We thank Thee, Lord, for America, our home. We bless Thee for the liberty, the opportunity, and the abundance we share. But above all we praise Thee for the traditions which have made our country great, and for the patriots who have laid the foundations through faith, courage, and self-sacrifice. Teach us in our own day the meaning of citizenship, and help us to be faithful stewards of the responsibility which Thou entrusted to us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. — A Prayer for our Country from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church
I’ve been drafted!
I will go and serve.
“‘Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.'”
The widow of Zarephath and the widow who contributed to the treasury both did incredible acts of charity. Both gave totally of themselves for the good of others. They gave all they had, not out of surplus. In their giving they placed their faith in the God who provides, God who the psalmist says:
…keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry, sets captives free, gives sight to the blind, raises up those who were bowed down, loves the just, protects strangers, who sustains the fatherless and the widow.
As we reflect today, on this Veterans Day we should recall that our veterans, our service men and women have done exactly the same. Even if wealthy, they decided to place their all on the line to serve – not just their country – but the cause of freedom for their brothers and sisters.
Whatever we do, we have the God given freedom to decide. When drafted, we might choose to go, just because of the law. When we are confronted with Jesus’ command to love and serve others, whether we are clergy or laity, we may follow His commandments just because we are afraid of God’s punishment. That may be sufficient – to follow the law, or to do because we are afraid of punishment, but our faith calls us to do these things out of a greater purpose.
That purpose is God’s call to love, to lean on Him who is our protector, advocate, strength, and teacher.
When we decide to ‘go and serve,’ to give our all, we fulfill the commandment of love – loving God by doing His will and loving our brothers and sisters to the point of sacrificing ourselves for them.
The widows did that. The widow chose to prepare bread and give water to Elijah even though she and her son would be left with almost nothing. The widow gave her last pennies to the treasury for charity.
Jesus had portrayed the religious leaders who feigned piety; accepted honor from people, and stole from widows as living without love, without even acting out of obligation to the law or fear of the Lord. They chose wrongly – and served themselves, not love.
Our call is to live like our veterans, in love and service toward others – and to do so out of love. Let us honor them for their right choice and choose rightly ourselves.
What did you do for me?
I served you.
“You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.”
Jesus’ disciples came to Him looking for special favors. They wanted to have positions of power, authority, and glory in the kingdom. They even offered to sacrifice a little today if they could have that promise.
Jesus turned the tables on them and used their request to teach them the true message of the kingdom. We aren’t to seek glory, honors, power, and notoriety. Instead, we are to give all we have, even our lives, in service and sacrifice for others. Only then will we come to know the glory of the kingdom. It is a glory where we give completely of ourselves for others. In turn, we are made rich through their giving, serving, and sacrificing for us. Mutual sacrifice is the way of life in the kingdom.
Our first two readings point to the fact that this type of sacrifice, this kind of giving, is not something our Lord and God demand of us as subjects. It is all captured in the key phrase – You know how it is with those who are recognized as rulers…
We do know how it is, right down to this day. Leaders demand obedience, work for personal enrichment, and do favors for “friends” who do favors for them. Money fuels power, and power rewards money.
God came to us, God who has absolute power, glory, and authority, and emptied Himself completely. He was made low, served all, and was completely crushed. In giving His life – He brought us to eternal life. He lost everything so that we might have everything.
The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that we have a high priest, Jesus, who sympathizes with our weaknesses, because He faced the same weaknesses – facing them without sin.
Because of this there is no barrier between us and the ultimate power, authority, and glory of God. We may fully and confidently approach the throne of grace, because God will lower Himself from that throne to lift us up. He will serve us, heal us, have mercy on us, forgive us, wash our feet and feed us. He will do it all for us because we are worth that much to Him.
We must follow His example, and lower ourselves, serving and lifting others in sacrificial love.
Semester of Service 2011 launches on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (January 17, 2011). This year, Youth Service America (YSA) Grants will provide approximately $500,000 to nearly 500 schools and organizations to lead Semester of Service projects.
