Month: April 2020

 

April 17, 2020

 

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

O give thanks to the God of gods,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

O give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his steadfast love endures forever

Psalm 136:1-3

In these odd days of quarantine and restricted movement, it can sometimes be challenging to remember that God is with us.  The beaches are closed; Onset’s fireworks have been cancelled; who knows what summer will bring us or when we can be together again.  It’s then that the refrain from Psalm 136 is really helpful:  “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

The psalm goes on for twenty-six couplets, each reciting something God has done and ending with “for his steadfast love endures forever.”

We are never alone.  God is always with us, for God’s steadfast love endures forever.

I hope and pray that you are doing well.  If you’d like to talk, give me a call at 774-218-0738.  I’d love to hear how things are going for you.

May God continue to bless you richly,

Pastor Virginia

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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.

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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

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

today’s message comes to us courtesy of Ron and Mary Westgate, who received it from a friend:

HOW THE VIRUS STOLE EASTER by Kristi Bothur, with a nod to Dr. Seuss:

Twas late in ‘19 when the virus began
Bringing chaos and fear to all people, each land.
 
People were sick, hospitals full,
Doctors overwhelmed, no one in school.
 
As winter gave way to the promise of spring,
The virus raged on, touching peasant and king.
 
People hid in their homes from the enemy unseen.
They YouTubed and Zoomed, social-distanced, and cleaned.
 
April approached and churches were closed.
“There won’t be an Easter,” the world supposed.
 
“There won’t be church services, and egg hunts are out.
No reason for new dresses when we can’t go about.”
 
Holy Week started, as bleak as the rest.
The world was focused on masks and on tests.
 
“Easter can’t happen this year,” it proclaimed.
“Online and at home, it just won’t be the same.”
 
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the days came and went.
The virus pressed on; it just would not relent.
 
The world woke Sunday and nothing had changed.
The virus still menaced, the people, estranged.
 
“Pooh pooh to the saints,” the world was grumbling.
“They’re finding out now that no Easter is coming.
 
“They’re just waking up! We know just what they’ll do!
Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
And then all the saints will all cry boo-hoo.
 
“That noise,” said the world, “will be something to hear.”
So it paused and the world put a hand to its ear.
 
And it did hear a sound coming through all the skies.
It started down low, then it started to rise.
 
But the sound wasn’t depressed.
Why, this sound was triumphant!
It couldn’t be so!
But it grew with abundance!
 
The world stared around, popping its eyes.
Then it shook! What it saw was a shocking surprise!
 
Every saint in every nation, the tall and the small,
Was celebrating Jesus in spite of it all!
 
It hadn’t stopped Easter from coming! It came!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!
 
And the world with its life quite stuck in quarantine
Stood puzzling and puzzling.
“Just how can it be?”
 
“It came without bonnets, it came without bunnies,
It came without egg hunts, cantatas, or money.”
 
Then the world thought of something it hadn’t before.
“Maybe Easter,” it thought, “doesn’t come from a store.
Maybe Easter, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
 
And what happened then?
Well….the story’s not done.
What will YOU do?
Will you share with that one
Or two or more people needing hope in this night?
Will you share the source of your life in this fight?
 
The churches are empty – but so is the tomb,
And Jesus is victor over death, doom, and gloom.
 
So this year at Easter, let this be our prayer,
As the virus still rages all around, everywhere.
 
May the world see hope when it looks at God’s people.
May the world see the church is not a building or steeple.
May the world find Faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection,
May the world find Joy in a time of dejection.
May 2020 be known as the year of survival,
But not only that –
Let it start a revival.

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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
·      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.

TEA WITH THE PASTOR – Today, from 1 to 2 – a Zoom-based tea party.  Send an email to Pastor Virginia  for the link at pastorchild02914@gmail.com

It’s National Disaster Day

Well, no, not really, but it sure feels that way.  On April 15, 2013, the Boston Marathon was bombed.  And just last year, on April 15, the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris burned.  Now, this year, on April 15, we’re confined to our homes, ordered (at least here in RI) to wear masks when we go out, passively and effectively fighting a health disaster.  Oh, and in a normal year, this is Tax Day – which for some, is kinda like a disaster, too.

In the Daily Devotional, Pastor John Edgerton (who there when the bombs went off at the Marathon) points out that one of our first reactions is always, “oh things will never be the same!” as if it’s all be spoiled permanently.  And as if the only one right way for things to be is the way they were.  But change happens anyway.  Even outside the experience of disasters, change happens.

I once belonged to a church up in Newton MA (while I worked at Andover Newton)… and heard the story as to why they’d only recently begun to allow women to serve as Deacons.  

They couldn’t have women as Deacons because Deacons wore tail coats when they served Communion.  And women couldn’t wear tail coats – and they’d look too inappropriate if they wore cocktail dresses or ball gowns.  So – no women.  

Until one day, there were women, and to the men’s joy, there were no more tail coats.  Change happens.  And the loss of the elegant dress meant that more people were welcome, more people were happier about being Deacons.  Tho, to be honest, I’m sure there were some who thought the loss of tail coats was a disaster.

Will our lives go back to the same as before?  I doubt it.  Will they be better?  Worse?  Who knows . . but we can be sure there will be, as there was, and as there is – there will be good, and bad, and in the midst of it all, there will be God.  

Even now, alone in our homes, isolated from friends and support, we are not isolated from God.  Disasters are still disasters, but there is life afterwards.  We need not fear the loss of all that is important to us in the days and month to come.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

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

• from Oonagh Brault:  Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list.  She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
• 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. (4/9)
• Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis. (4/7)
• 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.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Jesus rose from the dead, but no one believed him.  It wasn’t just Thomas who doubted; he was just the bluntest.  Mark reports that when Mary Magdalene went back to tell the disciples they didn’t believe her.  And after Jesus appeared on two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, their fellow disciples didn’t believe them either.

