March 2020 - The Message

March 2020 • Volume 22, Number 2

Broken Open: 3 Children Will Listen: 9 Silos: 10 Devilishly Delicious: 12

The Message this month: Contents:

Contributors:

Christ Church Staff: The Rev. Patrick Gahan, Rector

From Our Rector ..............................3

The Rev. Scott Kitayama, Associate Rector

Music Ministry ................................7 Youth Ministry .................................8

The Rev. Brien Koehler, Associate Rector for Mission and Formation

Family Ministry ...............................9

The Rev. Justin Lindstrom, Associate Rector for Community Formation

Church Life ....................................10

PATRICK GAHAN

Carol Miller, Pastoral Care Administrator Halleta Heinrich, Director of Family Ministry

Great Commission...........................11

Lily Fenton, Nursery Director

Kitchen News..................................12

Amy Case, Youth Minister

Page Turners...................................13

Susan Lindstrom, Director of College Ministry JOSH BENNINGER

Photo Album...................................15

Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist

Front cover photo: Gretchen Duggan Back cover photo: Cynthia Moreno

Jennifer Holloway, Assistant Music Director

Editor: Gretchen Duggan

Robert Hanley, Director of Campus Operations

Sunday Services:

Charissa Fenton, Director of Children’s Music & Receptionist Darla Nelson, Office Manager

HALLETA HEINRICH

Donna Franco, Financial Manager

7:30 a.m.

Holy Eucharist, Rite 1

Gretchen Comuzzi Duggan, Director of Communications Monica Elliott, Executive Assistant to the Rector

9:00 a.m.

Family-friendly Communion Service with Music

Elizabeth Martinez, Kitchen Manager AMY CASE

10:00 a.m.

Christian Education for Children, Youth, and Adults

Rudy Segovia, Hospitality Manager Joe Garcia, Sexton

11:00 a.m.

Choral Eucharist, Rite 2 6:00 p.m.

Holy Eucharist, Rite 2

Robert Vallejo, Facilities Manager

2020 Vestry:

JUSTIN LINDSTROM

Darrell Jones, Senior Warden Barbara Black, Junior Warden

Visit us on-line at www.cecsa.org

Andy Anderson

Sudie Holshouser

Lisa Blonkvist

Andy Kerr

Catherine de Marigny David McArthur FERNE BURNEY

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Meagan Desbrow

Margaret Pape

Tobin Hays

Robert Rogers

Broken Open a death march during those thirty-three ensuing years. The amniotic fluid of my mother’s womb, in which the two of them swam, swept them into an ocean the rest of us could not inhabit.

Trinity of the Broken Body, Robert Campin, 1410, Germany

by Patrick Gahan

I had never received a phone call from a

police detective until that night. In a polite, yet business-like manner, the Nashville officer reported that my sister had been found dead in her home and had been so for several days. I sat down heavily in the wingback chair by the window of our living room. Two thoughts came roaring into my head as Kay reached across from the sofa to take my hand. The first was that all three of my siblings, whom my mother had protected, prodded, miraculously fed, clothed, and raised on her own, had now perished. My second thought was that we had finally come full circle. What began with Johnny and his wife’s untimely deaths in 1981, while he was serving in the Coast Guard, had come full circle in 2014 with the suicidal death of his twin Julia. My sister had been on

My life was cracked open that day in 1981 when my brother Johnny and his wife Jane died in Galveston, TX. Not so many weeks before, I had spent the entire day and most of the night on his search and rescue vessel, intercepting one boat after another in Galveston Bay. “Wear your uniform, Pat,” Johnny merrily instructed from a pay phone. “My commander said you can join my crew.” Twelve hours into the foray, the waves had beaten me, and I felt as green as the olive drab fatigues I was wearing. All the while, I was awed by Johnny’s ability to steer that armored, machine gun clad vessel to pinpoint destinations in the gulf well beyond any sight of shoreline. After that day, I got busy mustering out of the Army at Ft. Hood, and Johnny continued to save drunken weekenders and arrest brazen drug smugglers. He was so alive, and when he was not, my life cracked open. My carefully choreographed plans no longer spoke to me. I shelved my aspirations for the priesthood, which I had been so determined to undertake, and made alternative bargains with the Almighty. I did not know at the time that the hard shell of my certainties had to be cracked open before I could serve God’s people in any consequent way. People need pastors who know the waves of our lives are precarious and seem, at times, determinedly nefarious. The people deserve pastors who will sail into those waters with them in the knowledge that One will walk out to us as surely as he did to his disciples over two millennia ago when they were soaked with spray, doubt and fear (Matthew 14:22-36; Mark 6:45-56; John 6:16-24).

Three decades hence, my life went from cracked to broken open. The detective’s phone call in the summer of 2014 came

after two other calls I received within eight months’ time. In November 2013, our oldest son frantically contacted us from a Louisville hospital to breathlessly tell us that their second son, Grant, birthed without any apparent complications or noted risk factors, was suddenly diagnosed with Down Syndrome. His wife Sara was inconsolable. Communicated in Clay’s cracking voice was his plea that we leave right away to be with his young family. In the end, of course, Grant’s life amongst us has been one blessing spilling upon another, but in those first days, when our son and daughter-in-law’s lives were wrenched onto an entirely different path, the waves beat hard upon all of us. Then, in late February 2014, while serving on the floor of Diocesan Council in San Marcos, my son-in-law phoned me with a simple, brutal message that he was divorcing our daughter. He spoke glibly as if the marriage had hit some unforetold expiration date rather than express the gravity that a way of life and a dream, was ending. Kay and I, so resolute in our beliefs about marriage, were shaken terribly by this announcement. Coming home from Council, I knew I was coming unmoored from the life I had known, cracks and all, and was cast upon a voyage amidst a violent sea in a boat whose hull was breaking open.

