Tag Archives: Corbin

This Sunday (May 4) at St. John’s

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When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. Luke 24:31

I will not be with you this Sunday, because on Saturday, my grandson, Logan, will be receiving his First Holy Communion.  Of course I have some gifts for him.  One is a card created by French Benedictine nuns at their Abbey at Abu Ghosh, Israel, a possible site for Emmaus.  It depicts this scene from Luke.

In this Gospel from Luke, we learn of some disciples walking along the road on the day of Jesus’ Resurrection.  Jesus comes alongside them, but they do not recognize him.  In the course I attended, our professor suggested that it is because the resurrected body looks different.  It is only when Jesus breaks the bread, blesses it and gives it to them that they recognize him.

We know the resurrected Jesus is always present to us and in those services of Eucharist…the breaking of the bread and the wine, we experience Jesus’ presence in a special way.

This Sunday, there will be Morning Prayer.  May you feel the presence of Jesus and may Jesus be made known to you.  I look forward to returning to you on May 11, and sharing the Eucharist together.

Blessings as you finish your week!

Love, Rebecca+

Bulletin 05-04-14

Rebecca’s Schedule: This Sunday, I will be in Pennsylvania.  Next week, I will be participating in the Bishop’s Days in the Mountains.  You can reach me by calling 859 -429-1659 or priest-in-charge@stjohnscorbin.org.

Adult Forum: Our series on Resurrection Living continues.  Our next session on May 4th will focus on John 20:27, Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe.” Our session on May 11th will focus on John 21:12, Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.”

ECW 2014 Women’s Weekend: May 16-18 (with optional retreat day May 15-16).  Join women from all over the Diocese at the Cathedral Domain for a special weekend.  Registrations due by May 5.  See Rebecca for registration forms or go online at http://stjohnscorbin.org/?p=824

We’re buying goats!  The Lazarus at the Gates Adult Forum study has prompted us to purchase goats through Episcopal Relief and Development for families in the Philippines.  Goats provide milk, cheese, and manure for farming.  Donations towards the $80 purchase of each goat can be made through the goat bank in the parish hall or in the offering plate clearly marked ERD goat project.

United Thank Offering (UTO): is a ministry of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church. Our ingathering of your UTO offerings will be Sunday, May 11.  Remember to bring your offering that day AND to pick up another box for the fall ingathering.

Wedding Shower:  A wedding showerand lunch for Amber Pearce and Billy Hibbitts is planned for Sunday, May 11, after the service.  Please join the festivities after church!  All are welcome.

Monthly Pot Luck: Our pot luck is moved this month to May 11 for the wedding shower for Amber Pearce and Billy Hibbitts.  Bring your favorite food to share and join in the celebration!

Baby Shower and reception for Maura Love, Sunday, May 18, after the service.  Plan to join in the fun!  All are welcome.

Serving Our Neighbors – See baskets in the parlor.

  • Everlasting Arms, Corbin’s shelter for people who are homeless, is in need of men’s and women’s razors, gloves, deodorant and socks.
  • The Food Pantry at Corbin Presbyterian Church is always in need of nonperishable food items.  Vegetables are especially appreciated.
  • KCEOC’s Women’s Emergency Shelter is in need of donated baby items, including baby clothing (sizes 6/9 months), diapers, wipes, bottles, etc.  Donations can be dropped off at KCEOC Community Action Partnership main office at Gray, KY.

All the City Shook (Sermon) Southeast Kentucky Ministerial Alliance Palm Sunday Service, April 13, 2014

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Sermon – April 13, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
Southeast Kentucky Ministerial Alliance Joint Service
Grace on the Hill, Corbin, KY
The Sunday of the Passion:  Palm Sunday

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred…. Matthew 21:10

Please be seated

First of all, I truly believe our gathering must make God happy.  As denominations, we have our different ways to worship and truly, the unity when we come together at times like these, representing the oneness of God, makes for blessed times and times of great honor to God.  And you will have more times to be in such a place as we go through Holy Week with weekday noontime services at churches here in Corbin and a Good Friday evening service in Williamsburg.  Take advantage of this holy time and these holy gatherings.  

Have you ever been in an earthquake?  I remember the first time I truly felt an earthquake.  I was in San Francisco for a conference, staying on the 18th floor of a hotel.  The quake wasn’t even a 2 on the Richter Scale and was not centered in San Francisco, but there was no mistaking what was happening.  AND there was no warning.  By the time I realized the whole building was moving back and forth, the quake was over, so there was no time to even move to the bathroom like you’re told.  And forget running down 18 flights of stairs and out of the building.  That quenched my desire to move to California, I have to tell you!

