April 2020 – To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do

April 29, 2020 On Loving One Another

1 Peter 1:22-23 Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. (NRSV)

Here’s the key to living the Christian life. This love is what it’s all about. Sure, we can add more to the list of things we do (or don’t do) because we’re Christians. I know groups of Christians who, because of their faith, avoid liquor, or dancing, or card playing. Some people insist on family dinner, or refuse to shop on Sunday. But all of us, no matter what else, insist that the cornerstone of our faith is the call to love one another deeply from the heart. Or, as scholar and Presbyterian pastor Eugene Peterson translated it: Now that you’ve cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it.

It regularly happens that people suggest we Christians get too involved with politics. Here, however, you can see why we do it. We took political action to stop child labor because we were called to love one another as if our lives depended on it. We took political action to end slavery because we were called to love. We take political action to bring better health care to the poor because it’s what God wants us to do. This love isn’t just love for those we know. Loving people we know is much easier, but Christ calls us to love the stranger, to welcome the newcomer – and to love them as if our lives depended on it. Today, in the daily news, we have the proof positive that our lives do depend on loving our neighbors as ourselves.

It’s not easy to love strangers. Strangers aren’t like “us”. They dress differently, perhaps. Their music is different. Their food is different. Their language is different. They are different. And yet, they are as loved by God as we, and our lives, familiar or different, depend on us living out that inclusive and extravagant love

For today, spend some time envisioning in your mind just one group of different people – think about and pray for those who work in our nation’s meat-packing plants. It’s hard, dirty, stinky work. It’s not safe, it’s not easy, and today those plants are riddled with coronavirus. Many plants have shut down; the President has ordered them to re-open, without any changes in how they operate to make them safer. Picture yourself in the place of those workers – you have to work or you won’t have money to buy your own food, but it’s not safe to work. And pray for them, that they may have health, and safety – that they may live through this pandemic. For God calls us to love one another as if our lives depend on it.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

April 27, 2020

. . . those who welcomed [Peter’s] message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2: 41-42)

What does it mean to be a “church”? What does it mean to be a Christian church? My colleagues are beginning to ask – if we can do all this on-line, what does it mean that we yearn to get together? What makes our getting together more important? Is there more to church life than a sermon? Where is communion in all this?

Last week I came across a UCC church’s description of itself, and it astounded me; what do you think?

What we are offering is spiritual companionship, at-onement, friends in grace, and spiritual treasures with the wisdom tradition and the way of following Jesus. We invite people to discover their gifts, share their spiritual treasures accumulated through seeking and grow with our community. We are your spiritual companion on the initiate path. . . … dedicated Christians who want to follow Christ’s lead in his promise to create heaven on earth. How do we transform our lives into the likeness of Christ? As a group of rag-tag aspirants who seek to grow in grace, we are offering spiritual companionship on the initiate path.

At first glance, I thought it sounded good, but as I read more, I realized that this lovely group of people (and I actually have met the pastor), are veering off into their very own direction. The entire point and purpose of their gathering is to help one another grow spiritually (and, among other things, this involves special tooth-brushes and eating an entirely raw diet. No, I didn’t quite understand that part, either.) But the oddest thing of all was that it was all about them. There was no mention of outreach, no food pantry collection, nothing at all. It was all about how I can make myself better. Their self-centered-ness was stark and offensive.

Compare that description with this one, from City of Refuge UCC in Oakland, California:

In 1995, City of Refuge was accepted into the United Church of Christ, joining the company of over 5,000 other churches around the world that are dedicated to using their faith to effect a just and sustainable world, not just for Christians, but for all people regardless of their faith. With the support of its members and the UCC, City of Refuge continues to live out the demands of its faith through the various programs that it runs or partners with other organizations to run that address substance abuse, homelessness, HIV/AIDS and green justice.

There’s more to being a church than saying “we are a church.” Churches bring together community, fellowship, worship and sharing with the world beyond our walls. Whatever we do, however we present ourselves when we get beyond the present crisis, it will include worshipping together, eating together, praying together and serving our world, together.

