Newsletter with images in PDF format
BEYOND THE GREEN DOORS
The newsletter of the Peterborough United Methodist Church
43 Concord Street, Peterborough, NH
August 2020
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
Events:
Sunday Worship streaming on YouTube Sun 10a http://bit.ly/pumcYouTube
and posted online (after Sunday) http://bit.ly/pumcworshipvideo
Online Fellowship Hour Sun 1p https://bit.ly/pumcfellowship
Daily Morning Devotional daily 7a http://bit.ly/revcardfb
Aug 11 Administrative Council meeting online 6:30p Zoom meeting
Aug 22 Hundred Nights Dinner 3p
Aug 23 Sunday Worship Service @Cathedral of the Pines 10a
Aug 25 September Newsletter submissions due
Stay Involved:
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Offering http://bit.ly/pumcoffering
Online Giving http://bit.ly/pumconlinegiving
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YouTube http://bit.ly/pumcYouTube
WHAT WOULD INWARD SIMPLICITY: HOLY OBEDIENCE LOOK LIKE?
Kathleene Card
Have you ever longed for simplicity? During this time of stress with social unrest and a worldwide pandemic making everyone nervous, I thought it might be good to read some scriptures that focus on the Discipline of Simplicity. My references come from Richard Foster’s Freedom of Simplicity.
Fosters defines Simplicity as “openness, unselfconsciousness, naturalness. It is the opposite of subtly, cunning and duplicity.” It is helpful to remember that while simplicity is not “easy to understand” it is never used to deceive or confuse. Simplicity allows us to be authentic and frees us from what Foster calls “the tyranny of the self, things and people.” It might help to take the following personal inventory before reflecting on the following scriptures which I have taken from Eugene Peterson’s The Message.
To challenge the tyranny of self we might ask:
• Do I act like a pro when I am really an amateur?
• Do I read the books I quote?
• To I disguise my intentions with fancy words.
• Do I act better than I truly am?
• Do I try to impress people with degrees, titles, or honors?
To challenge the tyranny of people:
• Am I living within my means?
• Do I act my age?
• Am I a compulsive consumer?
• Do I try to impress people with gadgets?
• Am I compassionate toward those who are poor?
To challenge the tyranny of things:
• Can I allow an unfavorable account of me to stand, without any need to straighten out the matter?
• In recounting events do I shift the story ever so slightly to appear in a more favorable light?
• Must I always make excuses for my behavior?
• Do I aim at excellence in my work without regard for what people may say or think?
• Can I accept compliments freely without any need to shrug them off in self-conscious modesty?
Suggested Scriptures to read:
Sunday: Simplicity as singleness of heart: Matthew 6.19-24
19-21″Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
22-23″Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!
24″You can’t worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money both.
Monday: Simplicity as trust: Matthew 6.25-34
25-26″If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
27-29″Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
30-33″If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
34″Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Tuesday: Simplicity as obedience: Genesis 15
1 After all these things, this word of GOD came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”
2-3 Abram said, “GOD, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.”
4 Then GOD’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”
5 Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”
6 And he believed! Believed GOD! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”
7 GOD continued, “I’m the same GOD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.”
8 Abram said, “Master GOD, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?”
9 GOD said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.”
10-12 He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
13-16 GOD said to Abram, “Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they’ll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I’ll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you’ll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites.”
17-21 When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when GOD made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Wednesday: The Generosity of Simplicity: Leviticus 28.8-12
8-12 “Count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years: Seven Sabbaths of years adds up to forty-nine years. Then sound loud blasts on the ram’s horn on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. Sound the ram’s horn all over the land. Sanctify the fiftieth year; make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all over the land to everyone who lives in it—a Jubilee for you: Each person will go back to his family’s property and reunite with his extended family. The fiftieth year is your Jubilee year: Don’t sow; don’t reap what volunteers itself in the fields; don’t harvest the untended vines because it’s the Jubilee and a holy year for you. You’re permitted to eat from whatever volunteers itself in the fields.
Thursday: Simplicity in Speech: Matthew 5.33-37/James 5.12
33-37″And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Friday: Simplicity and Justice: Amos 5.11-15, 24;
10-12People hate this kind of talk.
Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
Because you run roughshod over the poor
and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You’re never going to move into
the luxury homes you have built.
You’re never going to drink wine
from the expensive vineyards you’ve planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they’re down.
13Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
a waste of breath.
14Seek good and not evil—
and live!
You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
being your best friend.
Well, live like it,
and maybe it will happen.
15Hate evil and love good,
then work it out in the public square.
Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will notice your remnant and be gracious.
Saturday: The freedom from covetousness: Luke 12.13-34
13Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”
14He replied, “Mister, what makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?”
15Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”
16-19Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’
20″Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’
21″That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”
22-24He continued this subject with his disciples. “Don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.