Excuse the melodrama, but I am trying to honestly articulate what swept through my life during those eight months and how the events have left me. I am being equally honest when I admit that this new ocean in which I am swimming is shared by most every Christian I know – or will be shared in the coming days. Serving as a pastor for the better part of thirty-two years, I’ve learned that the Church is not “full of hypocrites,” as accused by so many safely set upon the shore. No, the Church – every pew, in fact – is filled with people whose lives have been cracked or broken wide open by unexpected storms besieging them. They come, week by week, to find 3

From Our Rector... their place on the pews amongst the other castaways, not seeking indisputable answers as much as they desire companions on the rough, unpredictable currents of existence. No wonder church architecture resembles the upturned oaken hull of a ship. Cast your eyes upward from your seat next Sunday, and you will see.

That’s the point, of course, we are on this ark together, but we are turned upsidedown on this voyage, lest we imagine smooth sailing is ahead.

Paul captures one of the great paradoxes of our Christian faith. The One who has the power and right to condemn us, saves us, and not through the use of power, but by immense personal sacrifice. Through his death, Christ, once-and-for-all, proves God’s unalterable love for us. His sacrifice is enough; it is our Passover from death to life. At the same time, Christ’s suffering and death sanctifies our own pain. To be clear, Christ does not romanticize our pain. He sanctifies it, meaning our pain, our being broken open, can make more of us – not less – when hallowed by his grace. None of us looks forward to the next bout of suffering; nevertheless, just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead after his crucifixion, our deepest sorrow can eventually raise us and make more of us than we were before. Certainly, that has been my experience since my mother’s

No sooner was Chan back in the States than he encountered the persistent consumeristic demands. He was astonished by the number of people who complained about no Sunday school, youth group, or fellowship hour. Never, however, did anyone lift their voice to complain that Holy Communion was not served on a Sunday. Faced with this dysfunction, Chan realized the Church had strayed from the Biblical path:

How telling it is that all of us traveling on this overturned vessel make our way to the prow each Sunday, not to escape the high seas crashing against our lives, but, rather, to claim our brokenness with the One who Himself is broken. As we kneel down, side-by-side at the altar, we can almost feel the mad tossing of the boat we share. We receive there, not a lifejacket, but a piece of broken bread. In fact, the bread cannot be distributed until it ...just as Jesus Christ was raised from is cracked open in plain sight of all the the dead after his crucifixion, our deepest people. The priest breaks the bread, and then after taking a profound sorrow can eventually raise us and make pause, declares, “Christ our Passover more of us than we were before. is sacrificed for us,” with the people responding, “Therefore let us keep the feast.” How is “Christ’s sacrifice the Passover for us?” His body is broken open on the cross (John 19:34). Therefore, when the priest repeats along the rail, “The body of Christ, the bread of heaven,” he is not delivering some perfunctory ecclesiastical snack. No, we are sharing the body of the only One who can save us, but he does so through His brokenness. Paul drives this uncomfortable truth home in one of his most memorable statements made after he had traveled, preached, and planted churches throughout Asia Minor and Eastern Europe: Who is to condemn us? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ Romans 8:34-36 4

terrible phone call in 1981.

For that reason, Holy Eucharist or Communion is the central act of our Christian worship. I was reminded of that fact, not by an Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox friend, but by a non-denominational, worldrenown evangelist, Francis Chan. In his latest book, Letters to the Church, Chan confesses his omission of this most important act of devotion. Some may recall that Chan began Cornerstone Church in Ventura County, CA. Soaring to 1,600 in worship, Chan left that fellowship in despair. Somewhere in the carefully choreographed Sunday lightshows, praise music, and 45-minute sermons, he was left empty. He took his family to Indonesia to experience Church in a different way and wanted to remain. Like a modern Jonah, God insisted Chan return to the U.S., and he began another Church, a much smaller one, more decentralized, and reevaluated his priorities.

‘God designed Communion to be an intimate act of remembering His flesh and blood. More than just an exercise of the mind. He wanted us to actually eat the bread and drink the cup.

And Communion is not just about intimacy with Jesus; it’s also about intimacy with one another. Remember Jesus has just washed the disciples’ feet and commanded them to love one another as He loved them. It was after this that He taught them to stare at His broken body and blood to remind them of how He loved them [Hence, the overt breaking of the bread.]. As we consider the cross and look around the room, we should be asking ourselves, “Am I willing to love people in this room to that extent?”’1

Jesus insisted that the sharing of his body and blood become a central act in our fellowships, so that our eyes remain steadfastly fixed on his sacrifice. We cannot heal ourselves. We are not able to make ourselves acceptable to God. We cannot make ourselves whole. We cannot give ourselves a life of ultimate meaning.

Only the broken body of Jesus, sacrificed for us, can build a bridge where we can “Passover” from our old stagnant existence into the new life of liberty. At the same time and of almost equal importance, we do not have the will or power to love others as they should be loved without Christ’s body broken open for us. The servant Christ, who first kneels down to wash the disciples’ feet – Judas Iscariot’s included – is the servant Christ who next goes humbly to be executed on the cross.

Grace received is grace to be rendered.

Those first disciples were not overcome by Francis Chan, Letters to the Church (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2018), 61 1

From Our Rector... a flood of guilt but by a torrent of love.

Perceiving the cross in that way, Jesus’ words came alive for them, ‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you’ (Luke 6:38).

Holy Communion must lead to communion with others, or it becomes an empty, ego-centric rite. Already in our hyper-rational, post-Enlightenment world, we have discredited every ounce of mystery, and shaved Jesus down to a manageable human size. Reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson’s butchered Bible, we shrink the Savior into an itinerant Hebrew Buddha. In so doing, we have elevated teaching and dogma well above experience. The result is that the Church is full of people who have changed their minds but not yet changed their lives. I know those people because I was one of them until my life was broken open and having the correct opinion just didn’t suffice any longer.