In 2011, when many of you felt the earthquake centered in Virginia, I was riding in a car, so didn’t feel the movement, but I saw what it could do.  Prior to leaving for Seminary, the Washington National Cathedral was my church and after the 2011 earthquake, seeing the beautiful, vaulted ceiling with netting underneath it, was sad.  

During the summer of 2012, I was a seminary intern at the Cathedral.  Outside my office lay huge pieces of stone that had fallen off the roof during the quake.  On the 1-year anniversary, I was able to celebrate some of the repairs by climbing to the top of one of the towers, where a floor had been constructed for the stone masons doing the repair.  We celebrated the repair of part of the stonework, which had been accomplished by recycling a piece of stone that had fallen during the quake.  Yet, much remained to repair and I have a photo of me standing by one of the pinnacles, where a long piece of stone was still buckled and you could stick your hand through the space created.  

Even a mighty building of strong stone buckled under the shaking of the earth.

In our Gospel today, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem is like an earthquake.  In fact the Greek Word used in Matthew is seio and we get our English word seismic from that same Greek root.  

And isn’t that how Jesus comes to us in our own lives?  Jesus shakes everything up.  Jesus moves even the strongest of us off the comfortable foundations we’ve built for our lives.  Jesus turns everything upside down.  Because that’s what unconditional love does.  It is so strong.  It breaks down and breaks in everywhere we think we know what’s going on.  It asks us to love stronger and deeper. 

And here we all are in this region of Southeast Kentucky.  We are called by Jesus to love deeper.  We are called to be the body of Christ here in this place.  We are called to be Christ’s hands and feet and heart and arms.  We are called to be the earthquake…the shaking and the stirring in our community.

It’s a tall order.  We all know how Jesus continually taught about justice, freeing people from oppression, caring for the “least of these.”  We are continually challenged by Jesus’ command to the young man, rich young man or ruler, depending upon which Gospel you read, to go sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor.  Make no mistake, Jesus loved the outcasts and downtrodden of his time…those without voice and without power.  We are called to do the same.

I was looking at some of the statistics for our region.  In our region, there is hunger, poverty, unemployment and lack of housing.  

  • 60% of school age children are eligible for free lunch, which is 25% higher than Kentucky as a whole and 15% higher than the United States as a whole.
  • 27% of the population lives in poverty, which is 40% higher than the Kentucky statistic and 70% higher than the United States as a whole.
  • 54% of renters in our region cannot afford the fair market rent for a 2 bedroom rental unit.

These are just some of the basic essentials for life.  If you don’t have food, you don’t do well in school or you become ill.  Poverty creates extreme stress according to recent studies.  A lack of housing leads to a host of other problems like increases in child abuse and domestic violence.  

Jesus enters and the region shakes.  Stones are thrown down to the ground like little pebbles!

And we have made efforts in addressing the challenges in our region.  We have a backpack program preparing backpacks of food every week so children will have something to eat over the weekend.  We have sites for feeding programs during the summer when the children are out of school.  Many of our churches have food pantries.  Canned food will be collected this week at each of the noonday services, as well as the Good Friday service.  Many of our churches prepare meals for all who are hungry.

We have shelters for people who are homeless and organizations that build affordable housing.  The Southeast Kentucky Ministerial Alliance, through your offerings at our joint services, including those this week, provides emergency assistance to people needing help with basic needs, as well as other agencies and ministries in town.  The Shaping Our Appalachian Region or SOAR efforts are finding creative ways to energize our region economically.  Creative and innovative people see the strength in the beauty of the region and the beauty of life here and are working to make it sustainable.  

And Jesus continues to shake us…continues the quake…continues the earthquake of love that demands we love our neighbor as ourselves.  Jesus asks us to examine our efforts…to strengthen them.  Failure to do so through complacency and neglect invites God to break our resistance just like those huge stones that toppled in an instant during the earthquake.  

Jesus has entered Jerusalem and the city will never be the same.  Jesus has entered our Southeast Kentucky region, moving us, shaking us, and catapulting us into action.

Amen

 

 

Being Seen by Jesus (Sermon) March 23, 2016

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Sermon – March 23, 2014
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, CSW
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Corbin, KY
Third Sunday in Lent

 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” John 4:29

Please be seated.

I have talked before about the brief part of my social work career when I was a therapist.  I provided individual therapy for people who had traumatic brain injuries or TBIs.  For the most part, the people had been in rehab and were living independently; however, they often required support or some additional assistance in living with their injury. 

