"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." 
-Psalm 91: 1

The above passage came to mind the other night while serving dinner to our less fortunate sisters and brothers at Christus Victor Church.  It was a stormy, Friday night.  The rain was heavy, almost brutal at times.  The lightning was big, bright and frequent.  And the thunder was beyond loud.  One particular thunderbolt was perhaps the loudest I'd ever heard.  It made the hair on my arms and neck stand on end.  The winds were potent, too.  Branches were snapped and leaves were flying about everywhere.  Nature at its most raw and powerful.  Nature in its purest and wildest state.  God was giving us quite a show this particular September evening.  The expanse was in rare form, spectacular in fact.  Every sound, every flash of light, each branch that swayed and broke off, every leaf that was ripped from its host were all declaring just how mighty our God is.  Then again, God is all powerful.  Nothing can compare to our God, for all else pales in comparison to God.

At St. Nicholas, there is another type of power:  the power of care, the power of love and the power of us.  When we gather to worship, we do so because we share a common and shared belief.  When we gather to engage in ministry, again, we do so because we share a common understanding and appreciation of doing unto others as we would have done unto us; about caring for those who need our care; about showing some love to those who may not get much love; to put our shared and common faith to practice, putting and showing what we believe and who we are into action.  From where I sit and stand, when I see us putting our faith into action, it is truly a divine site to see.  And with some reservation and guilt I do condescend to think that perhaps our God is rightly pleased with our actions, with our faith being exercised, with our living out the Gospel message Jesus lived and preached.

Autumn is a glorious time of the year.  Summer surrenders itself to the calling of the pre-winter season.  All that is green is to turn; blushing red and orange so bright and beautiful, our eyes just can't take it all in.  We assume a picture will capture fall's beauty but sadly, no true justice is done.  These colors, these burning hues and robin's-egg-blue skies are almost surreal, just too stunning to be true.  The colors are authentic: they are real just as God's presence in our world, just and God's presence in our lives is real.  For me, when I take in these colors, when I breath in the post-summer air I feel different.  I feel more alive, more free, more part of the coming and going of the seasons and time itself.  The heavens are screaming out at us, "hey, watch what we can do...listen, hear what we have to say." 

My sisters and brother, let's do just that, shall we?  Let's see what the heavens have to offer us.  Let's silence ourselves just long enough to hear what the heavens have to say.  And in the midst of all this, God dwells on high and God dwells right here, ever, so very close to us.   Now talk about a powerful God!

Amen.

-Manny

Last Sunday as I was taking some items into the church garage, I came upon a small and sweet little bird.  Apparently, he had flown into one of our south windows.  On the pane of that window I found quite a bit of his down and smaller feathers.  My heart sank.  "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather...nor do they harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them!"  (Matt. 6: 26).  Perhaps God and this little bird needed some human intervention and help.  Cradling "Nick" in my hand, I brought him to my office, made him a soft home in a box, provided some bread and water, fed him by mouth and gave him some time.  A gentle kiss upon his head I left him so as to attend to the 10am Liturgy.  Upon my return, taking him in my hands and out to the patio...Nick flew up and away into the nearby trees!  Thank you, good and loving Lord for taking care of this littlest of your creatures.  Thank you to Fran and Tony Begonja and Jennifer Brundige who offered a prayer for Nick's return to health.  Come back and visit us Nick, you're always welcome.  But please, use an open window, okay?

We all understand and appreciate the gift of sharing.  At St. Nicholas we do a tremendous job of offering time, talent and treasure to this community of faith and to the greater Church.  We are blessed and in turn, we share our blessings.

We are inviting anyone and everyone to share a story...YOUR story.  We are united but we are also very diverse and individually unique.  Think for a moment of just how and why you came to St. Nicholas Church.  Who or what moved you to become part of this community, a member of the Episcopal Communion.  How about a story of church, an occasion that moved and perhaps changed you or some special "church person" who helped guide and develop your faith.  So many of us come from other faith traditions and other churches, Episcopal or otherwise.  We wish to know our sisters and brothers better.  The sky is the limit as to what kind of stories are out there.  The depth of our wishing to share and read these recollections is even greater!

We all love a story and there are no better stories than the ones we share with each other about ourselves, our faith, our journeys, spiritual or otherwise.

All are welcome to participate.  No one is too young or too old.  No such thing as a "generation gap" when it comes to stories celebrated and shared.  In fact, I suspect we all have quite a few stories we could submit.  This is YOUR time to do just that...SHARE.  The more we have, the greater and richer our field. 

Think...Pray...Write.  When you have some thing to share, please submit your story (simply reply to any issue of News From Nick) and it will be posted in an upcoming edition of News From Nick.

Thank you for your consideration and willingness to share...we are all the more blessed.

Now that school is back in full force, why not make sure we send our little scholars out with something extra special?  On Saturday, October 3rd and again on Sunday, October 4th, we will bless all backpacks and any other such carrying cases.

Far be it from us to forget our beloved pets.  To honor and celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who found such joy in God's creatures, we, too, will celebrate our pets with a special blessing.

Parents: make sure your kids bring their backpacks and pets.  Kids: remind your folks so they don't forget to remind you!

Any time we can share in a blessing, well my friends, this is truly a good, right and holy thing.

 

As a reminder, the full master calendar is always available online at this link.  Here is the schedule for the next week: