PUPPIES, PUPPIES, PUPPIES!

This afternoon, the Youth Group of St. Nicholas visited the Harris County Humane Society. The Humane Society is currently in transition, currently working on a capital campaign to build a new center. For now, the dogs are being kept on the Blue Springs property of the Callaway family in a pen that Phebe Robertson’s son built a few years back. There isn’t a large group of dogs, but enough to keep Kathryn Genova, the director of the Humane Society busy. She met us there and treated us to some wonderful play time with the dogs that were there. One dog belonging to the Callaway family for many years, Maebelle, is there in her final days, suffering from cancer. Most other dogs were found in various places in Harris County, like the 11 puppies that were found in a man’s carport the other day.

Marci Horne, Jessica McComb, Lacy Razor, Brittany Vargas, and Fr. Jeff had a chance to cuddle with puppies, walk the bigger dogs, and simply give them some much-needed love. Our hope is to make the Humane Society a regular mission project in the youth group, but we welcome anyone who would like to come and help. Kathryn expressed the need for more volunteers to get some of the dogs acclimated to human interaction so they can become good pets for people.

If you are interested in volunteering, adopting, fostering, or making a donation to the Harris County Humane Society, please check out their website by clicking here. 

If not, enjoy the cute puppy pics!

Town Hall Meetings Set

In case you’re not worshipping on Sundays with us, you may not realize that St. Nicholas is growing! Last Sunday, March 22, we had 96 people at our 10:30 service, and our building doesn’t hold much more than that. What a great “problem” for a church to have!

The Vestry is discerning that God may be calling us to expand our Sunday morning schedule to include 2 worship services. This is where you come in…

In the next month, we will be holding a number of Town Hall Meetings to discuss our potential move to 2 services. These meetings will be done in small groups so as to facilitate better discussion. We want to hear your thoughts and preferences before moving forward. We’ll be discussing the reasons for moving to 2 services, both theoretical and practical, and the opportunities and challenges that will go along with such a change. 

The scheduled meetings will be held:

Monday, March 30, 6:30pm

Wednesday, April 1, 6:30pm

Saturday, April 18, 10:00am & 1:00pm (2 separate sessions)

Sunday, April 26, after church

Please sign up early so that we can accommodate everyone! If you can’t make any of these meetings, please call Fr. Jeff or Sue Halmrast so that we can meet with you to discuss your thoughts.

The Mountains Are Callin’…

This afternoon, I was driving the family home from visiting some friends near Atlanta. I had decided not to take the interstate home because I really want to learn the back roads of our beautiful state, and I’ve found that the drive from Harris County to Atlanta is quite beautiful.

So today I was meaning to head down SR-85, but decided at the last minute to go along my new favorite road, which is Highway 190 which goes through Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, which also happens to be one of my new favorite places. Molly and I had always said we wanted to live in the mountains at some point, having lived so close to the beach in our last station. We thought God might be joking when God said to come to Harris County because we were ignorant to the geography of our county. God ended up laughing after all when our jaws dropped when we saw the beautiful overlooks at FDR. Granted, we’re not in tip-top peaks of the Rockys, nor are we even in the gorgeous North Georgia mountains, but we have our mountain…and it is simply wonderful. We are SO blessed! It was a yucky day, misting rain, but these roads and these trees and these lookout points just felt right to me.

Not only that but the mountains have a musical feeling to me. When I got home, I listened to a friend’s recording of banjo music, which automatically takes me to the mountains. 

Then, I listened to an album put out by musicians at Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis, TN (thanks to Peggy Martin!), which is all Celtic worship music. The instruments played, from banjo to fiddle, from harp to hammered dulcimer, just remind me of being on the mountain. 

And I remember that it’s more spiritual than physical. Mountains are “thin spaces,” to use a Celtic phrase. Moses talked to Yahweh from the mountain, Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, and even now, mountains bring us closer to God. Even if it’s on a casual Saturday drive. 

