First Presbyterian Church of Gaylord

Prayer

O God of creation, your redeeming work in this world is not dictated by borders, by lines on a map. We praise you for the unreserved nature of your mercy and the expansive reach of your love. You have created all the people of the earth in your image and care for each one.

Remind us this day of your call for us to be a blessing to all families of the earth, and illuminate the fears that make us unwilling to be the vessels of your blessing to those who live as strangers among us. Amen.

Sermon Notes: 

Greetings in the Name of our Lord who is faithful to hear our prayers….please pray with me and for me…..

Sometimes being welcomed into a new community is the easiest process and sometimes it is not…..what makes a community welcoming and what makes a community unfriendly?  In our own congregation – our own members can demonstrate a little of both, I think.  When we look at the biblical narrative of Ruth – we see elements of this welcoming process….here is a woman who is beset by tragedy.  Estranged from her own family, left widowed and homeless and hungry…she places herself and her family at the mercy of others….in hopes of sustaining her life and survive hunger and homelessness.

What makes the turning point happen?  What does it take for a person who is lonely, afraid, fearful for her future and dependent upon others for survival?  Maybe this seems out of sync with our present reality – not many of us here are homeless or hungry in this congregation – but maybe there are deep elements that resonate with us in this narrative. Where do we feel alone, abandoned, hungry and fearful?  [Pause]

[Pause]

A seminary Professor, Mr. Moore,  recalls telephoning Eduardo, who was one of his brightest students, to find out why he had not sent in his term paper. “The response he offered was a little unnerving. He said he had been staying up late every night the past two weeks watching the World Cup on ESPN. Why? Because he needed to know how Honduras (his native country) was doing in the first rounds of play. Because of this he just ‘couldn’t find the time’ to write his paper. When I informed him that failure to produce a paper would mean failure of the course, he said,    ‘I understand,’ thanked me for the call, and hung up.” Moore found it difficult to understand his student’s priorities. He writes, “Only slowly did I begin to realize how wide the canyon had grown between our worldviews: a first-generation immigrant, he found the English reading and writing assignments very difficult; a seasoned seminary professor, I felt it my responsibility to help him learn the Word of God in its original historical and literary contexts. When two cultures clash like this it is tempting for the dominant culture to conclude that immigrants like Eduardo are ignorant and lazy.”

We have our own stories to share in this manner – stories of welcoming and helping immigrants into our northern Michigan life – here in Gaylord.  Our own Raya Hayduk. Raya emigrated here from Ukraine not too many years ago.  She arrived here after a whirlwind romance with her husband Brent.   Arriving into a land that was not familiar to her – she may have felt like Naomi or like Ruth – depending upon the kindness of strangers to help her assimilate into the American community.  What were the welcoming acts that helped her be a part of our community here in Gaylord? In Michawye? In our Congregation?

Members of the church – who are her neighbors – met her, came alongside her and welcomed her into the town – and took her under their wing and began to help her visit the local churches.  She went to FPC Gaylord and – as the familiar story – she came to our congregation and never went to any other church after that – she found a home.  What made it a home church for her?  An Russian orthodox background – this protestant congregation and liturgy must have felt very foreign to her – in word and sacrament and music and fellowship….even though it was very different from any church she was raised up in –she felt pulled towards the Christian fellowship that was extended to her. She was invited in to be a part of the Family of God that we extend to all people.  And Raya could not resist.  Who could?! Alone and fearful of her ability to adapt –she tentatively said yes to joining the church, being a member and seeking fellowship with us….we said “Yes!” and “Come!” – We could not resist – either!

That is what it is like to be a part of God’s family –to feel the pull of God’s covenant covering – to feel the eternal pull of God’s blessing and fellowship – and the give into the pull of the Holy Spirit – the Family of God – as it is demonstrated so lovingly here at First Presbyterian Church of Gaylord.  Who can resist?  Who can resist?

Raya is a living modern-day example of the ancient biblical narrative of the Book of Ruth.  There are

Genuine “Ruths” among us.  they are crucial to our well-being as God’s people. Raya has joined the community here in Gaylord and entered into a genuine relationship of giving and receiving in the local community.  She volunteers her time at the Caring Closet, the Community Food Bank.  She joined a local sewing club to use the God given talents she has in textiles and knitting and sewing. With each new group and activity she joins – she is learning new ways of living here in America, striving to assimilate and also share her gifts and talents that God has blessed her with.  She is a blessing to others because God has blessed her. This is the nature of how God works.  Be a blessing to others because of the blessing you receive….