So, what do you think? Does a Christian church have to care for others, or can it only care for itself and its members?

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

ON THE CALENDAR

Thursday at 8am Newsletter deadline. Email your stories to Pastor Virginia

Wednesday at 1pm Tea with the Pastor, via Zoom. Email me for an invitation.

Wednesday at 7pm Weekly Church Council check-in. Invitations go out Wednesday am. If you know something that should be discussed, email Pastor Virginia or any Council member.

Every month the Thrift Shop is closed, we lose about $1000 in income to run the church. If you could send in additional money this month, we’d really appreciate it. All our staff is still on the payroll, we still have utility bills. Your gifts make it possible for us to continue. Checks may be mailed to the church at 5 Gibbs Avenue, Wareham MA 02571.

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

Prayers that our application to the Payroll Protection loan program is successful.
Prayers for those who mourn this day, especially all of us missing Donald Hall.
from Michele Sabourin: 2 workers and 1 resident at her mom’s nursing home (Southpointe Nursing Home) have tested positive. Today (Saturday) the National Guard is coming to test everyone. Keep them all in your prayers.
UPDATE: Wareham Week Today reports that now over 30 people at Tremont Rehab, more than half of all who have COVID 19 in Wareham! Keep the folks at Tremont in your prayers.
Nancy MacNeill notes that one of the people working at Tremont is Tammy, who’s renting our parsonage. Let’s keep Tammy in our prayers through this time.
School is closed for the rest of the school year. Remember teachers, parents and children in this stressful time.
from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: please add my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron who is fighting lung cancer.
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 26, 2020

It was great to see the check-ins from Wareham folks on the Old South worship livestream. Wasn’t it interesting to see Old South receive a “Green Church” award? It made me wonder just what we’d have to do to get an award. Here’s the list, what do you think? I bet we could create a customized list for our congregation. I’m wondering what we can learn from our sojourn, worshipping with another church.

Click to access Green+Congregation+Challenge_brochure_September2019.pdf

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but what does that mean when all the other days seem to be without structure. One day seems to slide into another. It’s good to have worship to attend on Sunday, to give us some structure. Instead of a “day of rest”, maybe right now it’d be better to think of Sunday as the day of “attention” – attention to God, time to sort out the truly important from the daily stream of this, that and the other thing.

For your singing pleasure, listen to this lovely rendition of “The Road Home” by the Boy and Girl Choristers of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church WashDC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPa3lBZZsOw

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

ON THE CALENDAR

Wednesday at 1pm Tea with the Pastor, via Zoom. Email me for an invitation.

Wednesday at 7pm Weekly Church Council check-in. Invitations go out Wednesday am. If you know something that should be discussed, email Pastor Virginia or any Council member.

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

Prayers for those who mourn this day, especially all of us missing Donald Hall.
from Michele Sabourin: 2 workers and 1 resident at her mom’s nursing home (Southpointe Nursing Home) have tested positive. Today (Saturday) the National Guard is coming to test everyone. Keep them all in your prayers.
UPDATE: Wareham Week Today reports that now over 30 people at Tremont Rehab, more than half of all who have COVID 19 in Wareham! Keep the folks at Tremont in your prayers.
Nancy MacNeill notes that one of the people working at Tremont is Tammy, who’s renting our parsonage. Let’s keep Tammy in our prayers through this time.
School is closed for the rest of the school year. Remember teachers, parents and children in this stressful time.
from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: please add my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron who is fighting lung cancer.
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 25, 2020

Tomorrow’s Gospel story is Luke 24:13-35, that lovely story of the meeting on the Emmaus Road. You remember – two disconsolate disciples are on their way home from Jerusalem on the afternoon of the first Easter. They’re still mourning Jesus’ death; they don’t believe the stories they’ve heard from the women. As they walk along they meet a stranger, someone who hasn’t heard the stories, and so they tell him all they’d hoped for and their deep sorrow that it’s all for nothing. But the stranger told their story back to them in a way that made it all make sense, real sense. As they ate dinner together, they realized they were eating with Jesus. The women were telling the truth. Christ had risen! Once they recognized him, he disappeared – and the disciples turned back to Jerusalem, to their friends, to tell what they had seen and heard and experienced.