I dare not compare myself to Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), the Viennese psychiatrist who, for three years, survived four of Hitler’s concentration camps – to include Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Dachau. Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl’s account of those years, remains one of the most important books I read in college and to which I returned after Johnny’s death. Astoundingly, the book is overwhelmingly optimistic about humanity and our ability to actually become more – not less – through our brokenness. The most memorable reminiscence from the book for me is where Frankl imagines he is in the presence of his beloved wife, whom he has not seen for at least two years. Digging in the frozen ground, while being threatened and thrashed by his Nazi captors, Frankl begins to transcend his painful surroundings and picture himself with her: ‘The guard passed by, insulting me, and once again I communed with my beloved. More and more I felt she was present, that she was there with me; I had the feeling I was able to touch her, able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers.

The feeling was very strong; she was there…

are critical for Christian understanding; however, without right living and sacrificial For the first time in my life I saw the truth as loving, they are lifeless words on a page. it is set into song by many poets, proclaimed The writer of Hebrews says as much in his as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The well-worn declaration, ‘ For the word of God truth—that love is the ultimate and highest is living and active, sharper than any two-edged goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped sword, piercing to the division of soul and of the meaning of the greatest secret that human spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the poetry and human thought and belief have thoughts and intentions of the heart’ (Hebrews to impart: 4:12). “Thoughts “The Only the broken body of Jesus, sacrificed and intentions salvation of the heart” for us, can build a bridge where we of man are fuel for the is through actions of those can “Passover” from our old stagnant love and in enwrapped by existence into the new life of liberty. love.”’ 2 Jesus Christ (Galatians During all that time, Frankl’s wife, with 3:27 & Colossians 3:10). The problem, whom he experienced such a mysterious of course, is that until we are broken depth of communion, was dead. She open, we are content to pursue selfish was executed by Hitler’s maniacal pursuits nicely dressed up as a Christian machine many months before. Frankl life. We’ve put on our Sunday-go-towas not overtly religious before or after meeting clothes with no intention at all the war. However, seen through Frankl’s of living in a different way. Christ’s words experience, St. Paul’s claim comes to to the Pharisees in this matter leave us light, ‘that neither death nor life, neither angels shipwrecked on the shoals of our carefully nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor buffeted world, ‘You are like whitewashed any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on else in all creation, will be able to separate us the inside are full of the bones of the dead and from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside Lord’ (Romans 8:38-39). Death could you appear to people as righteous but, on the not separate Frankl from the love of inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness’ his deceased wife. Even more so, death (Matthew 23:27-28). itself has been vanquished through the brokenness of Christ. Should we then “Appearances,” they say, “can be wonder that love is unleashed in us when deceiving,” yet they can also be convicting we, too, are broken open? and transforming. The Christians who have lit my way toward the shores of Actually, we should wonder when such new life in our Savior rarely argued me love is not unleashed in us. As I join with along the way, but they stubbornly loved other Christians on this voyage toward me further along. Once I was broken Christian maturity, I realize more and open and admitted my brokenness, I more that our faith must be lived-out, or was receptive to their witness. Most of shall I say, loved-out, in flesh and blood. my guides I have known personally, but I’ve been easily detoured to settle for some only through a written witness. a Christian faith that is merely right Jean Vanier, whom I have quoted often, thinking. When I do so, I shrink down is amongst the latter. Seven years a our belief in the Crucified One to a British naval officer and ensconced in the series of carefully recited incantations comfortable life of a college professor, and scrupulously developed propositions.

Vanier was newly awakened to his To be sure, right belief and clear dogma Christian faith. He gradually came to realize that Christian living must become 2 Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Boston: daily Christian loving. Navigating from Beacon Press, 1959), 57, 93. As quoted by David Brooks, that conviction, he invited two mentally The Second Mountain (New York: Random House, 2019), and physically disabled men to share a 207-208.

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From our Rector... home and share their lives as brothers.

Never seeking an ounce of notoriety, this way of Christian living as equals with those who are obviously broken became irresistible for other Christians who acknowledged their own, less obvious, brokenness. People from the world over have clamored to join Vanier’s expanding community. At the time of his death last May, 137 such communities were spread across the world. Jean Vanier’s homes are all characterized by palpable joy, copious love, and appropriately known as L’ Arche, “The Ark.” They are aboard the same up-turned ship with us. David Brooks, the renowned columnist for the New York Times, and former associate of William F. Buckley, reflects on Jean Vanier in this way: Vanier walked out of a society that celebrates the successful and strong to devote his life purely to those who are weak. He did it because he understands his own weakness. ‘We human beings are all fundamentally the same,’ Vanier wrote, ‘We all belong to a common, broken humanity. We all have wounded, vulnerable hearts. Each one of us needs to feel appreciated and understood; we all need help.’3 In our increasingly victim obsessed culture, we tend to believe a “wounded and vulnerable heart” is a liability. Not so.

Life aboard the up-turned ark is different.

We have faith that Christ’s broken body saves us, just as Isaiah prophesied, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was put upon him, and by his wounds we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5). In the same light, we should trust that our brokenness can make us healers in Christ’s service. The expectation of all Christian disciples, in fact, is that we follow our Lord into his suffering. Jesus is patently blunt on this score.

Calling the crowd to him with his disciples, Jesus said to them, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. For whosoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s, will save it.’ Mark David Brooks, The Second Mountain (New York: Random House, 2019), 223.