When I think of the story of Ruth – I realize that God “has a habit of redeeming anyone who wants to channel his ‘covenant love,’ regardless of status or bloodline or standard of living,”  “God takes great delight in

bringing ‘Ruths’ among us. They channel his grace in ways no

one else can.”______________________________________

The book of Ruth challenges our easy assumptions and stereotypes about immigrants today, especially when we put to it two simple questions:

“What challenges did Ruth face as she accompanies her mother-in-law Naomi to Judah?” and

“How does God help her meet these challenges?”

________________

Just as God met the challenges of providing for Ruth’s future – so too did God meet the challenges of Raya’s future –as she sought to become a member of this community, state and country.   Just as my story of the seminary professor makes clear:

Ruth reminds us that as immigrants of diverse cultures come to live among us, we need discerning hearts to appreciate their needs and honor their contributions.

There is a happy ending to the story. Imaginatively drawing on the perspective on immigrants he finds in the book of Ruth, that professor Moore “called Eduardo back and asked him if he would prefer to sit for an oral final exam in his native language, and then got a translator to mediate for us. Not only did he pass the course, the two of us experienced a taste of how good it feels when God’s chesed ‘becomes flesh and dwells among us, full of grace and truth.’”

(Immigration, 20, 25)

God’s blessed – God’s Chesed – is blessed beyond measure – what a gift we have in God’s Family –belonging, protected, loved beyond measure.

A blessing indeed – Alleluia Amen.

March+2012+Newsletter.2

 Join us for Summer Bible Study  

Wednesdays @ 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

though June 27

“You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth…”  

Chapter 1:18

      Bible Study “ACTS: Church on the Edge”

      See Rosy Moran for more information & join us!

Every Wednesday @ 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

through June 27

Stuyding the series:  “Acts: Church on the Edge“

Contact Elder Rosy Moran

   Choir Practice

Each Wednesday @ 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Contact Director of Music Aaron Hotelling

                                      or Chairperson of Worship Linda Ryan

Men’s Breakfast with Pastor Kate

Each 2nd Tuesday of the month

@ Sugar Bowl ~ Gaylord

8:30 a.m.

Contact Elder Bob Hutton

Summer Church Picnic

Sunday, June 24

immediately following worship service

Bring a dish to pass

Come fellowship with us and celebrate summer!

Youth Family BBQ @ Pastor Kate’s

Fairway Drive,Gaylord

5:00 p.m.

All families and their children are invited to have some fun @ Pastor Kate’s

Join us!

            One hot and muggy summer afternoon, several years ago, while traveling in Rome, I slip into a darkened museum of St. Peter’s Basilica.  Walking through the ornately carved doors, I am suddenly standing in front of one of the most famous sculptures in the art world.  The image is timeless, evoking a feeling of awe-inspiring stillness. It is a picture of holiness. I stand with strangers, viewing a holy image.  I have stepped into a private moment between a mother and her son.  It is the ‘Pieta’ ~ ‘the Pity’ the Italian sculptor Michelangelo’s vision of a mother’s resignation of death.  Mother Mary and her son Jesus in her arms.  Taken down from the cross, Jesus’ body splayed out across her lap.  Pity is shown on the face of the Virgin Mother, holding the lifeless body of her beloved son.  Sorrow only that a mother is asked to embrace.  She holds her son in her arms, resigned to his premature death. She is calm to the truth of his still form.  She offers his physical body up to the salvation of the world. In time, she understands that in his death, others may find life.

On another hot and muggy afternoon this past summer, on the busy street of West Grand Boulevard, an ambulance pulls into the Emergency entrance of the largest hospital in downtown Detroit, Michigan.  The temperature is 94 degrees. Hot steam is radiating up from the cement pavement.  Children shouting out in the streets, are running through open fire hydrants.  Adult neighbors sit in lawn chairs on the sidewalks, taking their meals out of doors, all in an effort to keep the heat at bay.  Oppressive, hot heat and energy rippling up and down the streets.  There is no promise of the temperature easing up this summer day in the city.

Attendants meet the ambulance at the door and lift the stretcher out of the vehicle. They race into the triage unit of the overcrowded, noisy ER.  Shouts are called out to the medical team, at the ready to work on the victim of this incoming GSW. A gunshot wound to the head, point blank . . . an act of violence.  Hushed tones surround the victim. Uniformed police officers accompanied the still body of this victim.  The officers stand silently outside the triage area.   They quietly whisper to the nurses and intake personnel.  He is an adult, Hispanic male. Single. No family or friends with him in the ambulance.

Brisk voices break out through the open aired surgery room. Calls for assistance echo through the halls. The resuscitation team rushes in and bends over the victim. They begin to work intently. Silence is thick and steady. Only murmurings of the medical team called in to bring him back to life are heard.  The ER notifies the Pastoral Care Office and I, the Chaplain on call, arrive just a minute later. I search for family members or friends in the hallway. There are none. The patient is alone.  I stand to the side in the room as the doctors work on him. I begin to pray for this man’s broken body. I stand at the edge of the door waiting for any one who may come to be with him.  I wait.  I pray. No one comes. I wait, I pray. This man is alone. The police officers and I stand silently to the side. Attentive . . . discreet in our waiting at a distance.

