As you probably know, the “Holiday Season” is a busy time of year with all of the various preparations and celebrations happening around those weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year. I think you could make the case that that busy time kicks off with a bang this weekend. I’d never really thought of it this before, but truly between Halloween, All-Saints and All-Souls days and Reformation Day, we have a lot going on in a short amount of time, and afterward we’re full on into Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations everywhere and all the trappings of preparation for the Holiday Season.
Most of the excitement in these next days will of course be around Halloween. It has the biggest secular presence, and All Saints Day follows closely behind because it is a day that we confront the reality of the presence of death in our lives, and indeed is perhaps the only day that we do so.
I really enjoy Halloween, it’s a fun day to dress up and hang out with friends and play silly games, and I enjoy All-Saints Day as well, although in entirely different ways. But I also think that it’s important to not lose sight of Reformation Day and what it stands for in the midst of all this excitement and with the looming Holiday Season just over the horizon.
Reformation Day is not just the day that we remember what an eccentric fellow that Martin Luther was for nailing his thoughts to the door; it’s not just the day that we set aside for all the old favorite hymns; it is both of these, yes, but it is also the day that we have to specifically remember what the Reformation was about. It is the one day where we focus ourselves on the fact that Luther and all his co-reformers (and there were many) took a stand for the truth of the Gospel. That the truth that God’s love, in Christ Jesus, is a free gift, given without reservation, requirement or obligation, is a truth worth telling even when the potential consequences of standing against the Roman Catholic Church to do so were dire: i.e. exile and the risk of execution.
Thanks be to God that those Reformers were so bold. Thanks be to God that the Spirit moved them to such conviction in such a powerful confession. I hope that in the coming days you find time to sit with what that conviction means, with the reality that the Reformation happened at all, and that we have inherited that legacy: the legacy of unconditional love and of being defined only and completely by God’s claim on us. There is a deep power in that truth and the conviction of those who have gone before us to proclaim that truth.
PEACE!
Pastors' Contact Info:
Pastor Valerie
805-776-3377
pastor.valerie.carlson@gmail.com
Office Hours: Tuesdays (11am-1pm) and Thursdays (12:30-3:00pm)
Pastor Dan
805-776-3707
pastor.dcarlson@gmail.com
Sunday, October 30:
Reformation Sunday! Pastor Jake Parsons will review the history of the Reformation and what happened before Martin Luther nailed up those 95 theses on the church door 499 years ago.
Next Sunday, Nov 6:
The Saturday Morning Men’s group will lead a discussion on the propositions in this year’s Election. What are they about, who is for and who against, and where is the money coming from. If you vote by mail, you may still want to attend since your ballot only needs to be in the mail by election day.
Youth Sunday School Announcements & Needs:
1) Sunday School teacher (to team-teach Pre-school--kindergarten age or 1st--2nd grades.
2) Children's Church volunteers: 2 volunteers are needed for the 2nd, 4th and random 5th Sundays of each month during the ll:00am service.
3) Snacks for Sunday School in November (at 10:30 am for about 20-25 children). See sign-up board in the Sunday School Gathering area.
*If you can help fill these remaining gaps, please give John Keisler a call 543-4259 or e-mail rebjohn50@hotmail.com. THANK YOU!
by Bishop Guy Erwin
I go to Standing Rock because I am a Christian, living out my baptismal vocation in service to Christ's church as a bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I am also a mixed-race member of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, born on land inhabited by my Osage ancestors for a thousand years.
I go to Standing Rock as a pilgrimage to the Native encampments that have been built to help the Standing Rock Sioux Nation stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. I go because I want to show my support for their efforts, to add my prayers to theirs as they call to God for justice, to add my voice to the protest against the indifference to Native rights, violation of sacred land, and endangerment of the natural environment I believe this pipeline represents.
I go to Standing Rock aware that there are many dimensions to the construction of this pipeline, and that there are some who will be hurt regardless of what happens. The pipeline has economic implications for the residents of North Dakota, and it is part of a vast business strategy of corporations that profit from the extraction, transport and sale of fossil fuels to an energy-hungry consumer society. These are painful realities.
I go to Standing Rock in the belief that this pipeline represents for the Native community yet another example of disregard for their concern for the sacredness of the land to which they belong. I believe it also shows disregard for the sovereignty Native nations possess by the gift of God, and which the government of the United States recognizes as being as valid as its own. And I go hoping that this time, the outcome will be different, and that Native voices will be heard.
Time and again, Native interests and rights have been subordinated to the desire of the majority of the population for growth, development, and exploitation of the land. Time and again, the support of the Federal government-uneven and unreliable though that has been-has been Native peoples' only recourse against state and local government and business interests, which almost always find Native rights inconvenient and an obstacle to what they believe to be progress. Time and again, Native inhabitants of North America have been shown that their lives and rights matter less than those of the non-Native population which now makes up the great majority of the land's inhabitants.