So come Monday, my new 8th hour Lenten discipline is to get up on that mountain at least once a week. It’s so close, there’s no excuse. I want to hike, read, sit, gaze, and commune with my Lord. I want to listen to that good music, and once again get transported to that place where God’s so close, He’s sticky.

St. Nicholas Nature Walkers

 

Last Sunday, a group of brave explorers, led by John Brent, wandered through the property like pilgrims on the way to Canterbury. For those who may not know, John is highly skilled at leading nature walks, pointing out flora and fauna, giving us science lessons left and right. When you walk in the forest with John, it is an adventure and a fun learning experience. Our walk was multi-sensory as well, as John encouraged us to look closely, smell deeply, touch gently, taste cautiously, and listen quietly. What most people would think was “just a bush” or “just a tree” becomes a wonderful lesson in the beauty and intricacy of God’s Creation. Many thanks to John for his willingness to explore with us!

After our walk, we were treated with pizza prepared by Graham Horne. It was a great evening and I hope that John will offer to lead another walk for the congregation soon.

 

What If Hugs & Kisses Were The Law?

This weekend, my 4-year-old son Tai and I went on a quick trip to Savannah, where we still have a house on the market (let me know if you’re interested). I went to do some yard-tending, and Tai came along to visit his god-family. On Friday, he went out on the town with his godfather, Sam, who had planned a lot of fun activities. 

On their adventure, Sam needed to pay a fine for a recent traffic mishap, so he took Tai with him. Tai asked, “What’s a fine?” and Sam explained that sometimes people make mistakes and in this case, in order to make it better, he had to pay some money.

Tai, with his wonderful 4-year-old wisdom replied, “Why can’t you just give them a hug and a kiss to make it better?”

Sam thought that was a good question to ask, so they asked the clerk behind the window. Her response was to the effect of “hugs and kisses aren’t the law.” What a sad commentary on our world!

But what if hugs and kisses were the law? What if, in circumstances where someone has genuinely made a mistake, acknowledged the mistake, and wanted to make it right, were allowed to give hugs and kisses in apology rather than paying fines, doing community service, or spending the night in jail? What if the only requirement for paying our dues was to engage in a loving embrace of forgiveness and grace. 

Reminds me of Jesus’ story of the Lost Son. After the son squanders his inheritance, he returns home, broken and repentant. Instead of getting a tongue-lashing by his father, he is greeted with arms wide open. The father hugs him and he is welcomed back into the family. If only we could be so loving and forgiving, in our families and in our country.

On the way out, Sam and Tai did get to pay back the fine in the way they wanted to pay it back. There was an officer on patrol at the door who they asked if they could hug. While it wasn’t the most appropriate for Sam to give her a hug, Tai laid one on her.

Debt fulfilled.

Before the hammer is swung

“Swinging the hammer is just the tip of the iceberg.”  Bill Sutley, Habitat for Humanity’s secretary

Habitat For Humanity in Harris County is now preparing to build the eighth house in the county.   The majority of time spent is spent in the planning process.  A family must be selected, contributions (both monetary and materials) must be solicited, and volunteers must be recruited for the building effort.

The organization is currently looking for volunteers to participate in the following areas:

Building

Church Relationships

Communications

Finance

Fundraising

Volunteers

If you feel called to participate please contact Bill Sutley (bill.sutley@gmail.com) or myself (graham.horne@gmail.com).

Habitat meets every 3rd Tuesday of the month at Hamilton United Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m.   I hope to see you there.

Click here for more information regarding Habitat.

Graham Horne

Vestry for Outreach

 

Review of NBC’s “Kings”

Because of last week’s website outage, I didn’t get to post the notice to watch Kings until Sunday and the e-mail notification has a delay, so you might have missed it on Sunday night. Worry not! If you’re still interested in it, you can watch it on-line at Hulu.com by clicking here. It was a 2-hour premiere, so be sure to take some time to watch it.

