THE SHEPHERD
June/July 2002

To Shalom Community Church:
    I will be attending a conference hosted at Manchester College in North Manchester Indiana from June 17-21.  The conference is called "The Creative Church Leader Program" and is sponsored by Manchester College and the Church of the Brethren.  The total week's expense [$1000.00 plus] is being funded by the generosity of a grant given by the Lilly endowment.  Twenty five pastors will be present for the conference including Marie Willoughby who is our Michigan District Executive.  We have been assigned to read four or five books on leadership including The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner and Parallel Thinking by Edward de Bono.  I filled out forms for "Leadership Practices Inventory" along with CLC members at Shalom.  The conference program director is James Pat Carlisle.
    In family news, Paul and Rachel will be leaving for Oregon on July 5th and returning on the 20th.  They will be traveling with Sara who will be working in Oregon for six weeks in July and August, operating a grass combine.  Rachel and Paul will be under the watchful eye of their sister Anna.  Bethany found out her siblings were going to Oregon so she has arranged to take her vacation from Sojourners and visit Oregon during the same time.  We are grateful for the generosity of grandparents in providing the tickets.  Joy will be taking a summer school course at Easter Michigan for six weeks.  And I am spending my extra time building a bedroom in the basement, trying to build according to the code.  One item I found out is that if you re-model adding a bedroom in the basement, you will need to interconnect all the smoke alarms in the home.  So does anyone have a fish tape, or a nine foot arm?