Semester of Service projects address meaningful community problems and their root causes – problems such as childhood obesity, hunger & homelessness, illiteracy, natural disasters, and environmental degradation. Semester of Service incorporates the practice of sustained service over a period of significant “duration and intensity” (typically at least 70 hours over several weeks or months), in order to provide enough time for students to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to understand and impact challenging community problems.
YSA encourages educators and service organizations to participate by launching and culminating efforts for a Semester of Service on significant national days of service:
- The King Day of Service (January 17, 2011)
- Global Youth Service Day (April 15-17, 2011
- 9/11 Day of Service (September 11, 2011)
- The King Day of Service (January 16, 2012)
In a successful Semester of Service, students follow the IPARD/C stages of the service-learning process:
- Investigation
- Preparation & Planning
- Action
- Reflection
- Demonstration/Celebration
Educators wishing to plan a Semester of Service may obtain resources through YSA including:
The Semester of Service Strategy Guide [PDF] and Semester of Service Classroom Poster [PDF] are available and provide detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to develop and implement meaningful service and learning experiences using the IPARD/C process. Other resources are also available.
YSA provides a variety of grants (applications available), planning tools, training, and technical assistance to help Semester of Service participants plan, lead, and implement high-impact service-learning programs.
National Learn & Serve Challenge: Interest and participation in the National Learn & Serve Challenge continues to grow. Participation has reached an all-time high of 283,932 people. The year-long challenge aims to expand opportunities for youth to serve and promote service-learning, a proven teaching method that harnesses the enthusiasm and skills of young people to solve problems in their schools and communities as part of their academic studies. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of Learn and Serve America, to be observed December 6-10, 2010.
Call for Entries: 2011 VSA International Young Soloists Award: Since 1984 the Young Soloists Program has been seeking to identify talented musicians who have a disability. This award is given annually to four outstanding musicians, two from the United States and two from the international arena. The award provides an opportunity for these emerging musicians to each earn a $5,000 award and a performance in Washington, D.C. Download a 2010-2011 Young Soloist Award application.
The Kennedy Center/National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute: A 4-week summer music program at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, for student instrumentalists. The program is open, by recorded audition, to students who are seriously considering orchestral music as a career and are in grades 9 through 12 or are a college freshman or sophomore. Each student accepted into the program attends on full scholarship, which includes round trip air transportation to and from Washington DC, housing, food allowance, and local transportation during their stay in the Nation’s Capital. Download a NSOSMI Application 2011 [PDF]. The application deadline is Friday, January 28, 2011.
An interesting article, Twenty years of Victoria Street Ministry for Father Allen Jones, concerning the above named priest, was forwarded to me by E-mail. Fr. Jones was ordained through the Apostolic Catholic Church in Brazil (De Costa line) and appears to do a lot of good work as a simple servant (no pretend-to-be-a-bishop here). I also like the fact that he’s not about ‘changing-the-church,’ but rather about doing good. May God bless his work, humility, and Christian witness.
From the Buffalo News (an older story): France honors WWII hero: Veteran took part in Normandy battle which is an ode to the sons and daughters of immigrants. Men like Mr. Pawlik were part of a great generation, not in the marketing sense of the term, but in the way that service, honor, and sacrifice were part of their very being. It came from family, neighborhood, and Church.
Blood shed during World War II never is far from Joseph E. Pawlik’s mind.
In addition to scrapbook photos, medals and recordings of the war stories he once told, a piece of shrapnel still lodged near his spine serves as a reminder.
Pawlik, now 89, was struck by artillery fire in 1944, during the invasion of Normandy at the Battle of Merderet River.
—He carries with him an all-too-difficult memory of his service that day,— said Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, D-Kenmore.
Monday afternoon, with small American flags on the laps of many in a room at Buffalo’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Pawlik was named chevalier —” the equivalent of —knight— in English —” of the Legion of Honor by the French government for his contribution to France’s liberation during World War II.