The pipeline has the potential to bring great wealth to some and increased prosperity perhaps to many. But it also carries with it the potential for great destruction. Though pipelines might be a safer method of transporting oil than trucks or trains, they are still far from safe for the environment, as recent spills across the country continue to show us. It is not so much a question of whether a pipeline will break, as when and where it will, and who will suffer from the damage that ensues.
If a pipeline is safe enough to be built on Native land, or where Native people stand to suffer most from its failure, it ought to be safe enough to be built where the majority population lives. This is not a numbers game: for the larger settler population systemically to discourage the flourishing of Native communities, and then to act against their interests on the ground that they are numerically few, is to add modern insult to historic injury.
I go to Standing Rock because I find in our Lutheran understanding of the Ten Commandments, as articulated in Luther's Small Catechism, ample reason to see in the threatened Native communities throughout our country precisely those neighbors to whose care we have been called by God. In the spirit of Luther's teaching, I call Lutheran Christians in the United States to self-examination and repentance wherever they have taken part in the use of power, for self-interest, against the rights and lives of others.
As a nation-to use Luther's language-we have tricked our Native neighbors out of their inheritance, and we have falsely claimed legal rights to that which was not our own. We have deprived them of their property by crooked deals, and with promises not kept. These are violations of the Seventh and Ninth Commandments, which call on us neither to steal nor to covet, but instead call us to protect others' property and to be of help and service to our neighbors in maintaining what is theirs.
Then, having subordinated Native peoples, confining them to reservations and curtailing their rights, we have continued to betray and slander them through racial prejudice. Even now, we diminish them through stereotypes and caricatures and mock their attempts to assert their dignity and their rights. This is a violation of the Eighth Commandment, which instead calls us to the defense of our neighbors' reputations.
On October 25, our Presiding Bishop, accompanied by me and four other bishops, will go to Standing Rock. We go to listen, to learn, and to pray. We go to stand with our feet on the prairie-on the earth our God has made, the land our Native siblings revere, and we go to show reverence and respect for Creation and our fellow human beings. We go to hear the songs and laments of those whose ancestors were on this continent for untold ages before Europeans arrived, and to salute their descendants' courage. We go, simply to be there.
We go to Standing Rock.
The Rev. R. Guy Erwin, Ph.D.
Bishop of the Southwest California Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Fruit Basket Deliveries to Homebound Members
On Sunday, November 6, the youth will be personally delivering fruit baskets to our homebound members. We do this every year before Thanksgiving, and it is one of our favorite events!
We would like to invite anybody who would like to join us! We will be eating a light lunch after the second service and heading out around 12:45. If you would like to come along or have any questions, please email Monica at mjholman@calpoly.edu.
Fall Jar Mix CAT Fundraiser:
Looking for a cute, easy gift idea? Never fear, the youth are here! Back by popular demand, the youth will be selling gift-in-a-jar mixes after services throughout the month of November. For sale this year: mixes for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, and, new for 2016, jars of “Merry Minestrone” soup! We have made a batch of each type of jar, so either buy one of those while they last, or place an order to be fulfilled at the beginning of December. The cost is $10 per jar for each mix, and will be used to fund the CAT program, and confirmation and high school trips. Thanks for an action team grant from Thrivent, nearly all of the proceeds go directly to the program!
Free Church BBQ!
Join us for a Thrivent Financial-sponsored lunch at 12:30pm on Sunday, November 13th in our park. Funds raised will go towards providing shelter from rain in our MCLC BBQ area. Tasty food will be prepared by Road Kill Grill and Friends. Menu includes tri-tip, BBQ chicken, beans, bread, salads, and dessert. Please RSVP on your connection card (just note: BBQ!) or e-mail the church office at info@mtcarmelslo.org. Good will offering. Accepting help with food prep, set-up and clean-up! Contact John Cook JL_Cook@charter.net or (805) 440-5622
Let's continue our annual food collection for Eglesia Lutherana Santa Cruz.
Our grocery cart overflowed last week! Thank you for your generous donations!
