All Saints Gazette, January 10, 2024
Greetings and blessings from All Saints Amsterdam!
The bare essentials of this week are: Bible study tonight, no service this week, please participate in the Abundance Inventory (see below--and watch my John the Baptist video)!
Abundance Inventory!
The Christmas season ended with the Epiphany on January 6, when we remembered the Magi who brought gifts to Jesus and were the first people from outside of his region or the Jewish community to meet him and worship him.
In the season that follows, All Saints invites you to explore what abundance you have in your life and how you share it. Abundance does not only mean money. Sure, the magi brought gold, and that probably helped with the Holy Family’s new start in Egypt. But they also brought frankincense and myrrh. Why? Perhaps they were really good incense makers. But perhaps most importantly, they showed up. They used their bodies and their time, and their ability to go somewhere.
What do you have that you can give to Jesus? And yes, All Saints wants to be part of that, and we are going to ask you to think about what you can share with our community (and yes, we will ask if that might include some money). But we bet that just as you have abundance you might not realize, you might already be sharing it in ways you don’t realize.
So join us in a little fun game. We will get a prompt every week from Epiphany until the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Think about it. Pray about it. And share your answer! You can make a short video and send it to us, and (if you give us permission), we’ll share a few with the community each week over WhatsApp! You can also post directly to the community.
This week's prompt:
In the reading from this Sunday, Jesus asked John to baptize him, even though John didn’t think that the baptism he was sharing was anything Jesus needed. Has someone ever valued something you could do more than you yourself valued it? Or have you ever received something that blessed you more than the person who gave it thought it could? Is there anything you kind of want to share with All Saints or one of your other communities now but you aren’t sure if it’s good enough? Make a list of a few things you can offer the communities where you work, play, or pray.
Housekeeping
Bible Study
Our weekly alternation of Bible study and prayer lab continues tonight in the Old Catholic rectory at 6:30. Ring the door to the left of the sanctuary (number 37). If you can, bring a snack or dish or to share, but the most important thing is that you come!
Readers, Intercessors, Children's Activity Leaders!
Sign up for these essential worship roles here (or if Google Docs gives you trouble, just call, text, or email Kyle or Mpho). If you can read this newsletter, you can read scripture or lead prayers at our services! And if you can open a glue stick or even halfway color inside of lines, you can help with the children's activity. Kyle's rendition of John the Baptist baptism Jesus is shown in the video below. You can draw at least this well while telling the story and chatting about Pokémon. Also, I (Kyle) am the preacher for the next two services, and I promise that my sermons will all be long, pedantic, and boring, so you'll be glad to have a legitimate reason to be in the dining room coloring with kids instead!
All Saints People Elsewhere
Did you know that our brilliant professor of medicine is also a novelist? De doctorstas by Marceline Tutu van Furth sounds amazing, and I will be reading it as soon as my Dutch is a little better.
The promised video
Seriously, if I can do this, you can to!
John the Baptist Want You to lead Children's Church! - YouTube
John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. If a highly non-visual theology Ph.D. like me can lead a children's activity at church, so can you. Sign up, All Saints folks!
That's all for today!
Want to talk to a priest? We want to talk to you too!
Website: https://allsaintsamsterdam.church/
Mpho: mpho@allsaintsamsterdam.church
Kyle: kyle@allsaintsamsterdam.church
General: info@allsaintsamsterdam.church