One man, Doug, was in our program because of anger issues, a known result of TBIs.  This man had tried to attack another man at work one day and the diagnosis was inability to control his anger due to his brain injury.  However, over a period of time, I learned that this man was extremely sensitive to people.  He could see people deeply.  He had developed a very low tolerance for people who lied to him.  He felt unsafe when someone was not authentic.  He was afraid he would be harmed.  What appeared to be unjustified aggression to others, was actually his way of protecting himself. 

At the time I was doing this work in North Carolina, I was going through a difficult time in my life.  I was grieving so many things, including the end of a marriage.  One of the ways I expressed my grief was by tears and many mornings, I would have a good cry session before I left for work.  No one at work ever seemed to notice, as I’d walk in with my cheery smile and “how are yous?” 

One morning, Doug was my first client.  He walked in my office, sat down, looked at me, and immediately said, “You’ve been crying.”  Uh, Oh, what was I to do?  I didn’t want him to start obsessing on what was causing me to cry.  I was supposed to be professional and there were professional boundaries to uphold, after all.  Yet, lying to him would destroy trust and he would feel unsafe.  I told him the truth that I was crying and after a few minutes of him expressing sadness that I could be in distress, we were able to move on.

Have you had experiences like that?  Experiences of being seen deeply?  Of not being able to hide?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees the Samaritan woman.  In doing so, we have a model for how to treat ourselves and a model for the church and how we treat each other and our neighbors.

First of all, Jesus dares to speak to a woman and a Samaritan woman at that.  This conversation between a man and a woman was usually not done.  The Samaritans and Jews were at odds with each other over religious practices and had little love for each other.  Jesus once again breaks the rules and focuses on relationship.

Secondly, the woman came alone to the well at noon, the hottest part of the day.  While women usually drew water for their families, they often came earlier in the day, when it was cooler.  In addition, they usually came together in a group.  It appears that this woman was not respected by her community.  She was an outcast.  Jesus once again, breaks the societal barriers, caring about the relationship.  He sees the woman as created by God, which is the most important thing.

Thirdly, Jesus does not condemn the woman.  He knows why she is not the most respected person in the community – she had five husbands and now lives with a man who is not her husband.  Jesus gives the woman the opportunity to be honest and authentic about her life, when he says in verse 16, “Go, call your husband and come back.”  The woman could have left and not returned.  She knew Jesus was a traveler and she could have never had another encounter with him again.  She could have “pretended” she was an upstanding member of the community.

Isn’t that what so many of us do?  We walk around with grieving souls, heavy in our burdens, yet tell so many that we meet that we are just fine.  Even in our church community, being authentically who we are, is difficult.  We’re not sure if we will be judged.  We’re not sure if we will be shunned.  We erroneously believe who we authentically are is not worthy of relationship.

Now, some of this is smart or necessary.  We are human beings after all and we can be very cruel to each other.  Discerning with whom to share the most intimate details of our life is prudent.  However, don’t you agree that “putting on the face” is draining and tiring?  Being able to be authentic is so freeing.  That’s what our relationship with Jesus is all about.  That’s one of the reasons God sent His Son into the world. . . to free us.

Jesus accepts the woman without judgment.  He tells her she is worthy of the water that will quench all thirst.  He does not shun her nor refuse to be in relationship with her.  As a result, she is not locked in to the role she and her community have created for her.  She is free to be different…to change.

That’s the paradox of being truly seen. . . acceptance of what is true allows us to examine that part of ourselves and to make changes if we’d like.

Jesus’ example of naming what is true, while not shunning nor cutting off the relationship, is the best example for how we treat each other and how our church community needs to be seen.  And this behavior is evangelizing.  Look what happens.  The woman is amazed.  While not the most respected member of her community, she gathers many in the town to come see this Jesus who truly saw her and knew her.  And the people come and they ask Jesus to stay with them.  While at first he is a curiosity, eventually, many believe he is the Messiah because of their encounter with him.  And the story is preserved for us.

A quote from a book on forgiveness by Karyn Kedar is part of our Lenten meditation reading, Renew a Right Spirit Within Me booklet, today and speaks to the power of being seen…our call as a Christian community to be,

“…people who see you, really see you for who you are and who love you because of that.  They know you perhaps better than you know yourself.  When you are at your best they delight in you.  When you lose your way, they hold up for you the vision of your higher self.  When you look at them, you see in their eyes a mirror of who you are – and you like what you see. . . .  They sustain all that is good in you and allow the divine purpose in your life to flow easily through you and your relationship with them.  (Bridge to Forgiveness, Karyn Kedar, p. 83)

Strive for the authentic life and strive to be the evangelist who, like Jesus, deeply sees others.