This small Mission Church in Santa Maria serves the farm field workers. When the weather is bad they can't work in the fields so they don't make a salary to feed their families. Mt. Carmel and the other churches in our conference help by stocking their pantry. Included below are their specific requests. We'd like to have the pantry supplied before Thanksgiving Day and your help has always been fabulous, so thank you for joining us again this year. Please direct questions to Pat Forrest at 541-4799
Dates and Items Needed:
Sun. Oct. 30: Wheat flour
Sun. Nov. 6: Canola oil
Sun. Nov. 13: Juice all flavors
There’s a briskness in the air and daylight hours are getting shorter, which means Fall is here. With Fall comes Harvest Season - We at Mt. Carmel have a tradition of bringing our “harvest gifts” in the form of our favorite bottle (or two) of red wine to church for Wine Harvest Sunday. Our gifts to God and Mt. Carmel will be used throughout the Church year as we celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection in Holy Communion. This year Wine Harvest Sunday will be November 20th. You will have the opportunity to bring your gifts to the altar as part of the service knowing it will be blessed and shared throughout the year as we partake of our cup of salvation.
Its time to collect and share our gifts with needy families in Mexico. Instead of toys, we will collect gifts of cash. The money will be given to the children and families in Mexico at a special Sunday service on a date to be determined in December or January. We are holding the date open to accommodate new families who may want to join the fun. If you would like more information, please contact Ryan or Martha Reck in person or email at: justreck@gmail.com.
From now through November 27, a tree in the narthex will hold tags with boys and girls names. Church members and friends are invited to take a tag. Please hang the tag in your home as a reminder to pray for this child, as a member of our Christian family. Also let the tag serve as a reminder to donate ($15 or $20) for this child's Christmas. You may put cash or check (made out to Mt. Carmel) into the church envelopes for the offering. Please note your gift is for “TJ Christmas” on the envelope. At the end of collection, a check will be sent to the church in Mexico and cash gifts will be distributed to the children and their families at the special service.
Thank you for helping make this Christmas a merry one for these families. This gift is often the only one these children will receive. It means so much to the families and children that people in the U.S. care enough to send them a special gift during the Christmas season. What a meaningful way to share our Christian love this Advent.
Mt. Carmel's Book Fair Continues! Now through November 6th
Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for your kids or grandkids? Stop by our Book Fair and shop award-winning Bibles, books, and videos for babies to twelve-year-olds. Save up to 40% PLUS free shipping on all Book Fair titles.
Come by the church foyer anytime now through Nov. 6th (Sundays before or after church or Mon-Fri 9:00am-3:00pm) to look through all of the beautiful books and place your orders. Payment will be collected upon pick-up.
Our Book Fair, sponsored by Sparkhouse Family, features a wide variety of new resources based on the beloved Spark Story Bible, including a family devotional, a collection of prayers for kids based on the Psalms, a picture book about Noah’s Ark, the first-ever animated Spark video (starring Squiggles the caterpillar!), and a new line of Spark Play and Learn Books to help make family faith formation easy and fun. Other noteworthy titles included in the upcoming Book Fair are a new Christmas picture book from the Frolic series and a gorgeous Advent pop-up book that will make a delightful gift.
Get your Christmas shopping done early!
Our SLO NOOR free eye clinic and Vision Service Plan (VSP) are teaming up to bring a 42 feet mobile vision clinic to 3 different hospital locations from Monday, November 7th to Friday, November 11th. We will be giving FREE Eye Exams and FREE Glasses for up to 250 patients throughout San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara counties. (See schedule below)
We have done this service for the past 3 years at Sierra Vista in SLO and it was such a huge success that VSP agreed to bring the mobile vision Van to our community for 5 days rather than 2 this year! We will try to see 50 people each day which means we have 250 slots to fill. I am asking for your help to fill these slots. It would be a real shame if even 1 slot goes unfilled.
Call the SLO NOOR Clinic to make an appointment at 805-439-1797.
Share the gift of sight with those in need. Please kindly share or post at your place of business.
Thank you!
Rupert Chowins, OD
Director, SLO NOOR Eye Clinic
www.slonoorfoundation.org
VAN SCHEDULE
Marian Medical Center (Santa Maria)
Mon Nov 7 & Tues Nov 8: 8 am to 5 pm
Sierra Vista Medical Center (SLO)
Wed Nov 9 & Thurs Nov 10: 8 am to 5 pm
Twin Cities Hospital (Templeton)
Fri Nov 11: 8 am to 5 pm
Services are free for anyone ages18 to 64 WITHOUT medical or vision insurance, and patients must have a social security number.
Call SLO NOOR Clinic to schedule an appointment:
805-439-1797
Week Eight Match Ups!
We have just four more days in Pastor Appreciation Month! Obviously, we can and should appreciate our pastors year-round, but here are a few more things you can thank our Pastors for this October!
Oct. 28-Thank Pastor Valerie and Dan for the early and long Sunday mornings they put in.
Oct. 29- Thank them for the seeds they plant and the disciples they nurture (and all that goes on behind the scenes).
Oct. 30- Thank them for the many sermons they preach and the prayers they lift up.
Oct. 31- Thank them for their vision and service to Mt. Carmel.