There are a lot of truths contained in this story, but for today, for a time when we are separated one from another, think about this: the disciples learned (and then shared) their truth in community. There’s a good reason for us to feel so isolated; we need one another to be truly who we are intended to be. And we are isolated today, one from another. So life is hard, and hard in ways we don’t see at first. I think, however, we’re not as isolated as we might be. We have this email community, for one thing, and a snail mail community as well. We continue to phone one another; we wave through windows and use Zoom to see and wave at one another. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. And maybe that lesson is there in this story as well – perfect would have been Jesus staying with them, but good enough, and better than what they had had been the dinner together, and the joy they shared with their friends.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

SUNDAY WORSHIP TOMORROW: Turn to the Old South Church in Boston’s livestream tomorrow morning at 10am; sign in and say hi in the chat and we’ll all know we’re there together. www.oldsouth.org

NEWS

Nine of us gathered for Wednesday’s Tea With the Pastor, and had a delightful time sharing news of our community with one another. There’s always room for more, so join us next week on Wednesday from 1 to 2 in the afternoon.

We’re going to try having an informal Church Council meeting every Wednesday evening via Zoom, because we realized how much we were missing those informal opportunities to talk things over at Coffee Hours or during the week. With those opportunities gone for the time being, it seems like it will be good to gather this way. Invitations will go out every Wednesday morning. If you have something you want to put on the discussion list, email Pastor Virginia or any Council member.

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

from Michele Sabourin: 2 workers and 1 resident at her mom’s nursing home (Southpointe Nursing Home) have tested positive. Today (Saturday) the National Guard is coming to test everyone. Keep them all in your prayers.
UPDATE: Wareham Week Today reports that now over 30 people at Tremont Rehab, more than half of all who have COVID 19 in Wareham! Keep the folks at Tremont in your prayers.
School is closed for the rest of the school year. Remember teachers, parents and children in this stressful time.
from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 24, 2020

I don’t know about you, but there are some days when I wish I hadn’t read the news, hadn’t watched tv. Who in their right mind thinks that injecting bleach or isopropyl alcohol is a good idea? It’s fatal. That’s one of the things we teach our toddlers, right?

Who in their right mind thinks it is a good, right and patriotic thing to refuse to support our states as they bear the costs of fighting to keep us all safe? Why on earth would one of our Senators say that he didn’t support help to states that vote Democratic? Partisan politics has no place in emergencies.

We are so fortunate to live in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, to have competent and compassionate leaders. They are leaders who know the meaning of cooperation, who are working across the dividing lines of hostility, who are making our world safer, not just for you or for me, but for our communities, our states, our part of the country, and all the world. They are willing to sacrifice, to give a little here to get a little there.

And it’s sacrifice I want to raise up here. Sacrifice is part and parcel of the successful life, the thriving life, even the “safe” life (safe is a big thing these days). We are in the midst of not only a medical emergency but a fight to the death between selfishness and sacrifice. Think of the selfishness of a large company repackaging itself to look small so they can have millions of government dollars – only to realize, when their actions are made public, that they’ve also earned the contempt of all around them.

A sacrifice is the opposite: it is an act which freely gives, that another may have life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: ^“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13). To give up that to which one has some sort of claim, or to give more than generously to save another’s life; to purchase 10 cans of soup and give them all away that the hungry might eat and be filled; those are sacrifices. Those who serve in our armed forces, who offer their lives that we and our children might be safe and free – that’s a sacrifice.

And sometimes, staying home, wearing a mask, not going to the beach – those are all sacrifices too.

I’d hoped to begin to think about when and how we might worship together again. I know it won’t be this month, and I don’t think it’ll be next month, but it sure would be pleasant to think about the ways we might gather in June, but the daily round of news reports has been so bizarre that I just worry that someone out there is going to inject Lysol or alcohol or even drink bleach and die. So I’m going to close today with a prayer for today from the Church of England. When all this gets to be too much, come back to this and hold on tight: God loves us, God cares for us, and so we care for God’s world.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

April 23, 2020

Psalm 18:1-3

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,

my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,

so I shall be saved from my enemies.