Amen

 

 

This Sunday (March 23) at St. John’s #StJohnsCorbin

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But the people thirsted there for water;  Exodus 17:3

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  John 4:13-14

Over half of adult bodies are composed of water.  More than food, we must have water to survive.  This Sunday we hear about God’s provision of water.  In our Old Testament lesson, the Israelites are wandering in the desert, having escaped from their slavery, but finding no water.  They are so uncomfortable, they talk about how they’d almost rather return to slavery.  God provides them water at Meribah.  God provides the physical necessary for life.

Yet, physical water is not enough as we see in our Gospel lesson from John.  Jesus is resting in Samaria by Jacob’s Well.  A Samaritan woman comes to draw water from the well and Jesus engages her in conversation, an unusual act in a number of ways we are told.  Jesus tells the woman that he offers water that totally quenches the human thirst.  Jesus offers us the essence of life. . . the way to live that we must have…that our souls require.

Blessings as you finish your week.  Below is a photo from my visit to Jacob’s Well…

Love, Rebecca+

The site of Jacob's Well

The site of Jacob’s Well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Schedule

Next week, I will be in Corbin on Wednesday, March 26, and my Sabbath day will be Thursday, March 27.  You can get a message to me by calling 859 -429-1659 or priest-in-charge@stjohnscorbin.org.

Adult Forum:  This Sunday, March 23, at 10:15, and Wednesday, March 25, at 4:00, we continue our series on Living Compass Adult Faith and Wellness. The session is on The “j” curve principle: growth is never linear. You can find more information about the program, including the Living Compass Assessment at http://www.livingcompass.org/adult/program.html/

Pot Luck Sunday:  Next Sunday, March 30, is our monthly pot luck.  Bring a dish or drink to share.  And all are welcome!  Plan to fellowship with each other.  

Assist with Holy Week and Easter Services:  The Altar Guild invites you to attend a meeting, Saturday, April 5, 9am – Noon.  Learn more about this important ministry and how you can assist.  Extra assistance is needed for Holy Week.

Support the Diocesan Ministries online on April 9, as part of Kentucky Gives Day.  Reading Camp, Cathedral Domain and St. Agnes’ House are participating in the Commonwealth-wide online giving day, Kentucky Gives.  Go to http://kygives.razoo.com/story/Episcopal-Diocese-Of-Lexington and give to one or to all three ministries.  

Belk Charity Sales Day, Saturday, May 3, 6:00-10:00am. Purchase $5 tickets from our ECW, which allow you entrance to the sale and $5 off your purchase. We are trying to sell 100 tickets, which provides $500 for the church and tremendous savings for you!

We’re buying goats! The Lazarus at the Gates Adult Forum study has prompted us to purchase goats through Episcopal Relief and Development for families in the Philippines. Goats provide milk, cheese, and manure for farming. Donations towards the $80 purchase of each goat can be made through the goat bank in the parish hall or in the offering plate clearly marked ERD goat project.

Serving Our Neighbors – See baskets in the parlor.

Everlasting Arms, Corbin’s shelter for people who are homeless, is in need of men’s and women’s razors, gloves, deodorant and socks.

The Food Pantry at Corbin Presbyterian Church is always in need of nonperishable food items. Vegetables are especially appreciated.

Flowers for the altar: Donations for flowers for the altar are accepted for any Sunday of the year. Please place your donation in the envelope, marking whether they are in honor of or in memory of someone.

United Thank Offering (UTO) is a ministry of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church. Through United Thank Offering, men, women, and children nurture the habit of giving daily thanks to God. These prayers of thanksgiving start when we recognize and name our many daily blessings. Those who participate in UTO discover that thankfulness leads to generosity. United Thank Offering is entrusted to promote thank offerings, to receive the offerings, and to distribute the UTO monies to support mission and ministry throughout the Episcopal Church and in invited Provinces of the Anglican Communion in the developing world.

If you need a UTO box, please see Rebecca.

Hymn Selection Group If you’d like to choose hymns for services, join this group. You will choose hymns for an upcoming service and then meet with the entire group to confirm the final selections. See Billy Hibbitts if you are interested.

Would you like to write Prayers of the People? If you are interested in writing these prayers (there are resources that can help with this task), please let Rebecca know by phone or email priest-in-charge@stjohnscorbin.org.

Are you interested in assisting with the Sunday service? Readers, Eucharistic Ministers, Crucifers, Altar Guild Members and choir members are all important for each Sunday service. If you’re interested in serving, please let Rebecca know by phone 859-429-1659 or priest-in-charge@stjohnscorbin.org.

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