Advent Message

This is a time of year when we all find ourselves busy with family, community events, and special food preparation. We try and accomplish a lot in such a short time before Christmas.  St. John the Baptist in his preaching asks us first and foremost to prepare the way of God in our lives. We need more to our lives than our busy schedules.  We need the name of Jesus on our lips.  Jesus will send us the Holy Ghost to fill us with inner resources to live our lives and make wise choices in this busy world. 

All of us need to evaluate our lives and think about just what is the most important priority of all.  That is God's love and how we extend love to others. Slow down, ask Jesus into your hearts, know that you are loved by God, spend time after church listening to others.  The love and care extended to others will always refocus us so that we turn our lives over to God and accept the Salvation Message.  Experience the Holy Spirit with you now as you ask Jesus into your hearts and extend the message to others.  

--Father Peter Nissen

Easter Message

During the Easter Season we remember Jesus' rising from  death.  Jesus' resurrection gives all of us hope that there is life for us beyond the grave.  This life is not all.  We will see our loved ones again.  BUT just the fact of Jesus' resurrection will do very little for us until we experience Jesus' resurrection in our lives.  Many people who are not Christian believers have said, "Yes, Jesus rose from the dead, but so what?"    St. Mary Magdalene first saw the empty tomb and Jesusi appearance while thinking Jesus to be the gardener.  This did very little for her.  It was not until Mary heard Jesus call her name that she grew beyond knowing the fact to sensing and knowing Jesus in her heart.  How can we grow beyond the fact of Jesus' resurrection to know at an emotional level Jesus with us:  I just read the back of a confirmation certificate printed by the Episcopal Church which can help us all grow in the the feeling of Jesus with us and communicate this feeling to others:

1.   Never neglect your prayers.
2.   Examine yourself carefully as to your thoughts, and manner of life, at all events once a week.
3.   Read every day and think over a few verses of the Bible.
4.   Come to church every Sunday, and at other times as you have opportunity. Take care not to be late; kneel when you ought to. Join in the service, say the responses and Amen's distinctly, take part in the singing. *Avoid all talking in church.
5    Come to Holy Communion. To neglect the Sacraments is disobedience and ingratitude to Him and loss and danger to your own soul.
6.   Let no one persuade you to neglect the services of the church and be led into schism.
7.   Avoid religious disputes and idle gossip; try to think and speak kindly to everyone.
8.   Watch and pray against all impurity in thought and word and deed.
9.   Be honest and truthful as "servants of Christ."
10. Do your best to help others.
11. Try do do some special work for God and His Church
 
Happy Easter!  May you experience Jesus' new life and your walking with Him! And may I add this counsel: practice church growth principles. We find Jesus as we welcome others. The newest child or person who walks into St. Andrew's Chruch is the most important person as we remain servants of Christ. 

Holy Week Message

During Holy Week we remember the events that led to Jesus' death.  The Epistle reading for Palm Sunday, which is Philippians 2:5-11,  tells us that this Jesus who suffered was from the beginning with God.  Jesus emptied himself, was a "slave," and entered into the depth of human suffering.  This was not all.  It led to resurrection and new life so that we too can walk through life with hope.  We can experience healing through Jesus' forgiveness and  the acceptance we find in our Episcopalian congregations.  So our hurts, pains, loneliness, resentments and uncertainties, if given to God, will lead to newness, joy, purpose and well being.  Our Episcopal Church is asking all of us to become ministers of Jesus' love to all in great kindness and gentleness.  This way we will be amazed at what will happen to and in our congregations.  We will experience the feeding of the 5000 before our very eyes.  There will be new people and new insights for all of us.

Thinking about the season of Lent

Jesus' cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem is a familiar theme during the season of Lent.  You probably remember the story: Jesus threw the animal sellers, their animals, and the money changers out of the temple in anger.  (The Biblical passage is reprinted below.)  In the Gospel of John this account comes at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, and it sets the focus of Jesus' ministry to people. You might think this is a story saying it is acceptable to show anger toward those who do not believe the way we do.  But it is not.  Rather, the story can be better understood as counseling us to take our worship of God in a serious manner.  The merchants and money-changers in the temple had turned worship into a commercial transaction.  But Jesus wanted them--and us--to put God and God's action at the center of our worship.


So the story of Jesus cleansing the temple is reminding us to put God in the center.  Is worship of God number one in our lives?  Do we need to be "shaken" up  in our lives so that we will think and evaluate our lives and worship?


May our worship grow away from something that is just as mechanical as the old sacrifices in the temple had become  and grow into a realization and invitation for God to come to our hearts.  May we surrender all with an attitude of gratitude, and may we realize that God is in every breath that we take. Jesus is Our Saviour!  God is on our Side!  We will truly experience this when we talk to others and read the Bible to them.  


Happy Lent!


* * * * *


Here is the account from John 2:13 - 17: 


When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem.  He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves.  The loan sharks were also there in full strength.


Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right.  He told the dove merchants, "Get your things out of here!  Stop turning my Father's house into a shopping mall!"  That's when his disciples remembered the Scripture, "Zeal for your house consumes me."


Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, The Message Remix Version, copyright © 2003 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.

2012 Minutes from Annual Meeting

2012 Annual Meeting

St. Andrew's of rural Hays held its annual meeting on January 15, 2112. Senior Warden Dennis Johnson presided. Those in attendance were Father Peter Nissen; Dennis and Denise Johnson; Dan and Gwen Johnson; Fred McIntosh; Frances Eichmann; Gretchen Banker; Theresa Geist; Dustin, Tanna, Maleah, and Weston Vine; Christiane and Robert Luehrs; and Paul, Jacinta, and Xan Faber.

The meeting opened with a statement of gratitude from Senior Warden Dennis Johnson, who thanked all the members of St. Andrew's for help and support over the past year.

The proposed minutes for 2011 were read and approved as proposed. The treasurer's report for 2011 was read and approved. In new business, the 2012 budget was proposed and discussed. The only significant change from the 2011 budget lies Father Nissen's pension status. Father Nissen has recently begun drawing a pension. The congregation will no longer make a contribution to his pension. Now that money will be paid to him directly as a salary. The 2012 budget was approved.

Chris Luehrs reported on the United Thank Offering. There will be an ingathering of donations on the first Sunday of June and again on the first Sunday of October.

Senior Warden Dennis Johnson thanked Dustin and Dennis Vine for repairing the front steps to the church.

The congregation discussed a number of items of concern including materials for Sunday school and ministerial outreach.

The congregational officers elected for 2012 are Dennis Johnson, Senior Warden; Dustin Vine, Junior Warden; Gwen Johnson, Treasurer; and Jacinta Faber, Clerk. Dan Johnson, Gretchen Banker, and Paul Faber will serve on the Bishop's Committee. The congregation expressed its deep debt of gratitude to Fred McIntosh for his many years of service as the Junior Warden.

Paul and Jacinta Faber will serve as contacts for the 2012 diocesan convention. The congregation will choose delegates later in the year as people's schedules become clearer.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Jacinta Faber, clerk