Thank you Shalom,
Paul Versluis.
YODER  CONFERENCE
Galen T
 
    On Thursday, March 7, 2002, five residents of Ann Arbor were converging on South Bend, Indiana.  What could explain this strange convergence of travelers?  Is it an athletic confrontation between the U of M and the Fighting Irish?  Two of the five travelers are U of M fans.  Both like nothing better than to best the Fighting Irish, but three are not fans.  Two are dressed in plain clothes riding in a van.  Has their driver missed the turn to Shipshewana?  Closer inspection reveals a plain clothed woman driver of the van – an out of the ordinary sight.  The fifth is a Mennonite minister.  Clearly, they’ve missed the turn to Elkhart / Goshen.    
    The answer to this conundrum of this confluence of travelers is a simple explanation  using all these disparate facts: the application of Occum’s razor will provide the answer.  Four are on a journey (2 at high speed) to attend a conference entitled “Assessing the legacy of John Howard Yoder”.  Don and Sherry T, Paul Versluis and Galen T were among a diverse group or 300 attendees, including Anabaptists, Catholic and Baptist thinkers, seminarians and students.  And the fifth person?  She did indeed go to Shipshewana, where she purchased a quilt, a small quantity of wheat (at a 100 fold the market price of $2.85 / bushel} and wonderful homemade pies and rolls, and inspected the ‘Domers” golden dome, which she declared spectacular.
     Why attend such a conference?  I attended for three reasons.  First, I like many attendees, had been a student (briefly during interterm at Tabor College) of John Howard Yoder.  I came to acknowledge his influence and to  pay homage to his blazing intellect.  At the beginning of my participation in the “student rebellions” of the 1960’s, I read Yoder’s “Christian Witness to the State” under the author’s tutelage.  Yoder was a diffident  professor.  Charm and Yoder are not words that belong together.  He didn’t suffer fools generously.  Yoder responded to my sophomoric queries with exactness.  He said no more or less than needed to provide an answer.  When I probed whether pacifism was “the” Christian distinctive, he replied, “Pacifism is not the point.  Jesus is the pint. The obligation to tell one another the truth, to not lie, is equally important for the life of a Christian”.  He encouraged me to “develop skillful modes of speech in order to say no more than needs to be said.”  His words were important as I transitioned from a herder of sheep to a herder of words. 
     Second, I came to remember how reading “The Politics of Jesus” Had been a second conversion experience and to see if a third conversion was in order.  I read “Politics” in 1975 while I was in the Army.  Night and day I read this book until I had it finished and thoroughly underlined.  This “Politics” of peacemaking, reconciliation ad mutuality was a politics I wanted to follow.  The Peace Center in Dallas was an attempt to articulate this “Politics” beyond the cultural and ethnic boundaries of the Mennonite community.
     Finally, I went to the conference to watch Stanley Hauerwas in action.  I became acquainted with Hauerwas, who Time magazine dubbed “America’s Best Theologian”, through friends at duke.  Hauerwas, more than any scholar is responsible for the surge in interest in Yoder’s work.  “Anything Yoder believes, I believe” is his mantra.  I requested to meet this brash, brainy, provocative thinker on a trip to Duke as a visiting Professor of Medicine.  I told my host to tell him I was a Yoder fan and a Mennonite.  He greeted me in his usual profane manner, “How the hell are you?  I could never refuse to meet a Mennonite.”  We had a Texas twang filled hour (Hauerwas is a Texan) of intellectually stimulating conversation.  To see this intellect and wit in action in an academic, Mennonite conference seemed worth the trip. 
     What did I learn?  I’ve crafted seven highly personal “take home’ points.
1.    All of us, Christian and non Christian, begin our narratives from a historically particular perspective.  All thought is rooted in historical communities.  Accordingly,  thought  should move from the particular to the general, not the reverse.
2.    When we use the word “God”, we are speaking of the “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, the God who acts in history.  The character of God is revealed in Jesus’ renunciation of violence and willingness to go to the cross to defeat evil by means of love.  This is who God is.  This is a revelation of a mystery; a mystery that contains the key to the meaning of life and the ultimate nature of reality.
3.    The incarnation of Jesus provides the content for our reflections.  A focus on the incarnation will result in any Christian ethic being an ethic of discipleship.  To attempt to imitate Jesus by radical withdrawal from community or by a self centered ethic of fulfillment is inconsistent.  Exalting freedom as the highest good is a major  western temptation. To focus on the incarnation is to focus on what it means to be a person in community whose life is characterized by self  giving love. 
4.    The proclamation of a “historically particular” narrative is not a liability.  Yoder developed an  “epistemology of evangel” that is truly unique.  God presents himself to his creatures, revealing his grace, and yet does so in such a fashion as to leave the creatures with the option to accept that grace freely or reject it.  Pacifism is rooted in the loving character of God. God does not want mere obedience but love and fellowship.  The point of Christian ethics is not to do the task of the state (maintain some semblance of order); rather the task of the church is to be a non coercive witness to the ‘good news’ of God’s love. 
5.    The will of god can be discerned by a ”‘communal hermeneutic.”  Conversation, worship, study and communal discipline all have a role in discerning the will of god. Christian ethics is all about knowing and obeying the will of God.  The local congregation is the context for doing Christian social ethics; it is in that context that the guidance of the Holy Spirit may be expected.
6.    A Christian perspective requires us to begin with a minority perspective.  The Church is not the world and the world is not the church.  Since the church is a minority, it must rely on argument not coercion.  This allows creativity and innovation in a way that an ethics of responsibility cannot.  Christians can learn much from Jews about how to survive as a minority in a larger culture.
7.    To be scattered is not a hiatus after which normalcy returns; rather “cosmopolitan homelessness” is the calling.  “ See how they go with their face to the sun” has new meaning.  As god is in the world, so Christians are in the world, means that “the link between our obedience and ultimate efficacy has been broken.”  I need not “save god’s cause for God”.  The question is not whether we enter our dominant culture, but how.  Yoder argued that to ask whether our proclamation should be that of the first century church (or the 16th century Anabaptists) was like “asking whether with the bases loaded you should try for a field goal or use a three iron.  What we need is to find an inter world transformational grammar to help us discern what will need to happen if the message of Jesus is to lead to a re-conception of the shape of the world instead of rendering Jesus optional or innocuous.  It is within our pluralistic/relativistic sins that we need to make whatever our claims are.  Witness is the name of that communication which does not coerce the hearer; a bilingual translation, you and your neighbor.”
LEXTIONARY: JUNE JULY
 
June 2:  Gen. 6:9-22; 7:24;8:14-19; Psa. 46; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:22b-28; Matt. 28:16-21.
June 9:   Gen. 12:1-9; Psa. 33:1-12; Rom.  4:13-25; Matt. 9:9-13.
June: 16:  Gen. 18:1-15; Psa. 116: 1-2, 12-19; Rom. 5:1-8; Matt. 9:9-13, 18-26.
June 23:  Gen. 21:8-21; Psa. 86:1-10, 16-17; Rom. 6:1b-11.
June 30:  Gen. 22:1-14; Psa. 13; Rom. 6:12-23; Matt. 10:40-42.
July 7:  Gen. 24:24-38, 42-49, 58-67; Sol. 2:8-13; Matt. 11:16-19, 25-30.
July 14: Gen. 25:19-34; Psa. 119:105-112; Rom. 8:1-11; Matt. 13:1-9, 18-23.
July 21:  Gen. 28:10-19a; Psa. 139:1-12, 23-24; Rom. 8:12-25; Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43.
July 28:  Gen. 29:15-28; Psa. 105:1-11,45b; Rom. 8:26-39; Matt. 13:31-33, 44-52.


A SABBATH STORY
Dan H
 
    Of all Jewish days of celebration, including the most holy of Holy days, the Sabbath is considered most sacred. The elevation of the Sabbath into a weekly “Holiday” is marked in part by two rituals that are often practiced in conjunction with it: The “Kabbalat Shabbat” and “Havdalah” services or rituals.  My Sabbath story incorporates both of these two special rituals, which bookend the “Day of Rest” itself.
      Kabbalat is the Hebrew word for receiving or welcoming. Shabbat is, of course, the Hebrew word for the Sabbath.  A “Kabbalat Shabbat is any ceremony or service or social gathering which serves to prepare oneself or a group for the coming of the Sabbath. Since the Jewish Sabbath begins at Sunset on Friday evenings, a “Kabbalat Shabbat” is often an afternoon or early evening happening. My story begins on one such Friday afternoon during the Spring of 1976. I was in Israel at the time on a Student Exchange program, and was living on a Kibbutz located between the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv. This Kibbutz was called Maagan Michael. Work ended early on this afternoon, because like on other Friday afternoons,the Kibbutz attempted to afford its members an opportunity to have coffee with their families,  slow down, and in general, get ready,  as it were, for the Sabbath.
    I  was working in the Banana fields at this time,  so in a sense, my “Kabbalat Shabbat” began with a mini-ritual that Banana field hands regularly partook in at the end of each week – the eating of “Gleeda” or ice cream together.  At around 3:30pm our foreman collected all the field workers and we sat down in  circle on the edge of the fields near our tool shed. He then cracked open a gallon of vanilla ice cream he had brought down from the general store, and we enjoyed eating the ice cream together with any ripe bananas that lay nearby on the ground. In other words, we celebrated a long week of working together by eating  “banana splits” and singing familiar group songs.
     This Sabbath’s special “Kabbalat Shabbat” primarily took place after I was showered and got together with some of the other exchange students. Before going off to our adopted families for Friday night Dinner,  as was common,  around two dozen of us congregated near our “keytah” or classroom, where we were taught Hebrew.  We often used this Classroom for such a gathering, but it was not the most inviting edifice. The walls were pre-fab cement and the floors were tile which were almost always cool to the touch. On this Friday, we transformed the “keytah” into a special place for our “Kabbalat Shabbat.”  We placed mats and pillows on the floor,  covered the windows to block out the setting sunlight. In addition, we lit candles and insense for atmosphere.
    It turned out to be a fine time together. We shared wine, did group dancing,  told camp fire like stories,  and sang many songs which welcomed the coming of the Sabbath. One such song was the simple melodic repetition of two Hebrew words, “Shabbat Shalom,” which together can mean both “Our Sabbath Is Welcomed” and “The Sabbath is the source of peace –Shalom.”
     After an enjoyable Friday night dinner with my Kibbutz family,  I woke up Saturday morning to a day of Sabbath that is unique to Kibbutz Maagan Michael for several reasons. First, unlike on other mornings, where an array of vegetables and hot cereals are served for breakfast in the communal dining room, on Shabbat here they serve French toast, with honey and jam. This, in and of itself, made Shabbat special for me on the Kibbutz.  Second, Maagan Michael is located right off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Each Sabbath was also made special by walks down to the Sea,  playing ball games along the mile long beach,  reading, meditating, and swimming, of course. This Sabbath included all of the above, for even though it was still considered Spring, temperatures rose into the 90s. 
     Finally, my special Sabbath story ends with a Havdalah (to conclude) service that we conducted at this beach to mark the end of the Sabbath. The backdrop for this time together was the Mediterranean Sea,  and a Sun that appeared to be sinking into it like a ball of fire.  We almost expected to witness plumes of steam appear as the brilliant and perfectly round Sun dropped off beyond the horizon. It was a spectacular sunset.  Our service consisted of the lighting of a twisted candle topped with two wicks, singing more group songs, and group dance around a bone fire.  This special Sabbath day then formally came to a close when the flames of this candle were finally put out by submerging it into another ritual cup of wine.
