08/21/2026
Ordinary Time ~ In God’s Eternal Time ~ Sunday, August 23, 2026, 10 am
You are invited to the Worship Service on August 23, 2026 at 10 am. You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 Meeting ID: 965 881 6441
You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.
Children’s Time: “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” by Pastor John
Excerpts from Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov, 1898
Ivan Ivanovitch went outside, plunged into the water with a loud splash, and swam in the rain, flinging his arms out wide. He stirred the water into waves which set the white lilies bobbing up and down; he swam to the very middle of the millpond and dived, and came up a minute later in another place, and swam on, and kept on diving, trying to touch the bottom.
“Oh, my God!” he repeated continually, enjoying himself thoroughly. “Oh, my God!” He swam to the mill, talked to the peasants there, then returned and lay on his back in the middle of the pond, turning his face to the rain. Burkin and Alehin were dressed and ready to go, but he still went on swimming and diving. “Oh, my God!” he said again. “Oh, Lord, have mercy on me!”
“That's enough!” Burkin shouted to him.
Special Music: Carmen's Habanera (from the opera CARMEN by Georges Bizet) by Solmaaz Adeli, mezzo-soprano
If I Can Help Somebody by Alma Hazel Androzzo
American mezzo-soprano Solmaaz Adeli is consistently praised for the luster of her timbre, vocal agility, and her impressive vocal range, her repertoire thus ranging from Baroque to 21st Century music.
She holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Earth Sciences from UC Santa Cruz, and after beginning a career in the sciences moved to Austria to study voice. Ms. Adeli received a scholarship to attend the Opera School at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria, and studied privately in Vienna and as an apprentice under Italy’s esteemed director Davide Livermore in Turin.
Ms. Adeli made her operatic debut in the role of Flora in Albinoni's Baroque opera Il Nascimento dell'Aurora under the baton of René Clemencic at the Vienna Chamber Opera (2011). She has performed in Austria’s most prestigious concert houses. Her broadcast performances include the Special Olympics 2015 from UCLA, the American National Anthem for the US Embassy of Vienna's Commemoration Ceremony of 9/11, and a live performance of White Christmas alongside members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Message: The Magnificent Defeat; Part 1) “What Is EGO?” by Rev. John Song
Sermon Series on “The Magnificent Defeat”
Aug. 30: Part 2) “How EGO Is Transformed”
Sept. 6: Part 3) “The Power of Shame”
Sept. 13: Part 4) “Coming Home to Yourself”
Ego doesn’t have its own innate sense of worth. It’s a bottomless bucket of never enough and never good enough. Ego defines the self from outside-in. It relies on external markers for self-definition: What I have. What I do. What others think of me.
The kingdom of Caesar (the world) operates out of ego centrism and narcissism: What do you possess. What do you do. What I think of you… based on What you have and What you do. It is driven by comparisons and competitions.
“Ego is driven by Fear, Attachment, Control, and Entitlement.” ~ Don Bisson, Jungian Christian teacher
Luke 9:23-25 ~ “Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose their souls?”
