Posts – Page 280 – Lakewood United Church of Christ

Weekly Update 9/4

This Sunday: This Sunday the service will resume a more structured format. The choir will be singing again! Church School begins! The theme for the morning is Who or What is God? Take a look at Luke 14:25-33 and Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18.

New Members to be Welcomed: New members will be received into the church family on Sunday Sept. 15, Charter Sunday. Charter Sunday is the celebration of the founding of the church. Those who are considering church membership are asked to contact Kim Wells (wells.kim.p@gmail.com). The membership liturgy takes place during morning worship.

Peace Sing A Long: Come to church early, at 10:15 a.m. on September 22nd, to sing songs in honor of International Day of Peace which is Sept. 21. Be part of celebrating peace in song!

Advisor Meeting: The advisors are meeting after service this Sunday. All are Welcome!

Jason Charos Ensemble: Jason Charos graduated from the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School in 2017. He is currently completing the third year of his undergraduate degree at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. The Jason Charos Quintet seeks to play repertoire from the straight-ahead jazz tradition that is not commonly performed as well as original music. The sole intent of the ensemble, though, is to provide the listener with an uplifting experience through music that is just swinging. The concert begins at 7:00 p.m. on September 13th. Suggested donation of $20. All proceeds go to the artist. Please feel free to contact the church with any questions! lakewooducc@gmail.com or call at 727-867-7961.

Mountain Dulcimer Lessons: Second lesson with master mountain music master Randy Wilson for mountain dulcimer. Bring your dulcimer and a music stand and willingness to play! $10 suggested donation! All levels welcome. Join us September 17th and 24th at 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Fun Socks Drive: We have collected close to 300 socks thanks to all your donations! Thank you for all your help!

Violin Update: The church in partnership with Bringe Music has been able to provide a violin for Kai’Lyn Washington. Best wishes to Kai’Lyn on her musical journey!

Lectio Divina: Have you been feeling the need for a deeper spiritual connection in your life? Do you need to rediscover that source of hope and inspiration to inspire and inform your social activism? Please join us from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 11th in the Sanctuary at Lakewood UCC for an evening of Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina is a Christian spiritual practice that has been around for hundreds of years. It involves contemplative scripture reading, prayer and meditation which focuses on deepening our connection to the God of our understanding. It is a reflective and devotional process which can be practiced privately or with a group. Please RSVP to Jim Andrews @ 727-510-4170 and feel free to ask questions!

Singing in the Sunshine: https://lakewooducc.org/2019/09/03/singing-for-ann/

Lakewood UCC Choir: Please consider joining the Lakewood UCC choir. There’s no audition, no requirement to read music, no long-term commitment, no cost, no stress…the only requisite is a love of music and a desire to sing. The first rehearsal of the fall choir season is Sunday 9 am, September 8th…that’s the Sunday after Labor Day. Rehearsals are in the church sanctuary. All you need to do is show up, and you will be welcomed!

Church School Begins: Sunday September 8 Church School will resume. The teaching team is led by Olivia Gibson and Patti Cooksey with assistance from others in the church family. Church School will take place during morning worship after the Youth Moment. It will be oriented to young people in elementary and middle school. The curriculum being used this year is A Joyful Path. Many thanks to teachers and students for being part of this program! Families with children and youth will receive an email with greater detail about the program.

Come Out St. Pete: This street festival and parade will be taking place Saturday Oct. 5 on Central Ave. between 22 and 31st Sts. Wally Leblanc will be having a booth that will include information about the church. If you can help volunteer at the booth, please let Wally know. wally503x@gmail.com Many thanks!

Operation Attack: Operation Attack is very much in need of clothes for men, boys, and girls as well as diapers and peanut butter and canned fruit. Donations may be placed in the shopping cart in the entryway to the sanctuary. Operation Attack is an ecumenical effort serving families with children located a Lakeview Presbyterian Church, 1310 22nd. Ave. S., St. Petersburg. LUCC was a founding member of Operation Attack in the 1960’s!

Hearing Augmentation: Devices are available from the usher in the sanctuary during worship.

September Birthdays: Kim Wells 9/19, Joanne Reid 9/22, Wilbur Reid 9/22, Donald Ritchie 9/27, and Carlolyn Moore 9/30. Someone missing? Contact the church office with birthday information.

Circle of Concern: Sherry Santana, Carolyn Moore, Ann Quinn, Maggie Brizendine, Ann Rogers, and Marty Catala and family.