The honor, dating back to 1802 under Napoleon, was conferred April 16 in a decree by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
—Today, you are our hero,— said Pascal Soares, honorary consul of France in Buffalo, as he presented Pawlik the honor.
As a young man in Buffalo’s Black Rock neighborhood, Pawlik was eager to assist his country at war. He enlisted as a paratrooper and served as a technical sergeant.
Pawlik’s selfless nature would carry him through the war.
Three months after receiving a Purple Heart as a result of fighting at Merderet River, Pawlik was back in the front lines.
He didn’t want to leave the troops,— his daughter Terry Hans explained. —They needed him.—
In 1945, on a bitter winter day at Dead Man’s Ridge in Belgium, no one needed Pawlik more than his sergeant, who was wounded. As others took safety in their foxhole, Pawlik left his comfort zone to help his comrade to safety.
…
James Benz, a Vietnam veteran, was on hand as his friend was honored. —I’m very proud,— Benz, 61, said of Pawlik. —He’s like another father to me.—
Sto Lat! Mr. Pawlik, Sto Lat!
From the Stratford Star: King Day speaker joins call to service
Echoing a call sounded 40 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and this week by President Barack Obama, Bishop Anthony Kopka Sunday rallied Stratford residents to come together in community service.
—I ask fellow town residents to join us in offering greater community service in the Town of Stratford. Individually and collectively let us do more from forest to shore,— Kopka, of St. Joseph’s of Stratford National Catholic Church, said during the Stratford Clergy Association’s annual service to honor King, hosted this year by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Bridgeport.
—How many of us in Stratford will strive to do more from forest to shore?— Kopka asked from the pulpit. —My fellow town citizens, I ask you to join my fellow clergy and me in committing to do more from forest to shore, through community service and our neighborly love for each other.—
Kopka, speaking two days before Obama took the oath of office as the nation’s 44th president, pointed out that the first black to hold the highest elected office in the land chose volunteering as the way to spend the holiday that honors King, and in a speech Obama urged others to do the same.
—With the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States —” 40 years from the time of Rev. Dr. King’s death —” we have new hope that life can be better for all Americans,— Kopka said.
America can have a new beginning, Kopka said, because the citizens of this nation can choose to unite under Obama’s leadership to build on the legacy and accomplishments of King.
—Stratfordites, may we always pursue with one another both friendship and understanding,— Kopka said. —Remember, any one of us is capable of offering love to our neighbors and service in the community.—
…
Ansonia resident Peter Morse became a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church two years ago and is in the choir.
—It was a fabulous service,— said Morse. —There were a lot of wonderful things said and it all came together very nicely.—
Morse said of the Bishop’s speech, —He was fabulous,— and it is such an amazing time with the inauguration near.
—After all these years we had a woman and a black man running for president,— Morse said. —And one will get nomination and will the election; I was excited through out the election process.—
More added, —To have it happen right after Martin Luther King Day is an incredible thing to see.—
The following is the text of Bishop Kopka’s keynote: ‘Do More from Forest to Shore”
If you want to be important, wonderful! If you want to be recognized, wonderful! If you want to be great, wonderful! But, recognize that ‘he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.’ That’s a new definition of greatness … the thing that I like about it —” by giving that definition of greatness —” it means that: Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second Theory of Thermal Dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant.
Those words were penned and proclaimed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his sermon entitled, —The Drum Major Instinct.— You can see those words and hear him —preach it— on the King Center Web site.
The call to serve is also being made by President Barack Obama to the American people. President Obama asked that the celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., be joined to his inauguration in order to make the community service and social justice accomplishments of the Rev. Dr. King a preeminent focus for Americans.