The nurses tell me of the extent of the man’s injuries.  “No brain activity,  GSW to his head” they tell me.  I ask the police officers if they know of the circumstances of the man’s injury.  They tell me the gunshot wound was delivered point blank, directly in the back of the head.   A co-worker on a  construction site walked up to him, unprovoked and drew his gun. A victim of violence and they don’t know why.  They have the co-worker detained, in custody. The co-worker was not Hispanic. The officers look somber and apprehensive.  They will wait, in the hallway, till the doctors are done working on him. “Looks like a hate crime, with all those protests and marches on immigration” they say.

His prognosis is not good.  Brain waves cannot be detected on the monitor. Technically, if no brain activity is found, death can be declared.  Silence in the hallway.  Silence from the medical workers.  Silence from the police.  Waiting in silence. The resuscitation team slows down their efforts and look about the room.  They talk quietly to the doctors. They begin the pack up their life-saving equipment.  Their efforts could not claim back the life of this man.  Nurses now take over and settle the victim’s body into a hospital bed for transfer to Intensive Care Unit. The police officers depart, making notes in their black books and shaking their heads in sorrow and repressed anger.

A floor nurse approaches with two people.  A Spanish speaking woman and an American man.  Their faces are stunned with fear. They identify themselves. The man is the supervisor at the construction site where the victim worked.  The woman is a friend of the victim. They are afraid and in shock. I escort them to a private waiting room and they begin to talk. They tell me the victims’ name is Jesus Garcia.  He is from Mexico and has worked in the country for 7 years.  No family here with him.  He sends all of his money to his Mother and family to Mexico. He is only 26 years old. He is an illegal alien, an undocumented worker; his only dedication is to his work and family.  He lived frugally with other Mexican immigrants.  Keeping little for himself, he sent his earnings to his Mother.  He supported a family in a rural town in Baja California, Mexico, just south of San Diego. The woman is stunned and in tears.  She is afraid for her friends’ life and wants to inform his family in Mexico. They shake their heads, cry softly, and hold one another up as they walk away from the Emergency Room.

Six days later, I go to the Intensive Care Unit to conduct a prayer service in Spanish with the Catholic Priest on duty.  They have kept his body on life support until the victims Mother can get an emergency visa to come to Detroit to see her son. Her visa had been delayed. It has been 7 years since she last saw her son.  She speaks no English.  She has never been out of her village or in a large city. The Priest and I stand in the room as sentinels to her son’s body.  We silently watch her approach.  We greet her with an embrace, and begin to silently pray. The room lights are down low.  Silence surrounds this vigil.

As the mother enters the room, two escorts hold her upright.  They walk with her slowly and carefully.  Arms surrounding her, she approaches the doorway of the ICU slowly. We continue to watch and pray.  As she enters the room she moans.  Her knees buckle and the strong arms hold her up at her side. She gasps, cries, and breaks free of their hold.  She lurches forward onto the bed, moaning.  Lying across her son’s still body, she weeps.  Cries muffled by the sterile bed sheets.  A circle gathers in around the bed and the worship service of Spanish prayers and liturgy begins.  The Lord’s Prayer is recited in a strong whisper.  Tears come and arms embrace one another within the circle. Friends stand, serving as sentinels. They stand watch as this mother releases her sorrow and pain.

There is tension in the room, as hospital personnel are hoping that the mother will grant permission for her son’s body to be used for their transplant program. Jesus’ body is strong and firm, full muscles formed, able to do the hard work of providing for his family at that construction site. Yet now, his body, splayed out on the bed, will provide no more money for this mother. There are no bruises or cuts on his massive body. Only his head is swathed in gauze obscuring his face.   How can such a strong body be so still? she asks in her native tongue. The hospital Transplant Team Coordinator stands outside the room, waiting for the mother’s signature to release his organs.

The mother’s small, wiry figure embraces her son. She touches the large body on the bed.  She begins to pat her son, in a motherly gesture of comfort. She prays aloud in her local dialect.  She walks to the edge of the bed and wraps her arms underneath her sons’ shoulders and head.  She stands upright and talks softly to him, looking down into his bloodied, bandaged face. Softly speaking words of love that only a mother can speak to a dying child. This mother is a picture of holiness. We are witnessing a private, holy moment in time. Her face shows maternal sorrow that only she is called to experience. There is no other way for her to go through this sorrow, so she continues on with her litany.  She holds onto his head and shoulders, reciting private prayers.  She releases her moaning and keening, soft prayers finally come.  Quietly she utters “Jesus, Jesus m’ hihto”   Jesus, Jesus, my son.