I shall be saved from my enemies. Well, yes, but still… I’m stuck in my house; God may save me, but I might still get the coronavirus. God may save me, but I will still die; if not now, from this, then surely at some time in the future. Most of the time we can avoid thinking about that paradox – what does it mean that God saves us when, no matter what, we’re all going to die? Sometimes we go so far as to fool ourselves into thinking that God offers us universal perpetual protection and when it turns out that we weren’t protected, we blame God. It’s a puzzlement (or so said the King in the musical “The King and I”).

Here’s the thing: what God protects us from is not stubbing our toes: God protects us from wasting our lives. More than that, God protects us from dying wastefully or for nothing. Here’s what I mean.

God provides us with the means to protect our community’s health. God provides us with good food, ways to make our world safe, health care, and so on. God provides us, for instance, with excellent vaccines to protect us from the dangers of disease. We take proper precautions by using those gifts God provides, so that we don’t die from something we didn’t need to catch. Wearing masks, avoiding crowd – all fall into that same category. When we do those things, when we take proper and appropriate care of ourselves, we are living in God’s way and allowing God to protect us.

So, someday, we’ll all die. But not today, not this week, not from this coronavirus, not if we are able to protect ourselves, to avoid those who take foolish chances, who can’t bear to be inside, who won’t wear masks when they should, who insist on standing too close.

Best of all, God has provided, and continues to provide ways for us to spend each day doing good for others, caring for our world. We won’t be here forever, but we can spend every one of our days in ways which make our lives worth living.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

NEWS

Nine of us gathered for yesterday’s Tea With the Pastor, and had a delightful time sharing news of our community with one another. There’s always room for more, so join us next week on Wednesday from 1 to 2 in the afternoon.

As you know, our Thrift Shop is closed, and we are losing that income. If you could send in additional money this month, we’d really appreciate it. All our staff is still on the payroll, we still have utility bills. Your gifts make it possible for us to continue. Checks may be mailed to the church at 5 Gibbs Avenue, Wareham MA 02571.

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

Wareham Week Today reports that 26 people at Tremont Rehab, right down the street from the church, have tested positive for COVID-19. Let’s keep them and the folks who work at Tremont in our prayers!
School is closed for the rest of the school year. Remember teachers, parents and children in this stressful time.
from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list. She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
from Oonagh Brault: my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 21, 2020

Remember, O Lord, those who are sick, those who suffer pain or loneliness or grief, those who draw near to death, and those whom we name in our hearts before you.

Comfort them with your presence, sustain them by your promises, grant them your peace. And now, rejoicing in the communion of the saints, we remember with thanksgiving all your faithful servants and those dear to us who serve you in the glory of heaven. Keep us in unbroken fellowship with your whole Church in heaven and on earth, and bring us at the last to the joy of your everlasting realm; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Church of Scotland: Book of Common Order)

Keep us in unbroken fellowship with your whole church. . . One of the less well known things about Holy Communion is the way that it illustrates our belief that the Church exists beyond time and space. What that means is this: imagine that you’re sitting down at a family meal…. look left and right, and you see the people who are physically present. But look up, or down, or off in the distance, and it’s as if you can see the people who were there – last year, last decade, last century. When we gather for communion, we are eating with all the other people who have ever shared that meal with us, all our friends, all our family, all our fellow believers all over the world.

In a time when we are separated by the dangers of an illness, it’s good to remember that virtual community is no new thing for Christians. We have always taught that we are part of a virtual community which reaches out in space – and in time. The sign of this community, the guarantee that it is real, is that meal, usually bread and grape juice, which we share together monthly.

Our eating together has been upset by the suspension of physical gatherings, but now it is beginning to re-imagine itself as a virtual meal in a new way. It’s not yet clear when and how, but soon we will use the magic of the internet to break bread with one another.

