Please join us for in-person worship on July 3 at 10:00 am as we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day.The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

Please join us every Sunday for in-person Worship at 10am. *Masks are optional. We follow local, state, and federal guidelines. You can also worship online by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. It will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing. 

Celebration of the Independence Day
Sunday, July 3, 2022, 10 am

Anthem                                    Blessed Is the Nation                                       Choir 
Authors: Lynda Parker Loucks & Samuel F. Smith; Melody: Lynda Parker Loucks.
She quoted “America,” by Henry Carry, incorporating the 1st stanza only into the lyrics.

Children’s Time                                                                 Dr. Haley Feuerbacher

We welcome again Dr. Haley Feuerbacher, the Executive Director of Center for Courageous Compassion, this Sunday while Pastor John is away. He’ll return to the office on July 5.

“Grief is a last and final translation of an act of love. Grieving is the last act of loving someone. 
And this last act never ends because you can never stop loving the other.”
~ Ocean Vuong, the Vietnamese-American poet, essayist and novelist

Message               “Good + Grief: Grieve to Heal”            Dr. Haley Feuerbacher

Dr. Haley Feuerbacher will deliver the second part of her mini-sermon series “Good + Grief: Faith After Uvalde” using the text John 11:1-7, 12-46. This sermon will be focused less on the ones grieving and more on how to courageously support those who are grieving and go into the grief-stricken places together, following Christ’s example at Lazarus’ tomb.

Join the fun this summer at our 2022 Summer programs. You won’t want to miss this!

Register Online Now, HERE!

Únase a la diversión este verano en nuestros programas de verano de 2022. ¡No querrás perderte esto!

¡Regístrese en línea ahora, AQUÍ!

Dear Friends,

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

We all have heard the phrase, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” This idiom derives from a German proverb, das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten. The earliest record of this phrase was used in 1512 in Narrenbeschwörung by Thomas Murner.

In medieval times in Europe, Germany in particular, peasants and laborers bathed only once a year. When they did, the oldest person in the family will go first and so on down until the baby bathed the last. By the time the baby took the bath, the water was pitch-black and dirty enough that an infant could be lost in it. Therefore, this idiom means don’t discard something valuable along with something undesirable.

The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement that swept through Europe in the 1500s in reaction to all that were wrong and corrupt about the Roman Catholic Church at the time. It resulted in the creation of a branch of Christianity called Protestantism. Therefore, protestant means the one who protests. Consequently, in their reaction and aversion to anything that was Catholic, they rejected pretty much 1400 years Christian tradition. And icons suffered the same fate from the Protestant Reformation.

It is natural for people to resist when something new is introduced when it is unfamiliar and strange. Wei Wu Wei the 7^th century Chinese sage said, “Our devotees are quite enamored with the teacup.  So much so that they have forgotten to drink the tea from it.” Unfortunately, religious people get stuck on the outer form of their religion and never get to experience the spiritual essence of their faith.

As Methodists, we adhere to core teachings of John Wesley, the founder of Methodist movement, such as the doctrine of grace and the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. John Wesley offered us the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience, as resources to utilize for discerning God’s truth. “Tradition” in Wesley’s mind is all that are handed down to us from the dawning of Christianity from writings and teachings of saints, mystics, and theologians and the legacy of rituals and practices. Here is where I would argue that icons are to be salvaged because they are another valuable tool that offers us a window through which we can access the divine.

I’m super excited to finally hold The Service of Dedication of Icons on Sunday, July 17th. I have been drawn to icons for over three decades. They have deepened and affected my formation of spiritual development. You will have a chance to see and experience carefully selected 8 iconic icons and 2 paintings by Christopher Santer of Jesus with children and youth based on the scripture from Mark 10:14, “Let the little children come to me, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.” The Pajaronian reporter, Johanna Miller, will do a writeup for the paper.

It is my prayer that these icons will transform our worship space into a sacred space. Stained glass windows, during the medieval time when most people were illiterate, taught people the stories of the bible and key events in the life of Jesus. Similarly, icons teach us, esp. to our children and young people, about the important key events of Jesus and their significant meanings that shape our Christian faith.

The worship experience is enriched when all our senses are activated and engaged. Unfortunately, there is a sensory deprivation in the Protestant worship. It has basically reduced to solely the exercise of the mind. Evagrius of Pontius, the 4th century ascetic Christian monk from the coast of Asia Minor wrote, “God cannot be grasped by the mind. If God could be grasped by the mind, God would not be God.” We all have heard the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” And it does. All those who gaze upon these icons will be subliminally affected. In the world of icons, there is a saying, “You become what you gaze upon.” Icons are spiritual images that affect us powerfully that draws us closer to God in a mystical way, beyond words and through direct, immediate experience. Icon is a portal through which we enter and see and experience the transcendent reality of God. Icons offer us windows through which we see and experience the divine.

In addition, icons keep us honest. When we veer from our faith, icons pull us back to the foundation of Christian faith and core tenets of Jesus’ teaching. Being a progressive church, it is easy to get busy caught up on doing things and accomplishing things in church projects and social actions. There is nothing wrong with it. However, we can lose our way by forgetting the original source that gave us the impetus and the mandate given by God through Christ. There is a danger of losing the distinction between nonprofits and the church. Icons help us to become contemplation in action. Without contemplation, we are just reacting instead of responding. The opposite of contemplation is not action, it is reaction. We must wait for right action, which always proceeds from a contemplative silence. 

Happy 4th folks! Have a safe and celebratory Independence Day.

With much love in Christ,

John

P.S.

I want to draw you attention to Dr. Haley Feuerbacher who will offer a two-part sermon series “Good + Grief”. It’s on a topic that she talks about a lot at CCC (Center for Courageous Compassion) that she believes is apropos for these times: grief.