Whether in Rome, Baja or Detroit,  a modern day ‘Pieta’ is on display .  I feel pity on the holy scene of this mother and child. There she is, alone, with her son, in the midst of strangers. This mother in Detroit, alone in a foreign world, speaking no local language, communicates to us all as we stand as sentinels, guarding this private moment. She holds onto her son’s lifeless form. She too, like the Virgin Mary, is asked to surrender her son’s body over to death and burial. However, something more is being asked of her, as she sees the Transplant Team standing in the hallway.  She knows what is being asked of her.  She stands quietly, holding onto her sorrow, reciting the Prayer of the Dead. She takes her time. She kisses her son’s hands, tears falling onto his rough calluses. She silently whispers adios and walks out of the room with dignity.  And, then, finally, she chooses to give her son’s body over. Over to death so that others may find life. A timeless image of holiness. With a gesture of sacrificial love this Mexican mother signs the permission forms that will bring life to many other sons and daughters in a world she does not know of.   An image of holiness, indeed.                                     amen

Reverend Karen Huddelson Wickstra

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Don’t Lean on Your Understanding

The verse involves a positive–something you must do. But it also involves a negative–something you must not do. Don’t lean on your own understanding. Basically, the verse is telling us that we ought not to be self-reliant. We cannot pursue a course of action, a financial decision, a business move, a relationship, or an educational choice, simply based on our own understanding. It must be founded in our trust in God.

Self-reliance is such a deceptive trap. We begin to pride ourselves in something–our savvy, our looks, our intellect, our spirituality, our family, whatever. And when we do, it takes away our trust in the Lord. It has become trust in self. The result is a dangerous compromise that will lead to destruction.

Instead, Acknowledge God. In Everything.

The antidote to this self-reliance is found in the first command of the verse. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” Which is developed in the next verse: “In all your ways acknowledge him.” The word “acknowledge” isn’t merely a polite tip of the hat to the Man Upstairs, or a few words of grace over your meal, or even perfunctory attendance at church to let Him know we’re still cool with what He’s doing. It’s way more. It’s allowing Him access, control, command, and involvement in all your ways.

What’s the result of this? Will God ruin your life? Will he be a Sovereign Killjoy? Will He rob you of fun? The verse ends on a promise. What is it?

He will make your paths straight.

The promise is put in the form of a metaphor. What does it mean to have straight paths? Several things. First, paths lead toward an end–a destination, a goal. Thus, trusting God wholeheartedly in every area of life gives your life a sense of purpose and priority. Second, it indicates that there will be a clear understanding of where you are going and what you are doing. It makes daily decision-making an easier and less painful task. You realize you are trusting Him. He, in turn, is making your paths straight. Thus, the way ahead is more apparent. Third, “straight paths” suggests moral purity. It suggests a life that has less of sinful compromise and more of wholesome attitudes, actions, and behavior.

That’s the kind of life that God promises. It’s the kind of life that you can have. It begins with trust. It involves acknowledging God in every way.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Let’s break down this life-changing truth to make sure we understand it.

Trust in the Lord.

It starts with trust. Any real relationship has to start with some level of trust. It’s the only way a friendship will endure. It’s the only way a marriage will work out. It’s the simple reason why an employer hires workers, or why the workers stay employed. It’s all about trust. Trust in the Lord, however, takes on an entirely new dimension. This is our trust in an eternal, all-powerful, all-wise, all-loving God. He is worthy of our trust. The trust is important, not just because of who God is, but because of the way in which we must trust him: with all your heart. It involves every fiber of your being. That’s the kind of trust we can have in God–a complete, unshakable, deep, abiding trust.

If you are a Christian, you trusted God for salvation. You can trust Him with the rest of your life, too–every detail.

Read part 2, Don’t Lean On Your Understanding

Welcome to

‘Kirk in the Birch Woods’

First Presbyterian  Church of Gaylord ~

Join us each Sunday @ 10:00 am! 

Our prayer is that you would be blessed and strengthened by the power of God and that you will live a life of abundance in fellowship, joy and grace and peace. First Presbyterian Church of Gaylord is here for you. It is not just a church. It is a fellowship of a growing community of faith who gather together to share the grace and love of the Lord  and        celebrate Christ.

 We worship well together, study the Word together, put into practice what we learn and in the process

 grow together.

Come for a visit this Sunday & consider joining our vibrant congregation of faith.

JOIN US IN WORSHIP @ 10:00 a.m.

513 CHARLES BRINK ROAD, GAYLORD

989-732-7447

Be a part of something bigger than yourself ~ a community of faith that is thriving and growing.

May our congregation be a ‘sanctuary’ whether you and your family are in the midst of a busy vacation season or year round lifestyle.

May God richly bless you!