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8:34-37 Jesus is even more pointed with James and John, two of the very first disciples he called to “follow” him (Mark 1:1921). Three years later as Jesus nears his crucifixion, the two approach Jesus and ask that they may ‘sit on the left and right side of his throne as his kingdom dawns.’ To this, Jesus sharply responds, ‘Are you two willing to drink the cup that I am prepared to drink? Are you willing to be baptized with the baptism with which I am to be baptized (Mark 10:35-45)?

True disciples of Christ do not wistfully pursue comfort and prosperity but rather embrace suffering in solidarity with our Lord and through that suffering become mature and whole. To be sure, nothing is spiritually wrong with striving for excellence, aspiring to accomplish great things, and trying to make our corner of the world a better place. No magnificent cathedrals would be standing, cancer would not be on the run, and our children would become like listless drones, devoid of aspirations if we did so. Therefore, we do not pursue suffering out of some sort of self-flagellating asceticism, nor do we do so to sidestep our divinely bequeathed talents and gifts. No, we embrace suffering for in doing so, we accompany Christ and become fashioned gradually more like him. St. Paul, whose striving made him one of the greatest leaders, thinkers, and writers of antiquity, makes this point to his Greek audience in Philippi: I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So, whatever it takes, I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11 The Living Bible To that end, some years ago I met, Daniel, a young Princeton University graduate, who joined Vanier’s community in France.

Far too protected during his formative years, he felt ill-equipped to begin his adult sojourn. He was assigned to a particular home outside of Paris, which was made up of adolescents with Down Syndrome and other more pronounced disabilities.

All of the teens had been abandoned or cruelly shunned by their families, which left them emotionally scarred and unable to trust upon first entering L’Arche.

Daniel joined this community of terribly wounded adolescents and remained with them four years, even though he finished his initial commitment at his two-year anniversary. “I knew that I needed more.

I realized my work was not done,” Daniel confessed to me over coffee one morning.

What most marked his experience during those four years was the unexpected flood of laughter and joy that proliferated their home. Rather than breaking them down, their wounds began to break them open to a hope inexpressible by words alone.

Tearing up at one point, Daniel described his relationship with Philippe, who could not walk, speak, feed himself, or take care of any of the self-care duties most of us take entirely for granted. When Daniel first arrived at the home, he considered Philippe’s life to be completely unbearable.

As the months wore on and Daniel began to care for Philippe, by taking him on walks in his recumbent wheelchair, feeding him, bathing him, and clothing him, he encountered Philippe’s intractable joy. While having his favorite sweatshirt pulled over his head, Philippe would wrap his twisted arms around Daniel in an expression of intense gratitude. Sitting at the dinner table with the rest of the teens and listening as they reviewed the topsy-turvy antics of their day, Philippe would break out in laughter that would fill the entire house. Philippe’s brokenness provided a deeper avenue to Christ than Daniel could have ever found within the pages of a book or as a young Washington intern or as a plebe in a junior executive program. In that environment, my Ivy League friend was himself broken open and transformed for the longer journey set before him.

Daniel determinedly climbed aboard the upside-down boat, allowing himself to be broken open like Christ, so that he, like his Lord, could be transformed into a sacrifice of love. The question remains as to whether you and I will set sail with him.

X

X

X

Not a Joking Matter few ideas. These ideas turned into musical themes which turned into a rough draft. I then ripped it up and threw it in the trash.

Why? Because I wasn’t supposed to write a Requiem. Instead, through prayer and most likely some not so gentle prodding from the Holy Spirit I was convinced to do something completely different. With a new idea in one hand and the Bible in the other, the composition was reborn from the ashes as it morphed into a symphonic work whose subject was now the Passion of Christ. Our Lord’s betrayal and arrest, trial, suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial were eventually captured through music. I named it Calvary.

Like a Movie

CEC Music Ministry

by Josh Benninger

Ten months ago, with much trepidation,

I embarked on a creative journey to set the Passion of Christ to music. The project was intellectually stimulating and exciting, but it was also filled with frustration, setbacks, and the use of a few unsavory words. And, it all started as a joke.

Last year after Easter, a choir member asked me if I knew which Requiem Mass we were going to perform on Good Friday in 2020. I said I had not decided because there were many to choose from including famous ones by Brahms, Duruflé, and Mozart. It was then suggested that I should write one, for which I sarcastically replied, “Yeah, sure. I guess I could.” I thought it was a joke and had no intention of writing one. I had zero experience with composing anything of this magnitude and complexity. If you’ve ever listened to Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, then you know what I mean. In my mind it was an insurmountable task, and I didn’t believe I had the fortitude to make it happen.

However, it was too late. Curiosity took hold and I began to experiment with a

From the very first note I wanted the music to be richly dramatic, with the orchestra and choir performing equal roles. The scripture, taken directly from all four gospels, is intertwined and woven into the music to bring out the emotion and drama of Christ’s final hours. The use of film score writing reflected my desire to insert the listener directly into the drama.

I crafted something akin to experiencing a movie in an IMAX theater, complete with surround sound you can physically feel.

Darkness to Light The first three movements focus on the dark and insidious nature of the betrayal, arrest, and trial. Ominous harmonies in the second movement surface as Jesus appears before Pontius Pilate. I wanted to capture the cosmic significance of this pivotal moment where Pilate is forced to make a choice, either please the screaming mob or incur Rome’s wrath for failing to squash a riot.

The mood softens in the fourth movement when Jesus tells the crowd of women following him not to weep for him. Jesus is crucified in the fifth movement as the listener is bombarded with crashing waves of stacked chords symbolizing the nails that were driven into his hands and feet.

As the movement comes to a close, the music changes suddenly and a sense of hope is felt as Jesus promises to one of

the criminals hanging next to him that he will join him in paradise. With a massive crescendo, the movement ends with a full and satisfying C major chord that enlists all instruments and voices, from the lowest to the highest playable notes in the orchestra.

In the final two movements Jesus dies on the cross and is buried in a tomb.

Movement six begins plainly but ramps up quickly in intensity as Jesus breathes his last breath, followed by a sudden increase in tempo and crashing piano chords as the veil of the temple is torn in two. It ends quietly and peacefully with words from Revelation 5: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

I wanted the music in the final movement to be bittersweet, like the final scene in a movie where the hero who sacrificed his life is laid to rest as friends look on. The final musical theme is put into action as the choir confidently sings this well-known passage from John 15:13, “There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

My Invitation On April 10 at 2 o’clock, the CEC Choir and 30 orchestra musicians will unveil Calvary in its entirety during “The Way of the Cross” service. This music, along with various hymns, will be interlaced in between the meditative readings that mark each of the 14 Stations of the Cross.

Attending this service on Good Friday should be a top priority for everyone. If you’ve got something else scheduled for that day, I ask you to change it and to be here with your church family. Because if we are to truly appreciate and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday, then we must first humble ourselves and walk with Jesus to the cross––to witness his sacrifice, his pain, and his suffering. For when Christ was crucified, he wiped away death and sin from our lives forever.

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CEC Youth Ministry

by Amy Case

In February, the Christ Church Youth

took an outing to Escape the Room in downtown San Antonio. If you have never been to one of these attractions, the idea is for a team of players to discover clues and solve puzzles that ultimately lead to the key which unlocks the room. All must be accomplished collaboratively in a limited period of time, in our case, one hour.

Youth Group events in general can cause mild anxiety but add an escape room to the mix and there were plenty of jitters leading up to the event. No doubt kids were wondering… Will I know anyone else going? Will I have to do something embarrassing? Will I be smart enough to understand the clues? Will I be bored?

Will we get trapped in the room?

Despite our fears, we piled into cars and headed downtown. We entered the room for the “Western Bank Heist” which looked like a cross between an old western post office, a bank, and a prison. We received our instructions, and literally froze. Now what? The clues are not fed to you, you have to find them. After about two minutes of silence, the group sprang into action. After all, the clock was ticking and there were plenty of competitive personalities determined to break free from this room. Everyone began searching for clues, looking for secret compartments, opening drawers and searching anything and everything that could contain a clue.

Slowly the clues emerged, mysteries were unraveled, and hope ensued. It all took a tremendous amount of teamwork, and 8

Escape

this group of kids who began as mere acquaintances worked together like they had been on a team together for years.

I couldn’t help but notice how that afternoon felt like a metaphor for the much larger challenge of stress and anxiety that many teens deal with daily. A Pew study found that the greatest fears of teens today include getting good grades, looking good, fitting in socially, doing well in extracurricular activities or sports, having concern for their family’s finances, finding a boyfriend/girlfriend, and facing the presence and pressure of drug and alcohol use. Add to that the fact that kids are constantly connected and all-knowing through the use of phones, texting and social media, and we are dealing with a tinderbox of fear and anxiety. It is enough to cause a person to literally become frozen with worry, or worse, turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms to distract from the fear.

Where can our youth turn for relief from this pressure cooker? The most commanded phrase in the Bible is “Do Not Fear,” which appears hundreds of times in the Bible (one article I read said 365 times exactly, once for each day of the year, but that may just be an internet myth!). Nevertheless, God is clearly telling us He did not create us to live in fear and that He wishes for us peace – the word “peace” being present over 400 times in the Bible. So how do we win the war of fear knowing that God does not desire it for us?

First, we turn to scripture. It is import for teens to be exposed to scripture whether in the Carriage House on Sundays, in worship, at home, in Young

Life and Christian camps – however they can get it, they need it. For only in scripture will they will hear words such as: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7 Then, we pray. First by thanking God for all of our blessings, which helps put our fears into perspective. And then by asking God for help to conquer our anxieties, knowing that he WILL help. He promises to be our source of hope and peace.

Then we take action. Because motivation is a derivative of action and through positive, prayerful action, we gain confidence and hope, and leave our fears in the dust.

Unlike our youth group experience in the Escape Room, this is not often accomplished in an hour – but using this formula, we CAN lessen and even overcome that which immobilizes us.

I pray that scripture, prayer and action can be our Great Escape.

Children WILL Listen “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Hebrews 11:1

CEC Family Ministry

by Halleta Heinrich

I was recently surprised and delighted

to hear that one of “my kids” mentioned me and the scripture verse I had taught her as being the “load star” (guiding light) of her life – Hebrews 11:1 - “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Recently she was in charge of a major event which our Rector Patrick Gahan had attended, and he shared this with me. This young woman is now an ordained priest, a wife, and mother. I believe she is the only one of “my kids” who is an Episcopal priest. This introductory verse of Hebrews 11 – the Faith Chapter, has also been a guiding star in my life, discovered at the bedside of my oldest son when in intensive care. It gave me so much hope, in that even if the most important things we hope for do not seem to happen in this life, through our faith in Jesus Christ and our certainty in trusting Him, those things will happen for eternity.

We must just “hang in,” persevere, and hold on to our hope.

All of this brought to mind the effect of what we say and do has on our children.

This young woman held on with hope to this scripture I had shared when she was a child. I had no idea! This wonderful story reminded me of a musical play I saw recently in which one of “my kids” had a starring role – Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim. It’s one of my favorites, and I believe is largely about parent/child relationships and the importance that relationship has in the lives of children, for better or for worse. Following are the words of the finale:

Into the Woods performed at Keystone School November 2019

Children Will Listen Sometimes people leave you Halfway through the wood Do not let it grieve you No one leaves for good You are not alone No one is alone Careful the things you say Children will listen Careful the things you do Children will see and learn Guide them along the way Children will glisten Children who look at you For which way to turn To learn what to be Careful before you say “Listen to me” Children will listen

Into the Woods speaks a great truth to us as parents, teachers, and mentors of children.

