Watsonville First United Methodist Church

Watsonville, CA

Join us for in-person worship this Sunday, May 29, 2022 at 10:00 am

 Please join us for in-person worship this Sunday, May 29 at 10:00 am as we remember in prayer all the victims of recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

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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 Facebook or YouTube. It will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Seventh Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 29, 2022, 10 am

Children’s Time “The Empty Pot” Pastor John
Both children and adults will delight in this ancient Chinese story with a surprise ending that teaches an important lesson in life. 

Special Music Weep You No More Sad Fountains Vanessa Yearsley
by Roger Quilter

Ms. Vanessa Yearsley will dedicate her song to all the victims and their families who lost their innocent lives in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.

Message Part 2) “We’d Never Know How High We Are, Till We Are Called to Rise”    Rev. John Song

Doctor Peter Coster who was originally scheduled to preach this Sunday came down with a virus and is unable to come this Sunday. It will be rescheduled at another time. Meanwhile, Pastor John will go deeper into the Part 2 of his last Sunday’s message.

“I cannot believe in a messiah who will come only after 6 million Jews are slaughtered. I cannot believe in that kind messiah. The truth is the Messiah has come. He has come thousands of times through those who have done the messianic deeds. Messianic moment happens every time one does the messianic deed.”
~ Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate


Mark Twain said, “Your two most important days are
the day you were born and the day you find out why.”
I would add the third most important day to the list,
and that is the day you act on your why.
~ Light Watkins

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.”
~ Rabindranath Tagore 

“We’d never know how high we are,
till we are called to rise; 
and then,
if we are true to plan,
our statures touch the sky.”
~ Emily Dickinson

June 2022 Pastoral Letter

Dear Friends,

Finding Inner Peace In Times of Stress

“You don’t always need a plan.
Sometimes you just need to breathe,
trust, let go and see what happens.”
~ Mandy Hale

The last three years have had their fair share of challenges for us all. We have had to grapple with growing uncertainty and mounting pressures all around us while facing the painful realities of climate crisis, a pandemic, a divided nation, and now, a devastating war and recurrence of mass shootings.

Considering what so many of us are going through right now, I want to acknowledge that this is a lot. It’s been a painful, taxing, traumatizing time. And you might have found yourself at times overwhelmed, shutting down, burning out or even breaking down. And it’s understandable.

It’s becoming more and more apparent that when it comes to facing hardships – this time that we are living through is a marathon, not a sprint. So we need ways to navigate our way through these ongoing challenges that can help us maintain awareness, agency and greater peace of mind, even when we’re plunged into chaos or difficulty. 

Today I’m sharing helpful framework (The four L’s) that I learned from the meditation teacher Melli O’Brian for living through tough times. While they can’t take away difficult moments, or how we feel about them, they can help us find resilience, inner peace and wisdom in the middle of it all.
 

The four L’s:
Listen, Let be, Live, Let go


1. Listen (to your body and mind) 
Listen carefully to the signals coming from your body and mind in times of greater stress. Many of us have a tendency to overlook, ignore or push through feelings of overwhelm, exhaustion or stress but this only wears us down and burns us out over time. It’s important to listen to yourself and give yourself what you need to restore along the way and find balance. This may mean turning off the news for a while, having extra sleep, spending more time in nature, eating nourishing food, and asking for more connection and support from loved ones. Keep filling your cup!

2. Let be (any difficult thoughts and feelings)
In times of crisis or hardship, difficult thoughts and feelings will probably arise. They are a natural response to the more challenging moments of our lives. We don’t want to pretend we’re not feeling them, struggle with them or try to escape them. Struggling with difficult thoughts and emotions in these ways only tends to prolong them and make them bigger. So instead, allow whatever feelings you have to be there, and give yourself compassion for what you’re going through. 

3. Live (In integrity to your values)
One of the most empowering things you can do in difficult times is to take meaningful action – action guided by your own core values. Your values might be kindness, courage, patience, love, compassion or determination. Research shows that focusing on what you can control and taking action, shifts you from a state of helplessness to one of hopefulness and empowerment. Perhaps you can start with simply asking yourself the question “What’s one thing I can do to help or make things better right now?” 

4. Let go (of what you can’t control)
During challenging times we often cause ourselves excess suffering by wishing things were different then they are or continuously worrying about all kinds of things that are not in our control. While that might be a fairly normal thing for the mind to do, it simply is not helpful.
 
For example we cannot control what other people do. We cannot control how governments are responding to world events. And we cannot control the future of the world or how the war will unfold. In fact, the more we focus on things we cannot control, the more overwhelmed, disempowered and frantic we are likely to feel.
 
So the most powerful thing you can do when you’re facing any great challenge is to focus on what you can control and take action on that. Accepting that for now, the rest of it simply is as it is. This is not resignation but the simple acknowledgement that “right now it’s like this.”
 
May these 4 practices help us find ease and strength in our journey as we are accompanied by our friend in Jesus. Go gently with yourself.