So what did I think? Without spoiling it for folks, I thought it was a superb program. Is it word-for-word from the Scriptures? Heavens, no! Nor would I want it to be. But it definitely captures the spirit of the books of Samuel. There are direct correlations between the characters and their Biblical counterparts. David Shepherd, the lead character, is a young mechanic in the country (tending cars and not sheep) who is good at “fixing things” (which I think describes the Biblical David nicely). He is honest and wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s also a rule-breaker, which I imagine will come in to play later as he falls into the pattern of undermining Saul, or Silas as he’s called in this show. King Silas is the ruler of the fictional country of Shiloh (which had a funny connotation to me since we have a Shiloh here in Harris County). He has unified the country, although you find quickly that they are at war with Gath, a neighboring country to the north. The actor who plays Silas, Ian McShane, is simply wonderful playing the part of Saul. He’s insecure, yet cocky, with many secrets and many people pulling his strings. As in the Biblical narrative, he is criticized by God’s chosen prophet (or in this case, preacher), the Rev. Samuels. Even the parts of Silas’ children, Jack and Michelle (Jonathan & Michal) are played well, and there’s a very interesting scene with a very bold theological point between Silas and Jack. 

They take some liberties, of course, as this is a modern backdrop of an ancient story. The “anointing of David” is a scene that is not like the Biblical story at all, and I can’t help but think that it would have been neat for the Rev. Samuels to go through all of David’s older brothers before choosing David himself. I think they could have updated that scene well. 

Perhaps the neatest scene was the David vs. Goliath scene, and the truth that is later revealed at the end of the show about David’s character. While appearing very brave and innocently at the right place at the right time, David becomes much more human by the end, and it is this dichotomy of courage and fear that makes David such an identifiable character in both the Bible and on this show. 

I also think the modernization of this tale is also very helpful in understanding what’s going on in the Biblical narrative. Seeing Silas standing over millions of people in the middle of a huge city gives an allegorical perspective of Saul’s power in 1 Samuel. Laying the parallels between our world and the ancient world can, in this case, allow us to identify more with the thoughts, feelings, and concerns of the ancient Israelites. The show was also done in good taste, I thought, keeping the violence and sexuality at an appropriate level (and at times even less graphic than the Bible!).

Overall, I thought it was a fun show and am looking forward to watching it again next week.

Once & Future “Kings”

Tonight on NBC at 8:00pm, the first episode of the new show called Kings airs. For those of you who don’t know, Kings is a modern day interpretation of the story of Saul & David, featured in 1 & 2 Samuel (don’t confuse with the Book of Kings!). So you can expect all the drama, sex, deception, and violence of the biblical narrative (Don’t believe me? Go back and read David’s story–it’s a veritable soap opera!) but done with a modern flair–NBC style. 

I haven’t read much about this series, and am waiting to see it before I make a decision, but I tend to enjoy modern-day takes on the Bible. Or better yet, I like to read theological themes into any types of media. My expectations for an explicit adaptation will be high. But it will be interesting to see the choices they make in telling these classic stories.

I will give my official opinion later, and I would LOVE to hear yours! Comment below!

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Welcome back! After a few days of major technical difficulties with our host server, StNicholasHamilton.org is back in business. You never can tell what’s going to happen when you deal with technology, but thankfully, our host did a good job of getting us back up. He was very apologetic and I’m assured that he is taking every conceivable precaution to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Much like life, even websites experience unexpected hiccups, and when it does, we are called to respond with grace and gratitude.

Thanks for getting us back up, Carl!

Easter Memorials and Thanksgivings

During Lent we have the opportunity make contributions for the music and flowers that add so much to the Easter service. What a wonderful way to share in this most joyful celebration of Our Lord’s Resurrection in the name of your loved ones. As in the past, the bulletin will list contributors and their memorial or thanksgiving dedications.

Please fill out a form in the narthex, and indicate “flowers” or “musicians” in the memo line on your check made payable to St. Nicholas. Your completed form and check may be placed in the offering basket or given to Dorothy Webster. The suggested donation is $20 and gifts must be received by Monday, April 6 to be printed in the bulletin.

This article was contributed by Sue Halmrast.

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