The Weekly View

Sunday, March 15, 2020

This Sunday

Dear St. Luke Community, 

Over the past few days, the Session (governing board) of St. Luke has been discussing our worship plans in light of the Coronavirus, taking into account the directives laid out by Governor Newsom. That recommendation includes people over 65 not attending gatherings of more than 10 people without six feet of distance between them.

At this point, we’ve decided to suspend all in-person worship for the time being. This is not a decision that we take lightly. We recognize that there are as many opinions and perspectives as there are people. We know that we won’t please everyone with this decision. 

As a community of faith, we also trust that we can maintain our connections in various ways. In addition to posting the week’s worship online through our newly established St. Luke YouTube channel, we will also post a script and invite you to read it as a form of devotion.  The St. Luke YouTube channel can be accessed by hitting the link below. At the moment there’s no content, but there will be on Sunday by noon.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiSfk7q8u59DZAFkmOmvljQ?view_as=public

These digital elements will help us continue to stay connected. As others have asked, in a time when many of us may feel isolated, how else can we connect across the distance? How can we keep our relationships, our faith connections, our fellowship thriving?

I will ramp up the emails, offering devotions and opportunities to engage over emails and group chats. I will make more phone calls and offer FaceTime for those who have that capability. There are Facebook live groups where people can talk in groups and Zoom gatherings where folks can converse and see one another’s faces. And I will make one-on-one calls in person as needed. 

We make this decision not lightly but from a place of love and concern for those most at risk. We do this out of respect for our medical professionals who need our support in taking steps to slow the spread of the virus. And we do this out of love for our brothers and sisters whom Jesus calls on us to love.

Finally, our scripture this Sunday reminds us that Christ’s body is a temple. (John 2:13-21) Once Jesus died and resurrected, his body lives on in our bodies, making our own bodies temple’s in two ways: 

One: Your own body is made of breath and water, the spirit of the living God.

Two: We together compose the Body of Christ in the world, working together to share love where it is most needed.

I encourage you to take care of yourself. Wash your hands, yes, but also take time to connect with your own breath. Your breath is life. It’s the Spirit of God flowing through you. It is life. Take it in and be grateful. And pray for those in need of love and care.

Yours in Christ,
Nicole

Outreach and Deacon Ministry

All are welcome to participate 

St. Luke Prayer Shawl Ministry ~ Sunday, March 29th, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM
Today, knitters and crocheters of all faiths are creating handmade shawls for people in need, as gifts of comfort, hope, and peace. You can knit in the privacy of your own home or drop in to a monthly knitting group. If you knit or crochet and would like to contribute to St. Luke Presbyterian Church Prayer Shawl Ministry, please contact Skipper Cummings or You do not need to be a member of St. Luke to participate. 

Bible Study - Wednesdays at 9:30 AM
St. Luke Choir Rehearsal - Wednesdays at 7:00 PM
Women's Spirituality Group - Thursdays at 9:00 AM
St. Luke Women’s Bridge - 4th Tuesday, March 24th, 10:30 AM
Session Meeting - 4th Tuesday, March 24th, 7:00 PM
Deacons Meeting - 2nd Tuesday, April 14th, 6:00 PM

Sunday, March 8, 2020

This Sunday

Dear St. Luke Community, 

REMEMBER to set your clocks ahead one hour this Saturday night for Daylight Saving Time.

This Sunday marks the second Sunday of Lent, and the first in our Lenten Series, Entering the Passion, which moves through the days of Holy Week beginning with scriptures we usually hear on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11).

To see a preview for our Lenten series, click here.

We enter the story by attending the parade. Jesus enters Jerusalem and we enter with him, imagining what it was like to witness this pivotal event in the last week of the life of Jesus. We often think of the palm parade as a joyous occasion, but there’s another side to this parade that represents risk. Jesus knows that he will be noticed by the ruling elite. He knows that as he rides into town heads will turn and those in power will begin to wonder about the implications of his growing popularity. Where do you stand on this day? As you enter into the scriptures can you cast yourself in this story? 

Are you one of the disciples who goes to find a donkey, aiding in Jesus’s subversive act of defiance and maybe giggling like a teenager who knows they will stick it to the man. Or perhaps you’re standing by the gates as Jesus’s biggest fan, waving palms and leading the crowd in cheers. But maybe you’re standing in the background, unsure of whether or not you want to risk your own reputation along with his. Maybe you cast yourself as his mother, proud but also deeply afraid. And maybe you don’t like to be front and center, but prefer the quiet role of the donkey, supportive in presence. 

The list goes on, each one with their own implications as to how we follow Jesus Christ this Lenten season. Any which way we go, we go together with Jesus leading the way all the way to the sacred cross.

This Sunday we’ll also install Elders as part of the Ordered ministries of the Presbyterian Church. Ordered Ministries are gifts to the church to order its life so that the ministry of the whole people of God may flourish. The existence of these ordered ministries in no way diminishes the importance of the commitment of all members to the total ministry of the church (Book of Order). 