And – as you think of those who are ill, use this prayer to share their need and yours with God, and to remind yourselves that we are never wholly separated from God’s virtual community. We are never alone, never abandoned, always loved.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

DON’T FORGET — TOMORROW AFTERNOON!!!!

TEATIME WITH THE PASTOR
every Wednesday from 1 to 2pm…
a time to chat and share, using the Zoom platform.
Email Pastor Virginia for the link at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list. She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
from Oonagh Brault: my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 20, 2020

Governor Andrew Cuomo began his daily briefing by saying, “51 Days”. Fifty-one days of staying home, fifty-one days of worrying about that cough, worrying about mom, or the kids, or your best friend, or yourself.

It’s getting tedious. It’s no wonder that the streets and sidewalks were busier yesterday – so beautiful, so sunny, so warm! We all wanted to get out, right? I saw a line at the local ice cream shop… no masks, no distancing, just good ice cream. And the possibility that one or more people there in that line were sharing a disease with the rest of the folks there. But we’re restless, we’re ready to get back to the way things should be.

It’s probably time to begin to realize that “the way things should be” or “the way it was”, isn’t ever coming back exactly the same. It’s not just that it’ll be a while before most of us are comfortable in crowds. It’s not just that it’s going to be a while before there will be a vaccine. It’s not just that people we knew will not be there. But it’s going to be the effect of all those things. Life will be different.

I think we’ll be more invested in getting together face-to-face, because we’ve had to do without for so long. I think we’ll be more willing to use electronic meetings, because we’ve discovered that it can work, when we can’t get together. But beyond that – my crystal ball isn’t yet clear. The one thing it says, loud and clear and consistently, is this isn’t over yet. It’s not too soon to imagine, even to plan, but it’s too soon to let up the pressure. Moreover, it says that those who are complaining that our rights are being damaged, those who are organizing mass protests about quarantine rules, those folks are working at cross-purposes to the healthy survival of our society. Those who say that what we’re doing isn’t needed because “look, the numbers are lower than projected” don’t realize that lower numbers are the absolute payoff for our rigorous observance of “stay home, stop the spread, save lives”. As Governor Cuomo says (frequently) “what we do today will determine what happens tomorrow.” So, dream about tomorrow, think about what new, good ideas we are seeing, but stay home, use those masks.

God gives us these ways of protecting our community and ourselves and expects us to use them. It’s a lesson that’s repeated by the psalm reading for today. When you read Psalm 1 today, read it for what it’s saying about how we get through this:

Psalm 1

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list. She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
from Oonagh Brault: my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 19, 2020

April 19, 2020 Second Sunday in Easter

. . . from today’s Gospel reading (John 20: 19-31)

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them^{. . .}

Jesus appeared to the disciples in the evening of the first Easter, and – seeing him – they were convinced that he really had risen from the dead. Our excerpt picks up the story when Thomas comes back, having missed the appearance by Jesus. He doesn’t believe them. He really doesn’t believe them.

We know the next step. The very next week, Jesus came back again, and this time, Thomas was there. He saw Jesus, stuck his hand in Jesus’ side (euwww), and believed. The story goes on from there, and you can go read Jesus’ reaction.

But what’s more interesting today isn’t Jesus’ reaction. It’s the reaction of the disciples. (Now, I’d never noticed this until today, when I was listening to the Right Rev. Susan Brown, of Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. One of the blessings of our current times is the opportunity to hear sermons from all over the world). Pastor Brown pointed out the disciples’ reaction to Thomas’s doubt. Do you see it? That’s right, they didn’t do anything. They didn’t give him a hard time. They didn’t keep nagging to fake it until he made it. They just loved him the way they always had. So they continued to eat together, pray together, be together.

Think about that. Thomas didn’t have to agree in order to be welcome. Think about it in terms of today. I put the toilet paper on the roller one way, you do it the other. We don’t need to agree in order to continue to be friends. I like tea, you like coffee; we don’t have to agree. All those things that are grabbing at us right now, stuck in our homes way closer to one another than any of us ever planned? Stuck looking at someone who loves Doritos? Or who hates your favorite tv show? Close confinement is challenging. The disciples remind us that we don’t all have to be on the same page at the same time to be in the same family.

