Happy New Year! (Photo)

Please receive my best wishes for a blessed and happy New Year!

The new year holds within it both promise and potential.  Many of us look ahead with expectation while others may face the unknown with a bit of anxiety.  2016 will bring change: new faces, new experiences, new challenges.  My prayer for you is that you may face those events with grace and with faith.  Grace to accept and embrace.  Faith to continue seeing Jesus in our circumstances.  

The Katagi kids have a tradition of getting together with their dad a few days after Christmas.  This year was no different as my daughter and her husband flew in from Atlanta.  Together with my son and his family, we were able to share a meal around dim sum and exchange gifts.  Our post-meal photo outside of the restaurant serves as our New Year's family photo this year!

(Click to enlarge.  LR: Will, Tracey, PJ, Alyssa, Greyson, Kaya, Brandon)

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O ano  novo está cheio de promessa e o potencial.  Muitos de nós esperamos com expectativa, enquanto outros estão olhando para frente com um pouco de ansiedade.  2016 trará mudança: novas amizades, novas experiências, novos desafios e coisas desconhecidas.  Minha oração por você é que você poderia enfrentar os acontecimentos com graça e com fé.  Graça para aceitar e abraçar.  Fé para continuar a ver Jesus em nossas circunstâncias.

Por favor, receba meus melhores desejos para um ano novo abençoado e feliz!

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El año nuevo está lleno de promesa y potencial. Muchos de nosotros esperan con expectación, mientras que otros están mirando adelante con un poco de ansiedad. 2016 traerá cambio: nuevos amigos, nuevas experiencias, retos nuevos y cosas desconocidas. Mi oración para usted es que podrían enfrentar los acontecimientos con gracia y fe. Gracia para aceptar y abrazar. Fe para ver a Jesús en nuestras circunstancias.

Por favor recibe mis mejores deseos para un feliz y bendecido año nuevo!

Nine months in West Los Angeles (so far)

Serving the church family in West Los Angeles has been a delight in my role as co-part-time interim pastor. Here are some pictorial memories of the past nine months (or so):
(photos may be enlarged by clicking on them)

 

 

 

 

 

 

      

       

    

    

    

    

    

    

     

Past posts:  In Brazil, car is king.

Christmas. You really have to look for it these days.

If you were to type into Google search, the words, "Christmas in contemporary art," you would get images like these in return.

A closer look will show that none of the photos has any traditional images of Nativity, Jesus, angels, shepherds.  The landscape is bare and barren of biblical significance.

How too the world has become in its observance of the holiday.  While Christmas songs fill the radio waves, they speak of Frosty, of one horse, open sleighs, of what I want for Christmas (is you).  There are very few stations any more which play music with the true message of Christmas, which is the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ.  

  

  

Looking at contemporary images, looking into storefront windows, online ads, watching television, it's evident that we're not going to encounter Christ by casually looking for him.  Finding Christ in this time and culture requires much more intentionality.  We're not going to come across him by happenstance.  

We need the three C's of Christmas.

Commitment
Creativity
Community

Commitment is an easy word to say, but not so easy to do.  Our commitment to anything, whether it's to church, friends, marriage, is going to be seen by the time we spend with them.  Our calendar should reflect practically how committed we say we are.  Let us make our commitment to the spirit of Christmas known by making space for it on our calendar.

Creativity doesn't mean being extreme.  It means using one's imagination to craft special memories. Our recollections of past Christmases aren't necessarily the loudest or that time we shared with one hundred others.  It can be a quiet moment of reflection.  It can mean gathering our special ones together to sing carols by candlelight or a Bethlehem scavenger hunt.  No, I don't know what a Bethlehem scavenger hunt is, but you can create one!  

Community means being with others who honor the holiday.  While there will be no escaping the company party or the dinner at your crazy cousin's place, we can make it a point to spend time with those who share an understanding of the season and who honor it. Without that fellowship and communion, the holiday will go by in a flash and we will wonder what happened and what it was about.  

May your Christmas be filled with the warmth and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Blessings from Pastor John

Click here to support Pastor John's JEMS ministry with a year-end gift.

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O mundo tem ficado vazio de costumes sagrados em relação do Natal.  Quando fizer uma busca de "Natal em arte contemporâneo," em Google Imagens o resulto parece assim:

Melodias de Natal estão no rádio, dentro das lojas, mas elas cantam de Frosty (boneco de neve), Jingle Bells e Mariah Carey cantando "All I want for Christmas is You."  É raro (nos EUA pelo menos) ouvir música que cantam de verdadeira mensagem de Natal, que é o nascimento do nosso Salvador, Jesus Cristo.

 

Não é possível mais encontrar a mensagem de Natal por acaso.  Não vamos encontrar Natal por casualmente olhando para ele. Encontrar Natal nesta época e cultura exige muito mais intencionalidade. Nós não estamos indo para se deparar com ela por acaso.

Precisamos o três ingredientes do Natal. Os três C's.

Compromisso

Creatividade

Comunidade

Compromisso é uma palavra fácil de dizer, mas não tão fácil de fazer. Nosso compromisso com qualquer coisa, se é para a igreja, amigos, casamento, vai ser visto pelo tempo que passamos com eles. Nosso calendário deve refletir praticamente quão comprometido dizemos que somos. Façamos o nosso compromisso com o espírito de Natal conhecido por criar espaço para ele no nosso calendário.

