On Wednesday, September. 10, 2025,

Our own Evergreen High School,

in Small Town, USA, became the 47th* school shooting of 2025.

*https://www.cnn.com/us/school-shootings-fast-facts-dg

The shooter later died of self-inflicted wounds; two victims were hospitalized.

One is now in urgent care, the other remains in critical condition.

First responders were amazing and school procedures automatically locked all doors.

 

How do we navigate our country with grace and calm?

At our Rotary meeting yesterday, Reverend Kimra Perkins shared some words with us.

(Paraphrased) We’re not equipped for such despair.

What do we do right now? 

 The power of our shared values as expressed in our Four-Way Test 

 reminds us that it is a way forward … to be agents of witness - service above self - 

that’s what we can do …

Kimra invited us to think of our 4-way test not just as a way to live … also as a blessing … and a benediction … and as a prayer.

We are going to choose to be people of service, people of action, to be part of the solution for this world that we love so much … Let us say together ...

MAY IT BE SO ... MAY IT BE SO ... MAY IT BE SO.

 

 

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Luke 15:1-10

 

 

 

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.

~ Elie Wiesel

 

 

 

Another Birthday Luncheon!

Carolyn Alexander and Anne Vickstrom at The Cow in Evergreen.

 

Harley went to the spa!

 

It’s that time of year again!

 

 

(Carol Patterson had early onset Alzheimer’s and had been at Life Care Nursing Home for quite a while. She was my first Memories in the Making painting student there. She had a whole notebook full of poems she had written in earlier years. I loved to have her share them with us.)

Losses  

by Carol Patterson 

(written, we think, when she first felt the onset of Alzheimer’s)

                  Today I read about a man who slashed his wrists 
                        because he lost his hat. 
                He was old, and of course, they say he was crazy. 
                I think not. 
                I think he's just had all the losses he could take. 
                He said as much. 
                His last words were, "O God, now I've lost my hat, 
                        too." 
                I know how he felt. 
                Every time you turn around, time - with a little help 
                        from your friends - grabs off something else. 
                        Something precious.  At least to you. 
                Hearing. Sight. Beauty. Job. House. Even the corner 
                        grocery turns into a parking lot and is lost. 
                Finally, you lose the thing you can't do without - hope 
                        (that it can get better). 
                Dear God, when he gets to heaven, let that man find 
                        his hat on the gatepost. 

Our Memories in the Making painting sessions played SUCH an important part of her life at Life Care.  Several years ago, when Carol was still physically active, I met a woman who used to volunteer to walk around Evergreen Lake with Carol.  She told me that Carol just stopped one day and was staring intently.  The woman asked if something were wrong and Carol responded, “No, I was just wondering what colors I would use to capture this in a painting.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agnus Day, by James Weinstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LECTIONARY

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 with Psalm 14 or
Exodus 32:7-14 with Psalm 51:1-10 and
1 Timothy 1:12-17 and
Luke 15:1-10

•  

 

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse—wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.

"For my people are foolish,
    they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
    they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
    but do not know how to do good."

I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
    and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
    and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
    and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
    and all its cities were laid in ruins
       before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

For thus says the Lord:

The whole land shall be a desolation;
    yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this the earth shall mourn,
    and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
    I have not relented nor will I turn back.

with

Psalm 14

Fools say in their hearts, 
   "There is no God."
They are corrupt, 
   they do abominable deeds;
there is no one 
   who does good.

God looks down from heaven 
   on humankind
to see if there are any 
   who are wise,
who seek after God.

They have all gone astray, 
   they are all alike perverse;
there is no one who does good, 
   no, not one.

Have they no knowledge, 
   all the evildoers
who eat up my people 
   as they eat bread,
and do not call upon God?

There they shall be 
   in great terror,
for God is with the company 
   of the righteous.
You would confound the plans 
   of the poor,
but God is their refuge.

O that deliverance for Israel 
   would come from Zion!
When God restores the fortunes 
   of God's people,
Jacob will rejoice; 
   Israel will be glad.

or

Exodus 32:7-14

The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."

But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.'" And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

with

Psalm 51:1-10

Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly 
   from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, 
   have I sinned,
and done what is evil 
   in your sight,
so that you are justified 
   in your sentence
and blameless 
   when you pass judgment.

Indeed, I was born guilty,
   a sinner when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth 
   in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom 
   in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, 
   and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be purer 
   than snow.

Let me hear joy 
   and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed 
   rejoice.

Hide your face 
   from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, 
   O God,
and put a new and right spirit 
   within me.

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."