Teresa’s Note: September 29, 2023

Teresa's Note

Sep 29

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Dear Members and Friends of University UMC:

This day I leave with you a few treasurers I came across in my readings this week - a prayer and poem, a blessing and article. National Hispanic Heritage Month extends from September 15-October 15 and in the celebrations and remembrances, I give thanks for Bishop Joel Martinez. Bishop Martinez served as the presiding bishop for our annual conference and is the bishop who ordained me years ago. As a now retired bishop, his love for the church, social justice and history keep him active and engaged. Earlier this month Bishop Martinez and other San Antonio leaders gathered to celebrate the late United Methodist & Women's Suffrage Activist Jovita Idar who has been minted on the U.S. Quarter. Her great niece Dr. Lopez said of her aunt Jovita, “We found strength in the stories that my cousins and I heard from our mothers. Her commitment to The United Methodist Church’s values of personal and social holiness prepared a way for me to confront the patriarchal constraints and racism that exists within the UMC.” You can read more here.

The theme for this year’s observation is “Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power and Progress in America.” This led me to recall the work of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez who co-founded the United Farm Workers in the 1960’s. Huerta’s famous quote “Sí se puede,” — in English, “Yes you (we) can” - are words that live on in all of us who continue in the work of social justice. Below you’ll find a prayer written by Chávez for farm workers. I also leave you with a poem by Arizona’s poet laureate Alberto Ríos and a Blessing for World Communion Sunday by Jan Richardson.

May we take time to remember we are all connected. May we live each day as if it were so.

What a joy to be your pastor!

Teresa

Prayer of the Farm Workers’ Struggle

Show me the suffering of the most miserable;

So I will know my people’s plight.

Free me to pray for others;

For you are present in every person.

Help me to take responsibility for my own life;

So that I can be free at last.

Grant me courage to serve others;

For in service there is true life.

Give me honesty and patience;

So that I can work with other workers.

Bring forth song and celebration;

So that the spirit will be alive among us.

Let the spirit flourish and grow;

So we will never tire of the struggle.

Let us remember those who have died for justice;

For they have given us life.

Help us love even those who hate us;

So we can change the world. Amen.

– Cesar E. Chavez, UFW Founder (1927-1993)

When Giving Is All We Have

Alberto Ríos

One river gives

Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.

We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving has changed us.

We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,

We have been wounded by it—

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,

Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,

But we read this book, anyway, over and again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,

Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.

Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you

What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

And the Table Will Be Wide
A Blessing for World Communion Sunday

And the table
will be wide.
And the welcome
will be wide.
And the arms
will open wide
to gather us in.
And our hearts
will open wide
to receive.

And we will come
as children who trust
there is enough.
And we will come
unhindered and free.
And our aching
will be met
with bread.
And our sorrow
will be met
with wine.

And we will open our hands
to the feast
without shame.
And we will turn
toward each other
without fear.
And we will give up
our appetite
for despair.
And we will taste
and know
of delight.

And we will become bread
for a hungering world.
And we will become drink
for those who thirst.
And the blessed
will become the blessing.
And everywhere
will be the feast.

– Jan Richardson