They will listen to what we say and see what we do even when we are unaware, and it will impact their lives. Even if the children seem to leave us, as the song says, through growing up or going away, no one leaves for good. The memories we implant in the lives of our children will outlive us.

Let’s make sure what we say and do is a message of hope and faith that will carry them through the woods of life and into the glorious future of eternity through Christ Our Savior. They need to know “No one is alone”!

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Silos or Opportunities?

Photo by Michel Berube from Pexels

by Justin Lindstrom

When I was a kid, I would spend a

couple of weeks every summer traveling from Southern California to the middle of Iowa to work on my Uncle’s farm. At that time, he had about five thousand acres of soy, corn and wheat. He had five thousand hogs and about five hundred head of cattle. It was a fairly large, family owned and operated farm. It was a few weeks of hard work and lots of fun for this city boy to be a farmer for a bit. That was always the key…I could go home, back to the city and the beach, after a few weeks of hard work.

My uncle had some huge silos on his property: three to be exact. One held corn, one held soybeans, and the third held wheat. The silos kept the crops separated and in their rightful place until it was time for them to be sold, moved, used as feed, etc. But even as things were separated and divided up, what I quickly realized is how interconnected everything on the farm really was. Every part of the farm fed and fueled other parts. It was incredible to see how nothing went to waste and everything was stewarded in such a way that there was a strong reliance upon the strength of one aspect of the Farm for the strength of another. When everything was clicking, the farm was not only profitable and successful, but also a joy to be a part of.

What I have found in ministry is much the same. We often silo our ministry by segregating ourselves by age groups: 10

children’s ministry, youth ministry, college ministry, young adult ministry, adult ministry, older adult ministry. Or by tasks at hand: altar, acolytes, choir, food pantry, or lectors to name of few of many opportunities to serve. We build these silos in ministry not to divide and separate each other but to create focus and strategy at reaching people. Yet, unfortunately the categories do not fit everyone and notoriously someone feels left out. “This group does not fit me,” we say. Or we think, “I am in that age group, but my kids are older.” Whatever we might believe, the intent is not to exclude or divide like it is on the farm, the intent is to reach out and include as many people as we can.

Because of this notion of silos isolating people, I actually like to think of ministry as overlapping areas of ministry. The reality is that we fit into many different groups or communities of people within the church and the lines we draw to describe each group are not boundaries but guides in how these various areas work together. It is when we work together, pray together, overlap one another, that we see how the various ministries of the church all work together to reach people and to carry out the mission and vision of the church to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of God with the world, no exceptions, no exclusions.

We experience and more fully know and understand God’s rich blessings when things are clicking, moving as one, toward that common goal of love, grace, peace, joy, forgiveness and salvation. Each

ministry area has a vital role to play in the life of the parish and each and every person that is part of the various ministries is incredibly important to whole. We are reminded in scripture, Romans 12:3-5: “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

So, here is the challenge: 1. Discern what area of ministry you want to be a part of and jump in…try things out before you settle in to one or two things.

2. Don’t worry about age limits or guides…come and enjoy fellowship, study and service with others, especially if a group is doing something you know you will enjoy or can help with.

3. If something is not your gift or you do not think you are skilled at, ask for help…we can train you, guide you and walk with.

4. Think about how God is calling you to be in ministry beyond worship on Sundays and throughout the week in your daily life.

5. Come to the Ministry Fair on Palm Sunday, April 5 and check out all the ministries offered at Christ Church.

Talking Taxes

Great Commission Society

by Ferne Burney

Once again, Ferne turns to her trusted

CPA, John Buxie about issues around taxes and retirement accounts.

Ferne: Is there anything new regarding investment/ retirement accounts? I need to update my presentation.

John: If you would stay off social media and pay attention to Washington, D.C., you might learn that they have made great changes in the law regarding these. You would think that a Congress that cannot seem to agree on even a lunch order could not agree on something this complex but agree they did. The new legislation is titled “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” and some of the changes are big.

Ferne: S.E.C.U.R.E.? That usually the last way I feel with Congress!

John: Stay with me, Ferne. Charitable

planning for qualified plans and IRAs has become increasingly popular in recent years due to the ability to avoid income (and possible estate) taxes on account balances. As a result of the SECURE Act, it is likely that charitable arrangements will be even more attractive.

One option will be for owners of large accounts to deplete them over time with charitable bequests, while providing alternative estate assets to heirs. Of course, plan owners cannot simply transfer balances to charity---taxable distributions must first be taken, followed by charitable gifts that are subject to a donor’s AGI deduction limitations. A qualified charitable distribution, however, is one option available to account owners who have reached age 70 ½ to effectively obtain a full deduction for up to $100,000 of gifts from IRAs annually. Note that the new Required Minimum Distribution starting age of 72 does not impact the eligible age for the QCD. So long as the transfer is affected on a trustee to trustee basis to a public charity, the gift avoids the inclusion in the donor’s income, counts towards the RMD for the given year, and ensures that the entire transfer is effectively deducted.

Ferne: Wow! That’s a lot to take in!

John: Did you notice that the age to begin taking RMDs for IRAs has increased from 70 ½ to 72? Individuals who turn 70 ½ in 2020 (that’s you, Ferne) will now have an additional year (or possibly two) to defer taking distributions from their retirement accounts. If you had turned 70 ½ in 2019, the old RMD rules would remain the same. But since you turned 70 ½ in February 2020, your first RMD will not be in force until February 1, 2022, after you have turned 72.

Ferne: Just dodged that arrow!

John: Also, individuals may now continue to contribute to their IRAs beyond reaching age 70 ½. The annual limit on qualified charitable distributions will be reduced by the amount of deductible IRA contributions made after such point.