    …And a new week now was ready to begin.
JUSTICE GROUP ACTIVITIES
    On PEACE Sunday, May 5, Shalom's Peace and Justice Interest Group had an interesting afternoon at Rebecca Wt's home near Dexter  with Nooria Popal and her  six year old daughter Florence from Lansing. The Popals are Afghan refugees.
    During much of the afternoon, Nooria cooked a sumptuous meal with several kinds of typical Afghan dishes. We all agreed that Nooria is a superb cook. She is also a college graduate (a degree from a university in Russia), a beautician, the niece of the present Afghan king, the daughter of the man who was the ‘president’ of the Afghan army at the time of the war with the Soviet Union, speaks six or seven languages, and has lived in twelve or so countries while traveling with her husband (a Syrian), who before he died of illness was an aeronautical engineer. Nooria has not lived in Afghanistan since she was a teenager but has returned several times to visit family and friends. She was raised as a Muslim but converted to Christianity (Lutheran) when she married.
    Nooria is living in poverty (by American standards) now, supporting herself and daughter by working as a housemaid for hotels. She is going to school as she can and serving an unpaid six-month apprenticeship to get an American license as a beautician. She also does some translating. Our group came into contact with Nooria because she was in Ann Arbor recently translating the comments of some other Afghan women refugees at a meeting sponsored by an Ann Arbor peace group. The refugee women spoke only Eastern Farsi, or Southern Pashto, or other languages we Westerners have scarcely even heard of. Afghanistan, we learned, has 45 languages, and each language has several dialects.
    Nooria wants to become an American citizen as soon as her five years of residence are completed. She LOVES America. In conversation, I tried to give her opportunities to complain about something in America: the CIA perhaps, or our bombing of Afghan civilians, the INS, the Social Services, our arrogance, our superficiality, our parochialism (most of us don't know even ONE language adequately), our youth brought up on MTV and video games, our corrupt and licentious society, the outrageous crime in every city and village (except, of course, in the Nebraska Sandhills), the bad weather in Lansing, prejudice against all identifiable groups, insects and rodents everywhere, Mike Tyson, gambling in Las Vegas, mesquite and poisonous horntoads in Texas, Madonna, crazy traffic in Los Angeles, Dick Clark and Ed McMahon, dandelions on everybody's lawns, professional basketball, pollution in Chelsea and Brighton, feminists--anything at all! But NO! She loves everything about America and ALL Americans (even me, evidently its ardent critic).
    She dislikes Saudi Arabia, Libya, Pakistan, Iran, and all other countries in the part of the world surrounding Afghanistan. I asked her what country she regarded as "a friend." AMERICA, AMERICA! That's the only country she could think of.
    How enlightening and sobering this experience was and remains for me. In many ways, Nooria is an exceptionally fortunate woman, despite her current straitened circumstances. What if she were an uneducated woman with no connections whatsoever, left behind in one of those wretched war torn lands—with no, NON, KEIN, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA, ZERO chance of ever improving herself?
    In any case, this refugee's enthusiasm for everything American does put a perspective on my bellyaching, my automatic criticism of so much about our country. Now where DID I put my American flag?
    Sherry and I drove Nooria and Florence home to Lansing Sunday night. Because of the lateness of the hour, Nooria absolutely insisted that we stay the night with them. This is your "daughter house," she said. My house is your house. Etc. But we needed to go home to get ready for early morning events (blood drawing and other medical stuff). Besides, I didn't hanker after wearing one of Nooria's nightgowns to bed. Nooria told us to come visit her often in Lansing.
    We liked her very much. Her English is not the easiest for me to understand, but I blame that more on my old ears and mind than on her tongue. Florence's English, on the other hand, is nearly unaccented, and she too knows several other languages. Nooria usually speaks to Florence in Farsi, and Florence usually answers in English. And when for some reason Nooria speaks to Florence in Russian, Florence answers in Hindi.
    Florence said I looked exactly like Santa Claus, and she thought Sherry looked like the tooth fairy. She couldn't believe I was Sherry's husband. She was certain, she said, that I was Sherry's grandpa. And later she asked me if I was soon going to be 90. I told her that when I turned 90 she would be about 30. She shook her head in disbelief.
The Host