Recent Posts:

Fun Sock Drive September 3, 2019
Singing for Ann September 3, 2019

Weekly Update: If you are involved with an activity or event that you would like to share with the LUCC family, please send the information to the church office by Tuesday since the Update usually is sent out on Wednesday.

Fun Sock Drive

Maximo Elementary invited the church to provide fun and colorful socks to all the students at the school open house on September 5th. Fun socks are socks with several colors and/or patterns! They are available at many stores including Target and the Dollar Store.Children sizes for kindergarten through 5th grade are needed. Bring your socks to church and put them in the sock bin! Help us reach our goal of 200 socks!

Singing for Ann

(left to right) Marg Radens, Claudia Rodrigues, Carol Shores, Ann Rogers, Mark Gibson, Colleen Coughenour, Kim Wells, Patti Cooksey, and Yoko Nogami, photographer.

Making a joyful noise singing favorite hymns to Ann Rogers who is homebound. Patti gave Ann a basket of fruit. Ann also gave the church two pairs of fun socks for Maximo Elementary School.

Weekly Update 8/28

This Sunday: The theme for Summer Sundays has been well-known stories and images from the Bible. On this the last of Summer Sundays two of the most well-known images from the New Testament will offer instruction on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Communion Sunday: The first Sunday of the month is a Communion Sunday. That means the communion offering will be received. This offering is used to help people in the church and the community with basic needs such as rent and utility assistance, bus passes, prescriptions, etc. There has been heavy need for these funds in recent weeks. Please consider how you can help the community through this offering.

Singing in the Sunshine: The long stretch of rainy days has ended, but the singin’ goes on! If you would like to join choir members and sing to Ann Rogers at her home after church Sunday, September 1, see Patti or Kim. Ann is feeling stronger and looks forward to a beautiful, melodious gathering of her LUCC friends.

Fun Socks Drive: Maximo Elementary invited the church to provide fun and colorful socks to all the students at the school open house on September 5th.Fun socks are socks with several colors and/or patterns! They are available at many stores including Target and the Dollar Store. Children sizes for kindergarten through 5th grade are needed. Bring your socks to church and put them in the sock bin! We have already collected 107 pairs of socks! Help us to reach our goal of 200! Thank you for your help!

Commercial Gas Range Stove: The church is selling the commercial gas range stove in the kitchen. We will accept the best offer that we receive. If you would like to see the stove in person, please come anytime between 9:30 am-noon Tues-Friday! Anyone interested should contact the Church Office at lakewooducc@gmail.com or 727-867-7961.

Theological Orientation Discussions: These discussions were requested as part of reviewing the church mission statement and possibly creating a new mission statement. The last session will be tonight at 7:00pm. That will conclude the series. All are welcome to participate!

Hearing Augmentation: Devices are available from the usher in the sanctuary during worship.

August Birthdays: Mardie Chapman 8/7, Claire Stiles 8/11, Kay Rencken 8/13, Dana Cosper 8/22, James Waterman 8/23, Barbara Donahue 8/4, Vita Uth 8/14, and Joanne Reid 8/28, Someone missing? Contact the church office with birthday information.

Circle of Concern: Sherry Santana, Carolyn Moore, Ann Quinn, Maggie Brizendine, Ann Rogers, and Marty Catala and family.

Recent Posts:

Sermon 8/28 Scattered Together August 28, 2019
Jason Charos Quintet Concert August 27, 2019
Fun Socks Drive! August 23, 2019
Randy’s Song August 23, 2019
Evan Kinney with Van Burchfield, Old-Time Workshop and Concert August 23, 2019

Sermon 8/28 Scattered Together

Scripture Lesson: Genesis 11:1-9, The Tower of Babel

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

The human impulse for the building of towers did not end with the Tower of Babel. The tallest building in the world currently is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The building officially opened January 4, 2010. The Burj Khalifa is 2,717 feet high at its highest architectural feature excluding the antenna. It has 163 floors which hold 900 apartment residences, a hotel, offices, lobbies, restaurants, and an observation deck. There are 57 elevators in the building. The fastest ascend at 33 feet per second. Sounds like a ride at Busch Gardens to me! There are 2909 stairs to the 160th floor. The top of the building sways 1.5 meters, almost 5 feet, in the breeze. There are 62 miles of pipes for getting water to the entire building. It takes 36 workers 3-4 months to clean the windows of the glass fronted tower.

Ask if anyone has been to the Burj Khalifa and what it was like.

Evidently, the Burj Kahlifa is so tall that from the upper levels the sun can still be seen for several minutes after it has set at ground level. Thus during the Muslim holy season of Ramadan, those who live on the 80th floor and above are to wait an additional 2 minutes before breaking their fast each day, and those living above the 150th floor are to wait an additional 3 minutes.

