Easter Time, a Time to Celebrate
March 28: Palm Sunday: the dramatic entry will be dramatic. I love the political theater of the Gospel’s Palm Sunday accounts. Powerful, hopeful, challenging. If these were silent, the rocks themselves would cry out. Watch out, money changers!
Maundy Thursday: 6:30 worship and supper. Soup and bread along with communion.
Good Friday: Sunrise worship and protest at Lawrence Livermore Labs: Talk to Glenda Pawsey if you are interested in going.
Easter Sunday, April 4, 10:00am: Easter Egg hunt and pot luck brunch following worship. (More info below)
Is it possible, after 2,000 years, to meet the Christ? So much baggage has been piled onto this itinerant prophet who lived and proclaimed God’s love. Empire, colonization, patriarchy, pogroms, so called “followers” gone wild with self righteousness, convoluted theology, priestly abuse and scandal, somehow attached to the name of this simple man who stood for nothing but love and peace. And then there is our own personal experience and thought: all we have been taught by our parents, Sunday schools teachers, pastors and culture, both positive and negative. And a layer below that is our self, our ambition, our lusts, our habits, deep pains and doubt, our fallibility, finitude and sin. A lot of baggage! Enough to entomb anyone. Yet there is still this Spirit, the still small voice, escaping from the tomb: He is not here. He is Risen and has gone ahead of you to Jerusalem, to Washington, to Berkeley. Even as I get older and gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of life, our individual lives and social life, the world and history look more convoluted and intractable, the beauty of Christ looks all the more powerful. A Master with eternal, divine integrity. He continually shakes off the baggage we try to weight him down with, he will not stay put in that tomb. He comes to us and draws up forth into hope, into joy, into power, into life, into love.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Max
Easter Brunch
This is a glorious, upgraded (with your participation) coffee hour following our Easter Service. Plan to come! And come with your favorite, most celebratory brunch-type contribution! (Or hard boiled egg, exceptionally long carrot, or other item, as need be.)
Youth Drama in Palm Sunday Worship
All youth of the church are invited to participate in a brief dramatic presentation of Jesus arrival in Jerusalem and visit to the temple as a part of St. John's Palm Sunday worship March 28. PLEASE ARRIVE AT THE SANCTUARY AT 9:00AM FOR PRACTICE AND COSTUMES.
_________________________________________
Egg Hunt Easter Sunday
Invite friends and neighbors to come with you to church on Easter Sunday and
stay after church for our Grand Non-Competitive Egg Hunt for all ages on the
church lawn. Anyone wishing to give the bunny a hand may bring colored or
candy filled eggs to the church kitchen before 9:00 AM Easter Sunday morning.
Women at the Well will meet Saturday, March 27, from 8:30-10:30am.
Come enjoy the company of St. John’s women whom you know or or don’t!
Women’s Bible Study, Thursday, April 8, 2010, noon to 2 pm.
The Place of Rest. Read: Joshua 21:43-22:9; Hebrews 3:1-4:11. As we near the end of our study of the book of Joshua, we will consider how Joshua, and Moses before him understood the need for rest, and compare their understanding with the interpretation of rest as we find it in the New Testament. Bring your lunch and your Bible. Marietta Harvey.
Springtime Adult Forums
April 11 Carole Ng speaking about the Near East School of Theology
April 18 Max Lynn leading us in a study of the Jerusalem Kairos confession
April 25 Max Lynn and ? leading us in understanding anti-semitism today
May 2 A Report on the April Presbytery's response to St Johns Overture on the war in Afghanistan. We Received a 5 to 1 approval by BOSR committee.
May 9 GRIP - A showing of a short video on the work of GRIP and talk by Gillian Clarke. Outreach director.
May 16 A representative of the East Bay Housing Organizations EBHO, an umbrella group, will come with a former homeless person to address the issue of housing for the poorest among us.
May 23 St. John’s Annual Retreat
May 30 “Not my Priorities” with Ellen Augustine and Barry Hermanson of network Ministries. Our President called for no new spending without income to pay. Exceptions - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security AND THE MILITARY. To try and understand just how big that last item is and what we can do about it.
June 6 - Haiti with Diana Bohn.
Plan to attend St. John's All-Age, All-Church Retreat, May 21, 22, 23!
Pastor Max and Intern Pastor Jason Guy will be our leaders on "Your Spiritual Journey: Psychological and Spiritual Growth. The retreat will be held at the Monte Toyon Conference Center near Aptos (about 1½ hours from St. John's). For the layout, please see the brochures available in the church office. Plan to arrive on Friday, May 21 after 5pm / Dinner's at 6:00. Price includes 2 nights lodging and 6 meals. Costs: Adult $160, youth 5-17 $90, children under 5 free, maximum family charge $396. No one will be left out! (Scholarships available. See Max.) Contact Linda Bostjanick for more information, and let her know if you can drive or need a ride. Deadline: March 29.
Unless you feel your eternal life has already kicked in: Consider an Advance Directive (also known as a Living Will) to advise your loved ones on your wishes. You can spare your family confusion and heartache by specifying how you would like to be treated in any event that might prolong or end your life against your will. See this website for a downloadable California form, and start the conversation with your folks now: Download Your State's Advance Directives.
While we’re on the subject, does St. John’s have your emergency contact information? Check for forms in the office if you don’t see them in the narthex.
Please help St. John’s honor your presence by paying your own per capita tax:
$28 per member. 60% goes to operating costs of the SF Presbytery; 22% to General Assembly; 18% to the Synod of the Pacific. Please mark “per capita tax” on your check and drop it in the offering plate or mail it to the church office. Thank you!
Prime Timers Events for April
6 11:00 Maggie Hooper will tell us all about BATS.
12:00 Lunch will be served. Birthdays celebrated.
13 10:30 Blood pressure screening by Roma Arellano
11:00 Shirley Pan will show slides from her trip to Armenia
20 To be announced
27 Volunteer Recognition Luncheon. Y’all Come and honor our volunteers!