Having no table
he placed a cracked teapot
and one cup
without a handle
on the bed

Having no tea
he waved his hand
to offer us a drink
from the empty cup

Understanding the gesture of hospitality
as the reality
we thanked him
 
            Janet R.
THE BUDDY SYSTEM
 
The Buddy System at Shalom was initiated  approximately 7 years ago in an effort to help foster early relationship ties for new Shalom members, those who have attended Shalom more than once or twice.  Being a “buddy” to a new attendee might entail an invitation to dinner and some special attentiveness on Sunday mornings to help the newcomer make connections with other members.  Much of this hospitality and attentiveness takes place quite naturally in our congregation, and the buddy system is intended to be complimentary and to help us keep from letting new folks “fall through the cracks”.  The nurture committee is primarily responsible for seeking buddies for new members when appropriate.  Of course, if you feel a natural match or connection with someone new at Shalom, please consider being their “buddy”.  Although it may be appear to be a covert operation, this buddy system does not have to be top secret, and it is certainly acceptable to let someone know that you are their buddy.  In fact, doing so may help them feel more comfortable asking you questions about Shalom or our faith in general. 
 
Submitted by the Nurture Committee:  Betsy, Sonja K, Janet R and Steve S

ANSWERS TO LAST SHEPHERDS QUESTIONS
Susan T warmed her hands in utero for three extra weeks before she emerged to play the piano.
It is Susan F who goes in to the University hospital to translate for Spanish or Italian speaking folks.
Yes, it was Laura P who used to teach  first, second and third grade and is now a carpenter.
Worship plans for the Summer  
Beginning on Sunday, June 23 through Sunday, August 25, for these ten Sunday mornings, we are looking for families, small groups, or individuals to be responsible to lead Shalom's worship service for the Sunday morning.  The worship committee has suggested the theme "Nations, religions and cultures: Opening our eyes."  This general theme may be shaped as you wish.  Of these ten Summer Sunday meetings, two will take place at the park.  [July 8th and August 11 which are also potluck Sundays]  We very much would appreciate your help.  Please sign-up [to do so call or speak to Paul or Kate] indicating who, what and when you are willing to be responsible for a Sunday morning service.  Questions or if you need assistance, call Paul [827-0741 or email at pjversluis@msn.com or Kate
    Plans for summer Sunday school hour:
During the summer Sundays (July 7 - September 1) there will be a coffee / fellowship hour from 10 -10:50 a.m.   This will be a time for unstructured discussion for getting to know each other better without the pressure that we often feel after the worship service when we need to get belongings packed up so that we can get out of the building on time.  Those who would like to sing during this time are invited to bring their voices, guitars, and/or music for group singing.  This will be a "potluck" coffee hour.  Each individual or family may bring drinks (coffee, tea, juice) and breakfast finger foods to share as you wish.  On nice days this can be outside.  When the weather is inclement, it can be inside.  The exceptions to this plan will be on the July and August Sundays in the park (the second Sunday of each of those two months).  This will be an experiment for this summer.  The nurture committee will solicit feedback about how it goes.  In addition, over the next year, the nurture committee is going to be researching inter generational Sunday school curricula to help make! a decision about future summer programming.
    Especially kids but basically anyone is invited to bring games, cards or inside things when we are inside and outside amusements when we can be outside.  On Sundays when we are in the building EVERYONE WILL STAY IN THE LARGE ROOM.   THIS WILL MINIMIZE RUNNING AROUND AND MAXIMIZE INTER GENERATIONAL MINGLING.  Parents will be expected to keep an eye on their own children.

QUESTIONS FOR NEXT MONTHS SHEPHERD
1. Do you know who taught High School Drama and English  in past years?  
2. Someone of us, at least one,  spent  two years in Mexico in Voluntary Service ????     
3.  Who turned over for the first time on May 15 and is looking forward to many more turnings in his/her life?          
  Transitions:
 
Best wishes to:
The N’s as they move into their new home, work and schools in Goshen.  We hope to see you from time to time. 
 
Jenna Br, graduating from High School and on to College.
June 9 we will celebrate the baptism of
 
Jenna Br
Ben Hy
Elizabeth Nr
Elizabeth Sh
Ben Rp   
                                             at the Huron River (Dexter Huron Metro Park) at 10:30 am.

A PRAYER OF SPRING, BAPTISM, NEW BEGINNINGS
God of spring, summer, fall, winter          Who is spring, summer, fall, winter   
See us now in our new beginnings.
 
See us in spring with the wonder of new flowering blooms
the new spring bird songs, the new beginnings of hope
 
See us in the spring of faith with the wonder of baptism
its new convictions
new tendrils and roots moving forward among the doubts
new,  maybe tentative  declarations of what we are and what we hope to be
 
See us in the renewal of faith   long lived and evolving
new beginnings yet again of tendrils and roots still forming
as we struggle to maintain, grow,   and regain a faith, now many years old
 
See us remembering how faith sometimes recedes and grows weary or bored
or stunned and unforgiving
how faith sometimes becomes . . . uninteresting to us just now
 
Let us see spring             new beginnings
 
Let us see us and  our community of faith
and our new beginnings together
 
Let us see hope and new life that can grow
 
from the pain of
uncertainty of faith at baptism, of life during illness, during  . . after death,
after graduation,
the pain of
terror and disbelief when there is shooting in a German school, abduction in an Ann Arbor school,   the suicide of a student, friend or family member
the pain of
anomie or isolation   during war when events that catastrophically rule a person’s life, have no thought or knowledge of the person as an individual,  with a real life wanting to be lived
Let us see the hope and new life that can grow
 
from the sensuous intoxication of spring
the smells that reappear with the season
the wondrous pleasure of making love
of food at potlucks
faith at baptism
tension at meetings
silent smiles as greetings
prayers at Sunday morning worship
 
Let us see the hope and new life that can grow
 
from hard work, commitment, sensitivity, and time
to each other and to our life as a community of faith
 
Bless us as we discover new life together     Amen             Shelly Wk,  4:28 Service.