25-28″Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
29-32″What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
33-34″Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
CHURCH FAMILY CELEBRATIONS
Birthdays:
Gail Hoffman 8/1
Carol Owen 8/2
Linda Wallenstein 8/3
Amy Clason-Gilmet 8/6
Karen Keenan 8/6
Ernie Hoffman 8/18
Didn’t see your birthday? Let the office know!
SUNDAY SCHOOL UPDATE
Sunday School studied water themed Bible lessons last month with Isaiah 43:2, Psalm 93:4, John 4:13-14 and Mark 4:39-40. August brings in some nature and a mini Bible study on Colossians.
The children and their families were able to get together for a safe, socially distanced, Farm Day! They enjoyed horseback rides, brushing the sheep, feeding the chickens and finished with a brown bag lunch. Pastor Kathleene also stopped by for a blessing of the animals. It was so good to see each other’s faces and share such a special morning together! We hope to get together again soon.
HUNDRED NIGHTS WEEKEND SUPPER – August 22nd
If you have volunteered to help with the Hundred Nights Weekend/Tailgate Dinners in the past, it’s time to dust off your pots and pans and maybe help out with the August dinner. It’s been a long time since the Peterborough Posse and PUMC Posse has been called out. COVID_19 has caused a time of extreme caution, but after researching and getting pleas from Hundred Nights for dinner foods, it seemed time to put together a meal for the folks in need.
The initial menu request has been sent out and most of the items have been signed off, but there is still need for one more huge green salad, one more fruit salad, one large watermelon sliced into quarter wedges, and forty heavy duty paper plates. If you can help with any of these items, please give Susan Lindquist a call or email her. Many thanks!
CATHEDRAL OF THE PINES OUTDOOR SERVICE – Sunday, August 23rd 10am
Put on your face mask, bring your personal Bible, and be prepared to learn a new and safe way to “Pass the Peace.” The worship team is working on a special outdoor worship service that will bring all who feel comfortable together to worship in God’s great outdoors. There is plenty of parking at the Cathedral of the Pines, and bench-like pews in the outdoor chapel. Rev. Kathleene will be present to deliver the message, the worship team is working on getting a soloist to provide some special music. All we need is a happy and grateful congregation to lift our hands in prayer!
Stay tuned for details, as the service is finalized.
PUMC BOOK GROUP APOLOGIES
There were quite a few folks in the book group that had trouble getting a timely copy of
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry so the book group consensus was to cancel for July, take August off from book group (as usual) and pick back up in September. In addition, two members of the group got lost in the shuffle, so apologies go out to Ellen and Kathleene for the mix-up! The next book group discussion will be held on Tuesday, September 29th at 1:30 PM. Stay tuned and read on!!!!
AUGUST MEANS “BACK TO SCHOOL!”
It’s time to help set up the MATS and Shelter From the Storm folks with learning tools for their young students!
The PUMC missions team is looking for all the materials that go into a child’s back to school backpack! During the month, there will be a drop box at the church, in which you can drop off supplies! As things come in, we’ll arrange for a couple ‘stuffing days’ to get every backpack ready for specific students that are referred to us by MATS and Shelter From the Storm.
Please see the menu below for a list of needed supplies. As you see something you would like to supply, email or call Susan Lindquist and she’ll get the supply updated! If check donations are your thing, just mail a donation to the church and place a memo on your check that says “Backpacks.” Many thanks!
Back to School Supplies List
College Ruled Lined Paper (five packs)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Regular Lined Paper (five packs)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________
Crayola Crayons – 24 color box (3 boxes)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Crayola Felt Fine Tip Markers -12-count box ( 3 boxes)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
No #2 pencils (four boxes)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Pencil Mount Pink Erasers (3 boxes)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Bic Pens – blue or black ink (2 multi- packs)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
3-ring Notebook Binder (3 any color)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Individual Subject Notebooks – 3-hole mounting for larger binders -any colors – (5)
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Check Donation -made out to PUMC with “Backpacks” memo
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Name: ______________________ Name: ______________________
Want to contact someone and don’t see their info listed? They should be in the church directory, or contact the church office at 924-4294 or email info@PeterboroughUMC.org and we’ll point you in the right direction.
Everyone is invited to contribute to the newsletter! Send in your thank yous, birthdays, photos, events, testimonials, prayer submissions…
Please submit all materials for the next newsletter (August) to our editors by the LAST TUESDAY August 25. This is the newsletter that will be released August 30 and cover until Sunday October 4. Send to Melissa French at 924-4294 or email info@peterboroughumc.org, with the subject “Newsletter submission.” Thanks!
Want to subscribe? You can email or call the office (above) to get a print copy of the newsletter, or visit http://bit.ly/subscribepumc to get it in your email.
PETERBOROUGH UMC COMMUNICATIONS
In addition to “Beyond the Green Doors,” Peterborough UMC offers the following ways you can keep in touch.
We are on the web: https://www.PeterboroughUMC.org
We are on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pumcnh/
This newsletter was compiled by Melissa French. Any concerns with content can be addressed with Reverend Card.