Criatividade não significa agindo numa maneira extrema. Significa usar a imaginação para criar memórias especiais. Nossas lembranças de Natais passados não são necessariamente o mais barulhento ou que tempo que compartilhamos com cem outras pessoas. Pode ser um momento tranqüilo de reflexão. Pode significar reunir com nossos amigos especiais reúnem para cantar canções de Natal pela luz de vela ou uma caçada Belém. Não, eu não sei o que uma caçada Belém é, mas você pode criar um!

Comunidade significa estar com outras pessoas que honram o feriado. Enquanto não haverá como escapar da festa da empresa ou o jantar em casa de seu primo louco, nós podemos torná-lo um ponto para passar o tempo com aqueles que compartilham um entendimento da temporada e que honrá-lo. Sem esse companheirismo e comunhão, o feriado vai por em um flash e não vamos saber o que aconteceu e do que se tratava.

Que seu Natal seja enchido com o calor e a presença do nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo.

Bênçãos do Pastor John

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In Brazil, Car is King

A bit of satirical reading for you:

The foreign visitor to Brazil (or Argentina or Paraguay or Peru) needs this minimal bit of advice:  Car is king.  

Whenever you cross the street, you take your life into your hands.  

What that means is that the pedestrian does not have the right of way.  Say, for example, you are waiting for the green light so you can cross the street.  You have to remember that car is king, even if you're planning to use the crosswalk.  This means that the car making a turn on your green has the right of way.  

Are you stepping off the curb to jaywalk?  Good luck with that!  Remember to look both ways and make the sign of the cross (Signum Crucis) for insurance sake.  

In the USA, you only have to stick your foot in the direction of the street to cause cars to come to a stop.  It's courteous.  It's civilized.  

But I think that people have forgotten that physics is still in play.  A car weighs what?  2 tons?  That's two tons of metal, plastic, rubber and glass traveling at speed and having to stop at your convenience.  The other factor not to be ignored is the driver.  Who knows who's behind the wheel?  Somebody who is late for work?  Some guy who just had a fight with his wife and is upset with the world?  Some woman with a blood alcohol level of .11?   Is blind in one eye?  Is distracted by the seven kids she's ferrying to soccer practice?  Is searching for Cat Power on his iPod?  

This message is for you folks who cross the street with no sense of time or space.  For those who saunter leisurely across the street.  For those in your fashionable lycra running suits who cross against the light without really understanding that the 18-wheeler's back tires are smoking because the driver is trying to keep from grinding you into meat paste.  

Yeah, you! The guy with the iPhone, texting your girlfriend as you cross the street.  You, the person who is so concentrated on plinking on his/her keypad, and doesn't realize that people are waiting for you to cross so they can complete a turn.  

You, the one holding the hand of your baby who is just learning to walk.  Guess what?  The crosswalk is not a guaranteed safety zone to teach toddling and shouldn't be the stage for the world to see that your offspring can walk 100 feet an hour.  

You kids, talking, laughing and paying no attention - who start crossing as the light turns yellow and don't speed up one bit to clear the intersection.  Well, I know you don't care.

I want to invite you all to Brazil.  I dare you to do that stuff down there.  

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Past Post:  No glamor, just grace.

Not bidding for sainthood. Just simple humanity.

You've heard it. Usually at funerals.  Friends are asked to share a eulogy, usually their thoughts or remembrances of the dearly departed.  And I know how hard that can be to get up in front of a crowd of people, with emotions stirred and unstable.  Nerves also kick in.  A little note page is unfolded and away we go.

Invariably, on all but very rare occasions, you will hear comments like, "She was always smiling."  "She never complained."  "He had nothing but good things to say about people."  "She was always so sweet."

I think to myself. Wow, this person is a saint.  She ALWAYS smiled?  She NEVER complained?  What? She never got upset when the toilet backed up all over hallway carpet and down the stairs?  She was smiling even through that root canal?  She didn't complain when she had to work those eleven hour days? Really???

In my occasional role conducting funerals, I've coached folks who are encumbered with the responsibility of delivering the eulogy.  "Please," I say to them, "don't use the words 'always' or 'never' in your description of them.  Because it's rarely, if ever, true.  And it also carries the sense that you're trying to single-handedly get them into heaven."

This was brought home to me early in my ministry when I pastored in San Diego.  A young woman had passed away of a particularly painful disease, and her good friend brought the eulogy.  I distinctly remember the words, "Despite the daily battle with pain, she never cried. She never complained."  Wow, I thought.  That's a strong woman.

But after the service, as we were having lunch together and all the funerary pretense was dropped, this same friend, talking to her friends laughed as she talked about how the deceased woman monku'd (complained) all the time.  It was in direct contrast to her comments during the eulogy.  And to be fair, this was another example of an extreme.  As unlikely as it was that she NEVER complained.  It was also unlikely that she complained ALL the time.

I don't know what it is about death.  It may give us a momentary glimpse of a person's value and importance in our lives.  As you watch television interviews and hear people talk about someone who was taken abruptly by death, you will invariably hear those words:  always and never.  

I will bet you money!

As author Wendell Johnson says, "Always and never are two words you should always remember never to use."

My own medicine

After receiving the news regarding my kidney situation and the impact on my overseas travel, I probably need to hear some of my own teaching from Scripture.  

Changes in lifestyle, in financial status, in employment, in family, in health, can lead to struggles with uncertainty about the future and depression.  A message recently preached on depression may be helpful to you if you are facing this challenge.

May God bring encouragement to your heart today.