On Sunday, June 26, the title of her sermon will be “Good + Grief: Grieve to Heal” and it draws upon Matthew 14:13-25. This sermon will be focused on the value of grieving and the need to empower and trust others in our community to fill in our gaps so we can pause and take those sacred moments to grieve.

On Sunday, July 3, Dr. Haley Feuerbacher will deliver the second part of her mini-sermon series “Good + Grief: Faith After Uvalde” using the text John 11:1-7, 12-46. This sermon will be focused less on the ones grieving and more on how to courageously support those who are grieving and go into the grief-stricken places together, following Christ’s example at Lazarus’ tomb.

“The truth will make you free.”
~ John 8:32

Pajaronian Column June 24, 2022
By John Song

On July 4, 1776, thirteen British colonies emerged as a newly independent nation, the United States of America. And the American republic was born. The Constitution was written and signed in 1787. It was a charter of government that came to be ratified by the states, and it continues to be the supreme law of the land. And thus the American experiment in democracy was born.

We are living in a precarious time. So far, the American public has heard three of five bipartisan January 6 hearings. We are learning how the former president and his allies came precariously close to dismantling the 235 years of American experiment in democracy. If not for a few key principled Republicans who refuse to do the bidding of the former president to overturn the result of the fair election, I don’t know where we will be as a nation.

Trump asked for one teensy favor: Help destroy American democracy and all we stand for. He pressured Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to overturn the presidential election and vaguely threatened him with “a criminal offense” during an hourlong telephone call. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.” Then in his desperation made multiple heated calls to pressure the Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to do the performative act of ratifying the results of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory at the joint session of Congress on January 6^th.

The other day during The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the host was interviewing two former Washington Post journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, for the 50th anniversary of groundbreaking 1974 non-fiction book, All the President’s Men. These two journalists investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building which brought to light the political scandal of President Richard Nixon which resulted in his resignation. The host Stephen Colbert asked them what is the difference between the 1973 Watergate Senate hearing and today’s Jan. 6 nonpartisan House hearing. Bob Woodward answered, “Back then truth mattered and there were a lot more principled Republican Senators than it is today.” He explained that after all the mounting evidence in the Watergate scandal, it all came down to Barry Goldwater, a five-term very conservative Republican Senator from Arizona. He made a visit to the Oval Office to have a sobering conversation with President Nixon. Nixon asked Goldwater how much support he has from the Republican senators to acquit him from charges and indictments brought against him from the hearing. Barry Goldwater told him, “You might have four or possibly five. But you don’t have mine.” Next day President Nixon made a public announcement of his resignation from the Presidency.

Finally, nearing the end of their interview, the host Stephen Colbert asked a point-blank question to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, “What is the chance of the American experiment in democracy surviving?” Their answer is worth paying attention to. “Our young democracy has a chance of surviving only if the public is willing to look at the truth and act accordingly.” George Orwell, the author of the classic 1984, wrote, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”

As we head into celebrating our Independence Day, let us not take for granted the 235 years of American experiment in democracy. What distinguishes America, “the land of the free,” from totalitarian states like China and Russia is the Constitutional rights of the freedom of speech, press, and assembly. Without them, we are not free. But it only works if we, the people, are willing to see the truth.

I am inspired by the people of Ukraine who are putting their lives on the line to defend their independent republic and the democratic government. Their war is not that different from our American Revolution for Independence from George III, the King of Great Britain. Benjamin Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” To which Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” We can’t fall asleep. We all need to stay awake. Truth matter. Principle matter. God bless America.

“Price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
~ Thomas Jefferson

Please join us for in-person worship on June 26 at 10:00 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

Please join us every Sunday for in-person Worship at 10am. *Masks are optional. We follow local, state, and federal guidelines. You can also worship online by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. It will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing. 

Third Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, June 26, 2022, 10 am

This Sunday is the In-Person Lego Sunday!
First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
the teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.

Special Music                         Piano Solo                                Marina Thomas

We welcome Dr. Haley Feuerbacher again this Sunday while Pastor John is away. He’ll return to the office on July 5. Haley is a storyteller, creator, adventurer, facilitator, spiritual activist, and theologian. She attended Vanderbilt Divinity School and Brite Divinity School for her Master’s in Theological Studies and completed her Ph.D. at Southern Methodist University in Religion and Culture and Women’s and Gender Studies. A recent transplant to California from Texas, Haley was a faculty member at SMU and The Seattle School for Theology & Psychology and served for several years as a youth minister and then as campus minister for a United Methodist Reconciling college ministry. Passionate about the power of joy and compassion for personal and systemic transformation, Haley is currently the founder and executive director of the Center for Courageous Compassion, which is creating a movement of fierce survivor-centeredness and transformation of trauma in which our helpers, caregivers, activists, leaders, and ministers engage in courageously compassionate work, life, and being that yields sustainable joy and resists systems and patterns that lead to vicarious trauma, burnout, and compassion fatigue. Haley is also a running coach, yoga facilitator, surfing and outdoor enthusiast, partner to SB and mother to son Christian.

Message               “Good + Grief: Grieve to Heal”            Dr. Haley Feuerbacher

On Sunday, June 26 Dr. Haley Feuerbacher will begin a two-part sermon series “Good + Grief”. It’s on a topic that she talks about a lot at CCC (Center for Courageous Compassion) that she believes is apropos for these times: grief. The title will be “Good + Grief: Grieve to Heal” and it draws about Matthew 14:13-25. This sermon will be focused on the value of grieving and the need to empower and trust others in our community to fill in our gaps so we can pause and take those sacred moments to grieve.