So we, the members of the Stratford Clergy Association, have agreed to do just that and we invite members of our congregations and our community to join us. On behalf of those clergy, I ask fellow town residents to join us in offering greater community service in the Town of Stratford. Individually and collectively let us do —more from forest to shore.—
In one of his last sermons the Rev. Dr. King spoke about what he believed made up a —full life.— He said of his own eventual passing that, —I’d like somebody to mention on that day: Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.— In the —Drum Major— sermon he said, —I won’t have money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things in life to leave behind; but I just want to leave a committed life behind.—
Forty years later, we continue to say that he —gave his life serving others— and that he has —left a committed life behind.— His legacy of faith, courage, sacrifice and service; and his accomplishments for justice, peace and a better life for the poor and for the persecuted are what we honor today. May we give thanks to God for this legacy and for these accomplishments and then pledge to continue them.
With the election of an African-American to the Presidency of the United States —” 40 years from the time of the Rev. Dr. King’s death —” we have new hope that life can be better for all Americans. At the inauguration of this new president America can have a new beginning, because we citizens of this great nation can choose to unite under the leadership of President Barack Obama to build on the legacy and accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Each of us can accept the Rev. Dr. King’s call to high school students in Philadelphia, when he asked —What’s Your Life’s Blueprint?— He said, —You have a responsibility to seek to make your nation a better nation in which to live. You have a responsibility to seek to make life better for everybody. And so you must be involved in the struggle for freedom and justice.—
Will you accept as your own responsibilities to make our nation a better nation and to make life better for everybody? It is all part of the Rev. Dr. King’s definition of greatness that he learned in the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark where Jesus says to His disciples: —Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant.— When each of us serves one another, we can have genuine hope for a better nation and a better life for everybody. We are —great— when we serve each other and as Dr. King said, —Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.—
This kind of community service is based on love. A love that —seeks to preserve and create community— as Dr. King said in his speech entitled —Stride Toward Freedom.— He said: —… we speak of a love, which is expressed in the Greek word, agape. It is a love in which the individual seeks not his own good, but the good of his neighbor.—
That principle is based on the ancient Commandment of God: —Love your neighbor as yourself.— It is a code of conduct that is derived from the codes of the earliest civilizations that states one has a right to just treatment, just as one has the responsibility to treat others justly. It is what we know as the Golden Rule: —Do to others as you would have them do to you.— It is, therefore, an ancient truth; but one that has not yet been embodied and personalized by members of society thousands of years later.
Will we also accept failure for not abiding by this ancient civil right and responsibility? Or, will we try to love and serve our neighbors in our community? How many of us in Stratford will strive to do —more from forest to shore?—
In furthering his explanation of agape —” or the love we are to have for others —” the Rev. Dr. King said in his —Stride Toward Freedom— speech, —It is the love of God operating in the human heart.— He also said: —In the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.—
He continued, —Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive good will.— About this agape love he said that it —…makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed to both— and that it —discovers the neighbor in every man it meets.—
My fellow town citizens, I ask you to join my fellow clergy and me in committing to do —more from forest to shore— through community service and our neighborly love for each other.
To help us accomplish this in the times that disagreements may deter us, let us accept as our guiding principles the Six Principles for Nonviolent Social Change promoted by the King Center. They are derived from Rev. Dr. King’s essay, —Letter from Birmingham Jail.— Succinctly they are: 1. Information gathering, 2. Education, 3. Personal Commitment, 4. Negotiations, 5. Direct Action, and 6. Reconciliation.
In particular, during any kind of disagreement, let us be mindful of the following two principles:
In the fourth principle of Negotiations, we are challenged to look for what is positive in every action and statement made by anyone in disagreement. One can do this by not seeking to humiliate anyone who is in disagreement. Instead, one can call forth the good in the opposing person and look for ways in which the person on either side of an argument can come away with winning points.
In the sixth principle of Reconciliation, we are challenged to always seek friendship and understanding with all others. Stratfordites, may we always pursue with one another both friendship and understanding.
Remember, any one of us is capable of offering love to our neighbors and service in the community. As the Rev. Dr. King said, —You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.—
If we want to be sure to succeed and not fail, then, may we turn to God for help. In God we can certainly have a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. Through and with God we can serve one another. United in God, we can offer —more from forest to shore.— Yes we can!