In the long run, the disciples have something to say to our wider community. Too often these days, we are divided, and we have turned away from talking across the dividing walls of hostility. Our motto seems to have become a very spiky version of “whoever is not with me, is against me”. But the disciples seemed to be saying, that in the presence of a risen Jesus, they welcomed the other motto, the one that says that “whoever is not against us, is with us.” The tricky thing here, is that Jesus actually said both of these. But each time, he spoke of the work people were doing. He meant that when people were doing good, whether or not they did it in the name of Jesus, they were supporting the work of Jesus. Whenever people did meanness in the name of Jesus, they were actually attacking Jesus.

When the disciples model accepting those with whom we differ, they ask us to look beyond what people say, to model for them not some variety of right belief, but a strong variety of love in action, right action. Thomas was a disciple because he loved rightly, whether or not he shared, at first, the disciples’ experience of meeting the risen Christ.

Easter blessings to you all,

Pastor Virginia

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

from Susan Ryan: Lori Benson reports that Tim has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, but is asymptomatic. Please keep Tim and Lori in your prayers.
from Oonagh Brault: Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list. She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
from Oonagh Brault: my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with COVID-19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.

April 18, 2020

Today I’m sharing yesterday’s Daily Devotional from the UCC. I’ve always found Tony Robinson to be enormously thoughtful – and thought-provoking. I hope you do too.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

He Called My Name
Tony Robinson

April 18, 2020

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me…” – John 20:16 (NRSV)

There’s a difference between resurrection as a doctrine, and resurrection as word addressed to us, with our name on it.

We may sing the Easter hymns dutifully, even enthusiastically. But it is more often in the dark nights and the lonely places, like a deserted garden early the morning, amid grief and confusion, that it becomes personal. When we hear our name called.

The disciples (two of them) had come and gone. But Mary lingered. Mary stayed, seeing everything and seeing nothing. Then he (the one she thought was a gardener) spoke her name, “Mary!” And then she turned, which doesn’t only mean she turned around to see who was talking. It means she turned from death to life, from doubt and confusion to faith.

She had heard him call her name. He was a gardener, after all, a gardener of souls, and it was time for hers to bloom.

Perhaps you too have heard your name called, by One who spoke so powerfully to you that you too knew yourself summoned from death to life. It might have happened in church. It might have been on a hike. It might have been as you looked into the eyes of someone you loved. It might have been at the birth of a child or as thunder and lightning heaved the heavens. And it might have been in the depths of a pandemic.

Note this: called by name changes everything. But you don’t stay there. “Don’t cling to me,” he told Mary. Let me go, and you too must go. With every call comes a commission, a task. That’s the way it is with this God. Every turning moment turns us outward, toward the journey, toward others who need us, toward the world that needs us.

Prayer
In this hard time, speak to us O Lord, call us by name. Break us open and make us new. Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tony Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher, and writer. His newest book, Useful Wisdom: Letter to Young (and Not So Young) Ministers is available from Wipf and Stock. You can read and sign up for his blog at www.anthonybrobinson.com.

NEED SHOPPING HELP? Nancy MacNeill reports that her two granddaughters are offering to do shopping for anyone who can’t get out. Just contact Nancy at 508-280-3716 or <nlmacneill@comcast.net

PRAYER LIST

Want to add a concern or joy to the list? Email me at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

from Oonagh Brault: Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list. She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
from Oonagh Brault: my sister-in-law, Kathy, and her father, Jim, to the prayer list. Jim was diagnosed with covid 19. He is now on hospice care. Kathy is suffering because she cannot be with her father during this trying time.
from Elaine Johnson: (Elaine reports Janice is better, but still needs our prayers) Please add my sister Janice to the prayer list. She fell and has a small brain bleed and concussion and severed her ear which needed to be stitched back into place. She is home recovering.
Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.
from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron
from Lydia Sherman: Please add Carrie Andrews to the prayer list. She’s the cousin to my nephew Christopher’s wife… She currently is on life-support and is only in her 30’s.