And finally, last but certainly not least, we will also celebrate The Lord’s Supper.

See you Sunday,
Nicole

Outreach and Deacon Ministry

All are welcome to participate 

Street Chaplaincy ~ Tuesday, March 24th
Won’t you please join us? Save these upcoming dates, June 30 & October 6, for evenings of service for The Street Chaplaincy! St. Luke and other local congregations partner with The Street Chaplaincy to host Tuesday night Wellness Gatherings, where we join the street community in worship and share a meal together. More to follow when the dates draw closer. If you’re interested in serving, please email Michael Baranowski at .

Mill Street Meal Providers ~ Monday, April 6th, Group B

St. Luke Prayer Shawl Ministry ~ Sunday, March 29th, 11:15 AM-12:30 PM
Today, knitters and crocheters of all faiths are creating handmade shawls for people in need, as gifts of comfort, hope, and peace. You can knit in the privacy of your own home or drop into a monthly knitting group. If you knit or crochet and would like to contribute to St. Luke Presbyterian Church Prayer Shawl Ministry, please contact Skipper Cummings or You do not need to be a member of St. Luke to participate. 

Bible Study - Wednesdays at 9:30 AM
St. Luke Choir Rehearsal - Wednesdays at 7:00 PM
Women's Spirituality Group - Thursdays at 9:00 AM
St. Luke Women’s Bridge - 4th Tuesday, March 24th, 10:30 AM
Session Meeting - 4th Tuesday, March 24th, 7:00 PM
Deacons Meeting - 2nd Tuesday, March 10th, 6:00 PM

About St. Luke
We are a community of people following the teachings of Jesus Christ built on God’s foundational love and grace.

Our mission is to practice love by following Jesus.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

This Sunday

Dear St. Luke Community, 

This Sunday is the 34th Annual Mariners Sunday. The worship service is attended by over 200 people from across the Bay Area, belonging to various yacht clubs and representing multiple faiths.

This Sunday is also the first Sunday of Lent, a time to attend to a kind of internal spring cleaning. Peter W. Marty, the publisher of Christian Century Magazine and Senior Pastor of St Paul Lutheran in Iowa, talks about Ash Wednesday in a recent article.

Peter talks about being behind a truck so covered with grime that on the back is written the words “wash me.” He then goes on to draw a beautiful metaphor to the grime of our lives that accumulate over time, subtly.

He writes;
The salt spray on the SUV I tailed that day was accumulated grunge, just like most of the messes in my life. For the record, my house is pretty neat. It’s the sordid pieces of my personal life that accumulate without fanfare—the capacity to judge, the unforgiving spirit, the self-centered ways, the distracted me. This is why I need Ash Wednesday and that gray smudge. Yes, it adds grime on top of grime. But that ash functions like a milestone or signpost because it’s in the shape of a cross.

As we travel towards the cross over 40 days of Lent, we have the opportunity to take a moral inventory of our lives. It’s a time to experience our dependency on a God who forgives and redeems. If you think you don’t have anything to be sorry for, then you’re probably keeping the door to your messy closet closed, denying that there’s any mess to clean up. Redemption means to begin again. It’s what we mean when we say “born again.” We start over, we vow to do better, to be better, to love more, forgive more, and enact change through the ways we choose to live our lives.

Yesterday, because of that article, I went and got my car washed. I thought it would be a good way to begin my Lenten journey. By the end of the day I had accumulated dust on the windshield, reminding me that like everything else in our faith, it’s a practice. It’s getting up and vowing to let more love into your heart while letting go of all things that separate you from a love that is freely given if only we would clean out our closets and wipe away the layers of grime that accumulates over time. 

See you Sunday,
Nicole

Outreach and Deacon Ministry

All are welcome to participate 

Manna Bags ~
Thank you to all who contributed to and participated in this outreach mission!  We assembled lots of bags to distribute to the unsheltered population in Marin.

Mill Street Meal Providers ~ Monday, March 2nd, Group A

Bible Study - Wednesdays at 9:30 AM
St. Luke Choir Rehearsal - Wednesdays at 7:00 PM
Women's Spirituality Group - Thursdays at 9:00 AM
St. Luke Women’s Bridge - 4th Tuesday, March 24th, 10:30 AM
Session Meeting - 4th Tuesday, March 24th, 7:00 PM
Deacons Meeting - 2nd Tuesday, March 10th, 6:00 PM

St. Luke’s mission: To practice love by following Jesus. 
Learn more at www.stlukepres.org
Facebook ~ St. Luke Presbyterian San Rafael
Reverend Nicole Trotter ~
Office Admin., Joanne Trifoso ~
Office Phone: 415-454-2705, Office hours: M, W & Th: 10-1 & Tues: 1-4
Sexton, Carlos Araujo ~ Sunday 8:00 AM-Noon