Church News – Weekly Scripture Reading

From Rev. Ara Guekguezian, Interim Pastor

It was a beautiful and relatively cool Wednesday
morning. I was running errands downtown traveling north on O street, approaching Tulare. The signal was green! A rare occurrence, so I accelerated a bit in my excitement at my good fortune. The brake lights of the car just before me lit up. Argh! As we stopped, he in the intersection, I in the crosswalk, I could see and understand. There was a walker crossing against the light, earbuds in both ears, seemingly engrossed in the screen of his phone. Not an unusual moment these days. BUT THAT IS NOT ALL, FOLKS. He stopped, bent down and picked something up from the street. All while the light is red and that little man in the box is red and cars are screeching to a halt and Pastor Ara, a person with a life, is resigning himself to two minutes of waiting through another long cycle— per usual on O at Tulare. Thanks be to God, the man got up, got to the curb, and we slammed on the gas and made it through before the signal bled red.

Driving away, the thought flashed through my head: if this criminal/scofflaw (the nicer descriptives used by my brain in this brief instant) was hit by a motor vehicle and seriously injured, he would have arrived in his own little heaven. Lying in a bed for an extended period of time, maybe for the rest of his life, earbuds in his ears and VR goggles on, not having to move while virtually living, without having to cross streets anymore.

I arrived at the pastor’s office/study, and I was grateful that I still have a life where I want to be fully engaged.

The screens of my life are a nice addition. The phone and the tablet provide certain efficiencies, but my work, my purpose, insists that I remain alert to the other and engage with the other and endeavor to make the other and me, us. Virtual Reality is here in a rudimentary form at present. In a few years, VR and reality may be indistinguishable for some. We have glimpses of it: listening to recorded music, watching worship on TV or the iPad, buying an exercise video (previewing, but never actually responding to the direction of the peppy, bouncing person exhorting to one more rep).

The man in the crosswalk reminded me that Christian community life is still very much a human exercise. The early Church disputes were focused on the nature of the Christ and the constant affirmation of the full humanity of the Word. Jesus saw, spoke, felt, touched, tasted, and heard. Jesus charged us to follow and do likewise. Feeding the hungry, visiting the prisoner in SimCity is not the full expression of faithfulness. Doing it: teaching, leading, singing, feeding, listening, giving, walking with even against the don’t walk signal is.

Grateful to be fully engaged with you as work out whom we are as God’s faith folk in and amongst many who as slowly disengaging from the mess, the joy filled mess, that is this life. 

Peace,

Pastor Ara.

From Rev. Ara Guekguezian, Interim Pastor

The dusty vehicle under the carport in the back of our property was a much used van to transport Big Red folk, especially children and youth around this gorgeous valley. The van is thirteen years old and is now rarely used. We still make the insurance payment regularly ($700.00 annually). It is concerning to let a vehicle sit idle for weeks on end, especially in the heat, then putting people we love into it for a drive up a mountainside or across town.

The Council made a wise and well considered decision as faithful stewards to divest ourselves from the van. The money saved from insurance, upkeep and sale of the van would be used to rent a new van whenever we need it (for camp, for Kidmunity, for youth activity [hopefully]).

Then, we became aware of the need of our adopted Syrian Refugee family of eight who have a Toyota Corolla. They are unable to go anywhere as a family. They are grateful for an old but useful car, but an old and useful eight passenger van would be much better. They would use the van daily. The disintegration from disuse would be avoided.

Therefore, it was decided by our Council to give the van to our family upon raising $2,400.00, the book value of the vehicle. So we could keep our promise to our ministries for Christian Education, Resources and Outreach: to continue our essential ministries without burdening the financial resources of our  congregation.

Give, please!

Now a little opportunity to receive as you give. Pastor Ara was adopted by the Schoelens for an evening (any longer than that requires him to grow out his white beard). At the Grand Banquet of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Pastor Ara bid on two wonderful items and ended up with a private wine tasting at Englemann Cellars for him and nine friends, and a tour and tasting at Ficklin Vineyards for him and five friends. PROBLEM: Pastor Ara has no friends, so a ‘sign up’ sheet will be available through June for both tours. You may sign up to join him on either tasting with your name and how much you are willing to pay for a most delightful evening. The top nine bidders for Engelmann and top five for Ficklin will join Pastor Ara on the adventure. All proceeds will go to the Van Fund.

Note: if you wish to buy a new van for the church, DON’T. Give the $32,000.00 instead to the
transportation fund. Invested wisely, it will provide transportation for our Youth, Camp and Kidmunity for twenty years (longer than the life span of a van).