Keep in mind that account owners should consult with their professional advisors and review current beneficiary designations, estate planning documents, charity distribution schemes and potential tax ramifications. You can get done what you want to do while maintaining tax efficiency.

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Angel Eggs: Devilishly Good

by Ferne Burney

Several of us cook in that wonderful

kitchen at our church. Imagine it for what it is: the nutritional center of our congregation, nourishing us for the work ahead. We soon will have eaten a gumbo lunch, countless full breakfasts on Sunday morning, and beautiful meals that accompany our classes and meetings. These do not happen in a vacuum! We are always on the lookout for volunteers who are willing to prepare the food that comprises a meal, a snack, or a celebration. Will you please contact Elizabeth Martinez in the kitchen and let her know of your skills and eagerness to participate?

As part of our food celebrations, we have a lively and productive Funeral Committee.

These ladies provide finger sandwiches, cookies, fresh fruit kabobs, cheese and cracker trays, and vegetable trays for the families who have just lost a loved one.

The tables are elegant, and the memorials are meaningful. This is a true gift of love from our parish to the family. My part of that celebration has usually been what I originally called “Funeral Eggs.” This 12

sounded better than “Death Eggs” which was my first choice. These are a twist on Deviled Eggs, and Justin Lindstrom has

decided that they need the name “Angel Eggs” for so many different reasons. Many have asked for the recipe: so here it is.

Ferne Burney’s Angel Eggs 12 large eggs ½ pound bacon, fried to very crisp, cooled, and chopped fine ¾ cup mayonnaise 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard ¼ cup butter, melted 4 ribs of celery, chopped very fine ½ cup onion, chopped very fine Salt to taste Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Gently place cold to room temperature eggs, one by one, into boiling water. Return to boil and cook for 12 minutes. Drain off water, place ice over the cooked eggs and cool them. Once cool, peel the eggs, halve lengthwise, and separate the egg whites onto a serving plate and the yolks into a large bowl.

Mash the egg yolks with a potato masher until in fine pieces. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, and melted butter and mix until smooth. Add more mayonnaise if needed to make a smooth paste. Fold in bacon, celery, onion, and salt. Remember that you are working with a very bland canvas in the egg white, so be brave with the addition of salt!

Once the mixture is complete, place it in portions into a frosting forcing bag, and generously fill each of the egg whites. You may garnish with paprika, but I never found it necessary.

PAGE TURNERS – From the Rector’s Book Stack Bubonic plague,

rabid nationalism, attempted (and nearly accomplished) regicide, demon possession, and a new unpopular king are all the stuff of Shakespeare. In 1606, these realities of London life would coalesce with the great bard’s pen, and the result would be three of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and King Lear. James Shapiro in The Year of Lear carefully discloses the rich, yet disquieting events of 1606 as they unmistakably entwine their way into Shakespeare’s irrepressible creative mind. The plague, which eventually would kill 100,000 Londoners, a full quarter of the population, quarantined households, businesses, and shuttered the usually robust playhouses of the bustling city. Centuries later, scientists would uncover the source of the roiling epidemic to be the tiny flea, which was the carrier of the lethal bacterium Yersinia pestis.

Shakespeare’s own landlady would submit to the disease that led many others to jump to their deaths from upper floor windows or into churning rivers rather than endure the excruciating, ever-escalating pain it caused. Guy Fawkes, whose caricatured mask has lately been seen covering the faces of young protesters in Hong Kong, came very close, with his cadre of wellplaced conspirators, to assassinating the entire English Parliament, their newly seated monarch, and Shakespeare himself, who was in royal service at that time.

The “Gunpowder Plot,” as it has been memorialized, cast grave fear over the populace of London for a generation.

Elizabeth I’s successor, James I, previously James VI of Scotland (Mary Queen of Scots’ son), with his opulent appetites, was not the toast of the town – especially when compared to his more Spartan female predecessor. Furthermore, James was obsessed with the desire to unify England and his native Scotland, a merger neither country found very desirable. James was similarly obsessed with the occult and

fancied himself an expert on feigned demonic possession. He eagerly presided at witches’ trials and cross-examinations to march out his spiritual acumen amongst his new subjects. All of these themes live within Shakespeare’s three 1606 dramas, which, in the end, actually make “much ado about… something.”

Can painstaking precision and heart-wrenching prose characterize a single book?

They can if the book is The Guns of August,

by Barbara Tuchman, surely the most probing and descriptive history of WWI to date.

I thank Butch Stanley for my own copy of the classic text. Covering merely the month of August and the first eleven days of September 1914, the bones of the soldiers at Flanders, the Somme, Ardennes, Tannenberg, and the citizens of besieged Belgian, French, and Polish towns are unearthed by Tuchman. The most terrible truth about WWI is that the ghastly enterprise could have been averted or abandoned a number of times in the months marching up to the summer of 1914. The Germans, however, with their Darwinian notions of the ascendency of the “fittest,” their Nietzschean myth of the uber-mensch, the superman, and the inflated vanity of Kaiser Wilhelm II thrust them across the neutral Belgian border and within forty miles of Paris in merely thirty days. The French, for their part, stubbornly drew on outdated battle plans as foolishly as they pulled on their scarlet uniform pants. “Elan,” the Gallic spirit, they fantasized would vanquish their Teutonic enemy. Had no one told them Napoleon was dead?