“I have trust that if I keep doing what I’m feeling called to do,
all of my needs will be met.”
– Light Watkins

Yours in Christ,
John

Pastor’s Monthly Column for the Pajaronian Newspaper ~ Why Christians Must Support Common Sense Gun Law

I’m sick to my stomach as I watch helplessly the common recurrence of mass shootings and with the paralysis of our nation to do anything about it. I feel assaulted and traumatized by the sheer volume of violence I witness on television and mass media. Mass shootings have devolved into America’s favorite pastime.

President Joe Biden made a statement after returning from the Asian summit last Tuesday from the Roosevelt Room of the White House as first lady Jill Biden looked on concerning the mass shooting by an 18-year-old gunman who opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas killing 19 children and 2 teachers, before being killed by police. It caught my attention when Biden made this remark in his speech:

“I just got off my trip from Asia, meeting with Asian leaders, and I learned of this while I was on the aircraft. And what struck me on that 17-hour flight—what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. Why? They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost. But these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that they happen in America. Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?”

It is true that no other nation in the world has gun violence like we do here in America. We have criminally insane number of guns. We have more guns than the entire population in America. There is a saying, “A mountain looks clearer from the plane.” Having lived in Korea, I never saw anyone owning a gun nor rarely ever heard of homicide by gun violence. In Asian countries like Korea, Japan, Singapore and the likes, there is an arduous process of owning a gun and the requirement for renewing a license every year. After their mass shootings, Australia and New Zealand both passed their robust gun safety laws that put our country to shame.

Just days after turning 18 this month, the gunman purchased two “AR platform rifles” and 375 rounds of ammunition. I am appalled at ease in which any person can walk into a gun store and purchase deadly semi-automatic rifles. Why is it that it’s more difficult to get a driver license that being able to purchase deadly assault weapons? There is an old adage, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

On Tuesday before the Western Conference game in Dallas, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr strongly criticized Republican Senators for holding up the passage of legislation that would tighten background checks on gun sales. “I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings – I ask you, ‘Are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers?’” Coach Kerr asked. He also made direct reference to a piece of legislation called House Resolution HR-8 (the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021) that has been passed by the House of Representatives but has been seating in the Senate. “We’re being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we, the American people, want,” Kerr said. “They won’t vote on it, because they want to hold on to their own power. It’s pathetic.”

Today I make a critique of Christianity’s complicity with violence. As Christians we profess to follow Jesus who was a peacemaker and a fierce advocate for nonviolence. In Matthew 26:52 Jesus says to Peter who draws a sword against Roman soldiers who have come to arrest Jesus, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem, saying, “If you had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42)

Christian evangelicals, particularly white Southern Baptists, mostly have parted ways with sensible gun laws. As Christians, we have a moral obligation to act in the face of what some blithely call the new normal of mass shooting in America. Nor should we fall for the siren call of more guns, the unproven good-guy-with-a-gun myth. Some are simply politically opposed to gun control because they are Republicans. We can begin with a modest goal of requiring universal background checks and the deadliest kind of weapons should be much harder to get. It’s a start and a step in the right direction.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the sons and daughters of God.”
~ Matthew 5:9

Join us for in-person worship this Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 10:00 am

Please join us for in-person worship on Sunday, May 22 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 Facebook or YouTube. It will be uploaded in Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 22, 2022, 10 am

Children’s Time                        “The Empty Pot”                          Pastor John

Both children and adults will delight in this ancient Chinese story with surprise ending that teaches an important lesson in life.

Special Music                             Turn, Turn, Turn           by Brandon and Trisha Kett

[This American song Turn, Turn, Turn (To Everything There Is a Season) is written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s and first recorded in 1959. The lyric is from the Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew bible written around 300 BC. According to rabbinic tradition, Ecclesiastes was written by the wise King Solomon in his old age. It speaks of the truth of temporality and paradoxes in life.]

Message       “We’d Never Know How High We Are, Till We Are Called to Rise”

“We’d never know how high we are,
till we are called to rise;
and then,
if we are true to plan,
our statures touch the sky.”
~ Emily Dickinson

Join us for in-person worship this Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 10:00 am

Please join us for in-person worship on Sunday, May 15 at 10:00 am! The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE.

Sunday in-person Worship at 10am: *Masks are optional. You can also worship online by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click Facebook or YouTube. It will be uploaded in Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 15, 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: The Dream of Olwen,  Charles Williams, Marina Thomas, Piano Solo

I want to personally introduce you to Dr. Haley Feuerbacher. Haley is my daughter’s generation better known as the” millennials”. She is wise and perceptive and has a good pulse on the culture and the experience of what young people are going through and the challenges they face today. She brings a fresh, new voice that we all need to hear. Welcome Haley!

Message   “Not Just Resurrection But Transformation”   Dr. Haley Feuerbacher

Dr. Haley Feuerbacher 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, mother to son Christian, and author, with her first book, Single (M)Other, available later this year through Wipf & Stock.