And what was the motivation for building this record breaking tower? Wikipedia tells us, “The decision to build Burj Khalifa was reportedly based on the government’s decision to diversify from an oil-based economy to one that is service and tourism based. According to officials, it was necessary for projects like Burj Khalifa to be built in order to garner more international recognition, and hence investment.” Jacqui Josephson, a tourism executive, says, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, “wanted to put Dubai on the map with something really sensational.” Well, the Burj is certainly sensational as is much of the entire city of Dubai.

Much like the Tower of Babel, which the story in Genesis tells us was built so that, “we might make a name for ourselves,” the Burj was built to put Dubai on the map, make a name for “ourselves.” And evidently it worked because the apartments in the Burj sold out within 8 hours of going on the market. [Information about Burj Khalifa comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa]

Tall buildings do that. They put a people on the map. They make a name for the people. They are a show of status and garner recognition and hopefully respect. The newer highest buildings in the world today are mostly in South Asia, West Asia, many in China, one in Russia. Most are in places that want to make a name for themselves; be counted as players on the world scene. Few such buildings are being constructed in Europe or North America save in New York and Chicago. We have already made a name for ourselves. So, the Burj is the tallest building in the world. For now. It is expected to hold that title for at least the next 4 years when it will likely be surpassed by the Jeddah Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia or the Dubai Creek Tower, miles away in Dubai, among others.

And what surrounds Dubai and the Burj Khalifa Tower? Endless expansive miles of dry inhospitable desert. Plunked on the edge of the desert, bordered by the sea, is this concentration of civilization with all of the glitter and bustle imaginable. This setting is reminiscent of the story of the Tower of Babel. We are told of a concentration of people, banded together, isolated, building a tower to make a name for themselves; to garner recognition and respect. The intent is self glorification. Self-aggrandizement. They are looking out for number one.

The story of the Tower of Babel tells us of a people who join forces to build a tower to enhance their power, wealth, position, and reputation. It is an isolationist act of self preservation. What’s wrong with that? Well, to understand that we need to look back at the beginning of the book of Genesis. In the story of Creation, the human species is created to take care of the rest of the Creation. We are told in Genesis chapter 1, “Let us make human kind in our image, to be like us. Let them be stewards of the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, the wild animals, and everything that crawls on the ground.” That sounds like an endorsement of the Endangered Species Act to me. Why don’t we hear about that from all the Biblical literalists that support the current political regime?

A few verses later in Genesis chapter 1 the human creatures are instructed to, “Bear fruit and increase your numbers, and fill the earth – and be responsible for it! Watch over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things on the earth!” The humans are to spread out over the entire Earth, so that they can be sure to take care of the big whole thing making sure the animals and plants are thriving and healthy. The human race is to be globally deployed for the purposes of care-taking of the entire planet and all the life that it supports. This is the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. First things first.

The story of the Tower of Babel tells of a people who are concentrating their efforts on their own well being to the neglect of their wider responsibilities for the rest of Creation. They are banding together to look after themselves with no concern for the well being of the rest of the Earth. They are worrying about their power and prestige and status and forgetting about their obligations to the rest of Creation. This should sound very familiar. We are still living in that reality. This story is still speaking to us.

With the story of the Tower of Babel in mind, we can think about the people of Dubai who seem to have so much money they don’t know what to do with it, buying up all of the rainforest on the planet and making sure that it is not cut down or burned to help mitigate global warming. They could make a commitment to leave the rest of the fossil fuel in their land underground and end the extraction of fossil fuels in their region. They have plenty of sun and heat. They could apply their enterprising spirit to running their country on solar power instead of fossil fuels. The people of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates could make a name for themselves that fulfills the divine intention for the human species.

Yet before we cast our attention only on the splinter in the eye of Dubai, let’s remember that the US has its share of the tallest buildings in the world, and after two of them went down an even taller building was built in its place. We, too, have done our share of choosing to make a name for ourselves and concentrating our efforts on self preservation and self-aggrandizement at the expense of others and the planet. And this orientation of our country continues to put the planet at risk.

In our day of globalization and instant worldwide communication, we know far better than any generation before us that there is no such thing as isolation from the rest of the world. Our only hope is in the commitment to the preservation of all of Creation. We are scattered so that we can be sure to take care of the whole world. Humanity must be diverse in order to serve the greater good of the entire planet. The lessons of the ancient story of the Tower of Babel have yet to be learned.

Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.