The British Expeditionary Force sailed across the Channel with the flourish of Henry V, yet they were led by a petulant knighted commander who refused to let them fight. When, at last, they do enter the fray, four-fifths of that army will perish. While the Russians roll in from

the east in superior numbers, their arms, their communications, and commanders are vestiges of a previous age and are no match for the Hessian’s modernized forces. Premonitions of the Czar’s fall are seen upon the vast fields of fallen peasant soldiers and their aristocrat officers. With the rout of the Russians and the initial reluctance of the British, the survival of Paris, indeed, the salvation of Europe, is defended by the sacrifices of an overwhelmed Belgian Army and the retrograde actions of the valiant French, who refuse to be eclipsed by the waves of Wilhelm’s war machine.

David Brooks, celebrated New York Times columnist, inveterate investigator, and chronicler of the human odyssey, taught me more about the nature of attraction, romance, fidelity, and growing older than I learned in any number of graduate courses in psychology and sociology. I no sooner put down The Social Animal that I was rifling through the index to further explore Brooks’s revelations about…us! For instance, I had no idea that our unconscious takes the leading role in so many of our major, lifechanging decisions, instead of playing the b-team role we generally ascribe to it. Furthermore, our array of social interactions has more to do with our human development than any measure of solitary study. To draw the reader into this oft misunderstood science, Brooks invites us to follow the infancies, childhoods, educations, courtship, vocational lives, retirements, and evolving marriage of Harold and Erica. I came away from the book with the conviction that our culture’s absorption in hyper-rationalistic individualism is not advancing us, but rather holding us back from our full human potential, for we are, without a doubt, intricately wired social animals.

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Book Stack Cont’d....

I did not expect to traipse so easily from social science to fiction in my quest to better understand our human operating system.

Nevertheless, Libby, the free and most helpful library app, recommended I read Missing Person,

by Patrick Madiano. The 74-year-old French author won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2014, which was before most of his thirty novels were even translated into English. Madiano’s protagonist, Guy Roland, suffers an onslaught of amnesia during the Nazi occupation of Paris. As the story opens, Guy has, for ten years, lost every shred of his past. Feverishly, almost frantically, studying records and following thin leads, he begins to ascertain that he was very likely a post-revolutionary bourgeoisie Russian immigrant to France.

Guy’s trail of discoveries, however, do not lead him into the light but into encroaching darkness. As night descends on Guy’s last, disturbing lead discovered on an isolated island in the Pacific, the reader begins to see himself in his quest.

We have deftly danced around the edges of our own darkness and, therefore, may not know our selves very well at all.

Admittedly, The Social Animal, and The Road to Character left me wanting to be tutored further by David Brooks. Johnny Clay Johnson, in a testament to our friendship, gave me a copy of Brooks’s most recent bestseller, The Second Mountain. This book, like his previous ones, takes the reader by surprise. We Americans are proud of our unabashed, unapologetic quest for personal freedom and the pursuit of individual selfhood. The legacy of our striving has left us existentially lonely and 14

morally bankrupt. The cure, according to Brooks, is a radical reboot of life so that we make four fundamental commitments: 1. To spouse or family; 2. To a philosophy or faith; 3. To a vocation; 4. To a community. Scrupulously researched and convincingly written, I’ve made more notes in the text margins than I can read.

Brooks has much to teach the Church, and that is why I secured a copy for each one of our retiring vestry members this year.

poorest neighbors. Wilson-Hartgrove got on my very last nerve… but my problem is that he actually lives amidst the people for whom he advocates. Hailing from a deeply committed Christian family and an evangelical faith himself, he knows we are as capable as anyone of following the wrong messiahs and taking a road that benefits “our kind” at the expense of the other (Matthew 25:31-46).

Spoiler alert! In the last chapters, Brooks shares his own, rich, incremental conversion to faith in Jesus Christ. His testimony is unlike any I’ve read, which affirms my belief that we all have our own second mountain to climb in our own, plodding way.

On Good Friday at the Eighth Station of the Cross, the priest offers this sobering prayer, “Teach your Church, O Lord, to mourn the sins of which it is guilty, and repent and forsake them…”

That prayer reverberated through my head, while I devoured all 318 pages of Just Mercy, by Bryan Stephenson. I do not make that statement flippantly or for effect, for I learned from this gifted, committed attorney that at the very time I was being ordained in Birmingham, AL, my home state was exercising injustices horrifically reminiscent of the pre-Civil War South. I, however, was blissfully unaware of our sins as I strode down the aisle of All Saints’ Church on April 15, 1988. Bryan Stephenson came to my state at that time and showed up – of all places – in Monroeville, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. The reason for his appearance was to defend an African American man intentionally sentenced to Death Row through the evil conspiratorial machinations of city, county, and state officials. The layers of systematic lies and injustice in this case and so many others Stephenson and his team take on in Alabama and elsewhere will shake anyone who reads his memoir out of their self-satisfied homeostasis. Besides all that, Stephenson is a careful and talented author…as if Atticus Finch himself has risen from the grave!

I regularly try to read essays, articles, and books with which I disagree.

Occasionally, I read one that makes me mad. Revolution of Values: Reclaiming the Public Faith for the Common Good, by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is one such a book. Over the past several years, I have grown to admire the author for his writing and personal commitment to Christian community. Wilson-Hartgrove has founded and lived for years amongst the poor in a depressed area of Durham, NC demonstrating what he terms as the New Monasticism, which is the title of one of his previous books that I devoured.

Another of his books, The Wisdom of Stability is equally as good. His new book angered me from the very first paragraphs of the introduction. WilsonHartgrove is certain, beyond an iota of doubt, that evangelicals, of which I am one, are tolerating unequal governance and immoral leaders in order to garner short-term goals. He marches out our unresponsiveness to restrictive voting operations, inadequate social services – especially for mothers, callousness to immigrants, and indifference to our

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Christ Episcopal Church 510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX 78212 www.cecsa.org

The Message (USPS 471-710) is published bi-monthly by Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Periodical postage paid in San Antonio, TX. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Volume 22, Number 2.

Learning about God’s promise