NIGHT

From Huehuetenango

When the bell rings at 5 pm in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, the bell ringer is right up there in the tower. I wonder if he has a hearing loss.

Today our newly composed group, now twelve persons, took a van to Huehuetenango from Antigua. Tomorrow at about 8 am we finish the last leg of the journey to Nueva Esperanza in Chacula.

"Hola" from Antigua

It is a new world when the modest backpacker Posada San Vicente in Antigua, Guatemala, has free wi-fi! Here is our group at dinner 2 hours ago. We are assembling, and spent this afternoon getting to know each other better. We will take a van to Huehuetenango tomorrow, and on Monday we will go higher into the mountains to Nueva Esperanza, at Chacula, for the fiesta to celebrate their return to Guatemala in 1994, after being international refugees in Chiapas, Mexico.

Guatemala Delegation

Off to Guatemala on Friday, January 6 on a mission delegation.

The main order of business is to be present at a fiesta celebrating the return of refugees from Mexico to Guatemala that took place in January 1993. The community is called Nueva Esperanza and is in Chacula. These people were among the 200,000 or so refugees who fled the scorched earth policy of the Guatemalan military in the 1980s who were in camps in Chiapas, Mexico, under the supervision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. When peace accords were achieved in Guatemala they decided to return as an organized community. Sort of a modern day Passover narrative. Last time I was there was in January 1994 and the people were literally living under blue tarps. I am looking forward to see how far they have come.

We will also visit human rights groups which have their offices in Guatemala City.

I ask your prayers for our group as we travel. Please pray that our support and bridge-building will be effective. And that everyone will be safe and healthy.

The photos are from an earlier visit to Guatemala.

ESL Program, Women's Health

Lisa Viaene, Blackhawk College Program Manager writes:

"Had a wonderful event at the Lights-On ESL program yesterday....the

Health Dept came and did free breast exams for 38 of the women in the program.

Eight have a lump of some sort, so

we will be trying to follow up on this during the next

month or so."

Big thanks to Nora Steele and Mary Oelschlaeger, from the Stand Against Cancer program for helping get that organized with the Rock Island Health Department.

Community Thanksgiving Service Honor

At the Community Thanksgiving Service that took place last Tuesday, November 22, at House of Fire Ministry on 11th Street I was honored for years of support for community efforts in the West End of Rock Island, and of our neighbor churches. The Church of Peace has a culture of support for our neighbors, so in honoring me the honor was really for the whole church and our commitment to being a good neighbor.

Represented at the event were House of Fire, Truth Temple, Calvary International Fellowship, First Lutheran, Gloria Dei Presbyterian along with Church of Peace.

There were quite a number of members of the Church of Peace as well. Not being "in" on what was going on I was especially impressed with the good turn out of our church members. The upper portion of the back wall above the chancel area at House of Fire is all a mirror. So while looking forward one can see who is in the congregation. As the evening proceeded more and more faces from Church of Peace were visible. Thanks to all members who were able to attend and support the service in this way.

I greatly appreciate this recognition of our church and my ministry.

Stewardship Sunday Sermon

Gospel Table

November 13, 2011

Welcome Table

I'm gonna sit at the welcome table


Yes, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table


One of these days, hallelujah

I'm gonna sit at the welcome table

Gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days!

When our family gathers we always seem to end up sitting together at the table; probably yours too.

So, too, worshipping communities. Today we will end up at tables eating spaghetti. But more than the food, we will talk, laugh, visit, fellowship and catch up with the lives of each other.

When we have an annual meeting for the church, we first gather at table. When we mark an anniversary, when we welcome a new pastor, when we embark on a common effort such as a building project, when we gather after a funeral, at all of these moments we gather as a community around a table.

When we mark high holy days we gather at the Lord’s Table for communion – Christmas, Holy Thursday, All Saints Day-Totenfest. These are formal liturgical events, but they too are rooted in the image of a meal.

These meals are not only concrete events at which obtain nourishment; physical, social, and spiritual, but they are events symbolic of our identity as the people of God. They evoke memories of previous occasions and meals, and they pre-figure the culmination of our life with God.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. O what a foretaste of glory divine!

The scripture is filled with accounts of meals.

• · The Exodus begins with a hurried meal.
• · Psalm 23 reads: “He (the shepherd) prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
• · Song of Songs reads; “He calls me to his banqueting table, his banner over me is love.
• · Jesus uses parables that compare the Kingdom of God to a man giving a banquet.
• · Jesus feeds 5000
• · Jesus’ has a Last Supper with the disciples.
• · The post Easter disciples meet the Risen Christ and know him in the breaking of bread.
• · The Book of Revelation anticipates the culmination of history in a great banquet with Christ on the throne as host. (“And therefore with angels and archangels and all the heavenly host, we praise your name saying, “Holy, holy, holy Lord…”)

As we move toward the heavenly banquet that the scripture foretells we are called to fashion our community of faith in ways that emulate that which is to come.

• · With an invitation to all which echoes Jesus’ call to the last and the least.
• · With radical hospitality to a wide array of folks.
• · With an effort toward excellence that puts our best foot forward.
• · With enthusiasm and warmth.
• · With dignity, respect, love and generosity.

I believe that as we seek to live out and live into this vision we are engaged in the most important activity taking place on the planet today.

• · In a world that envisions scarcity and want, we are living out a vision of plenty and enough for everyone.
• · In a world that exudes violence toward those who are different in some way our vision is inclusive and welcoming.
• · In a time that is too often despairing this is a vision of hope.
• · In a world that envisions getting over on people, this is a vision of hospitality toward people and treating others with justice.
• · In a post-modern world of fragmented thinking, this is a unifying vision of human harmony in service of God our creator.
• · In a world of guilt and grudges this is a vision of forgiveness and reconciliation based on the Cross of Christ.

We cannot do better than living into this vision; and the church, this church, offers a chance for people like you and me to make a difference for good with the stewardship of our time, talent, gifts, service and visionary imagination. Living into this vision offers the opportunity to join on the side of God and the angels to bring this vision of a heavenly banquet into being.

Amen and amen.