

Let our hearts be on fire, may we change the world one person at a time by how we love them.

Easter 7 Absence May 4, 2008

The Sunday between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday used to be called Expectation Sunday. I have been thinking a lot about absence. I on occasion have to be gone for a week and I find it harder and harder to say goodbye to Heidi and my kids. It made me think for the 1st time about what must have been going through Jesus‘s mind as he prepared to leave his friends and family behind. Barbara Brown Taylor has observed, absence isn’t nothing. Absence is something, a vacuum longing to be filled.
One commentary pointed out that even though Jesus is absent physically he is still present sacramentally, missionally and universally. The commentary said to limit God’s presence to physical space is like trading a three storied universe for a one story ranch. To limit Jesus to the physical world robs us of the deep connection between heaven and earth and God’s ability to be simultaneously present in all places and people.
As I was thinking of this absence and this “here but not here” of our God. Two stories brought it home for me.
A pastor tells the story of how his wife loved to walk in the woods around their California home. She would drag him with her begrudgingly. Then one winter he took a trip to Estonia and was ready to take a break from the walking only to find himself missing his wife and longing for those walks. He walked every day while he was away from her and even though they were apart there was part of her present in those walks. It reminded me of our celebrating communion. The longing that the vacuum creates in absence is at least partially filled presence other than the physical plane.
The other story was of a great high school football coach who after years of success felt like it was time to retire from Football. The staff and school loved him, the players and parents loved him, and the town loved him. They agreed to make his best assistant head coach and he would become athletic director. It was a hard transition because he promised he wouldn’t meddle in the team anymore and being a person of great integrity all involved knew he wouldn’t interfere. At the Farwell banquet the hall was packed with parents, players and fans. The crowd was filled with ambivalence because they knew that this was good for the coach but things were going to change. It would never be the same. In his speech the coach commended the players to their new coach and he said to the new coach take good care of these players because I love them all.
I think that’s how Jesus felt as he ascended to the Father. He said to his followers then and now take good care of my people because I love them all.
In the name of God

Safeguarding God’s children training@ Good Shepherd

Saturday, May 17 from 9am to 12pm there will be a diocesean training held at Good Shepherd.  All Episcopal church members who work with children and youth are required to attend this training .  THe training will be held again at Good shepherd this summer at a date later to be decieded.