When life stinks, when the worst happens, and people pop up to say, it’ll be better or you’ve not seen the end of the story yet, no one wants to believe them.  When the epidemiologists say there’s another side to our sacrifices right now, it just doesn’t feel like we’re close to back to normal.  Sometimes, we’d rather believe stories that Jesus never died than believe he rose from the dead.  In the same way, some would rather believe this is all an elaborate con game run by (whoever they most distrust).  

But the truth is this – bad stuff happens.  People die.  It hurts like heck and often the pain is there for the rest of our lives.  And it’s equally true that Christ triumphed over death, that even with the pain there can still be good, that we can take our pain and let it guide us into new ways.  We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but we know there will be a tomorrow.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

STARTING WEDNESDAY:  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

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

• prayers for Chris Markola’s son and family in Holly Springs NC, where they’ve had tornadoes.
• prayers for utility folks out repairing lines and restoring electricity.
• from Oonagh Brault:  Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list.  She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
• from Elaine Johnson:  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. (4/9)
• Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis. (4/7)
• 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.

Let the hard days be hard. You’re mourning life as you knew it—and the version of yourself who lived that life. Even as you grieve, try to remember: there is a beginning tucked inside every ending. The beginning of what? The only way to find out is to keep going. Keep moving.  Maggie Smith (poet)

Today I’m sharing with you a meditation written by a seminary classmate, the Rev. Wendy L. Ward.  Wendy’s retired these days and living in Lewiston, Maine, but she’s keeping her hand in writing occasional essays.

                                                         Ready…or Not

  “Ready or not, here I come.” The boyish voice carries through the park, marking the only activity there on a sunny April afternoon. 

   Three of them, dark-haired and sturdy – a teen-aged girl, a boy of about eight, and a boy of five or six – have been climbing on the jungle gym, teasing one another in the way of siblings.  Now the older boy kneels on a bench, head on arms on the bench back, eyes averted. The girl and smaller boy dash for the only hiding places available – in a row of shrubbery edging the playground. 

   “48…49…50…Ready or not, here I come!”  For a moment my mind flips back to soft summer evenings and our neighborhood games of hide-and-seek.  Over 60 years ago we shouted that same warning – “Ready or not, here I come!”  I’m startled to realize that today’s youngsters, even with all their devices and sophistication, still use this age-old phrase.

   Did the boy who was “it” find his siblings quickly? Or did he seek slowly, making a show of looking for them? I don’t know. My back is to them as I amble past the empty skate park and basketball courts, closed because of social distancing and the Corona virus. 

    “Ready or not, here I come.”  We were not ready for the deadly virus that spread around the world, leaping from person to person, from one country and continent to others. The disease came, seeking indiscriminately. Warnings were ignored. Governments were unprepared,  medical facilities and personnel were unprepared, we who thought the danger far removed were mostly unprepared. But then, are we ever really ready for what is coming?

   In these last days of Lent and amid the pandemic, death has been coming. It came for Jesus, it has come for ordinary people and celebrities alike, comes to us all eventually.  But so does resurrection and the new life that seeks us, ready or not. When I was pastor I would tell my parishioners who were fretting, especially at times like Christmas or Easter, “It will come, whether we’re ready or not, because we don’t make incarnation/resurrection happen.  God does.” The tree may not be trimmed or the eggs dyed, the family dinner may not be organized, the gifts from Santa or The Bunny may not be bought, but God is still in charge.  Along those lines, I find these last days of Holy Week provide form for my thinking on readiness.  

   Maundy Thursday is about farewells.  In the Gospel accounts Jesus gathers with his disciples to warn them of betrayal and his impending death, to give instructions, offer a remembrance and love, and say good-bye. In CPE our supervisor used the Gospel of John as instructive material on how to say good-bye – not only at the time of dying but in any situation of upcoming loss or change. Maundy Thursday reminds us to ready expressions of remembrance, love, gratitude, and good-bye when changes loom – or even before we know they are needed.

    Good Friday is about suffering and death, prepared for and accepted. This year I find myself drawn to Joseph of Arimathea, whose burial of Jesus appears in all four gospels. In Matthew, he was prepared for the eventuality of his death but gave over the readiness of his tomb to Jesus (27:60).  He brings the linen shroud, and in the Gospel of John, he is accompanied by Nicodemus, who provides “a mixture myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds” (19:39) From our own security and readiness — of health or finances, spiritual strength or seclusion creativity — Good Friday begs us to risk and to share with those whose security of income or interaction or meaning has imploded. 

    Holy Saturday is the long wait to move on. Jesus may be harrowing hell, but Mary and the other women are observing Sabbath rest, their spices prepared to anoint his body (23:56). During normal times this day before Easter is filled with activities for church and home. We are in different times now. Our sheltering can be, as various writings have expressed, a sabbath time. The air and earth are refreshing themselves. Wearied and fearful as we are, and as the women followers of Jesus were, waiting time is a readying time for difficult duties ahead. Life will not go back to normal. We wait in uncertainty for the changed future.

   Easter Sunday comes whether we are ready or not. It throws wide, or maybe opens only a crack, the door into new life. Resurrection is filled with the unexpected – for the disciples, the women, even the guard at the tomb.  We most likely will not be ready for all that post Covid-19 brings. There will be hardship; there will be resourcefulness; hopefully there will be enhanced compassion, diligence, and commitment in readiness for the common good. No, we will not be ready for all that this new life and new reality bring. But we ground ourselves in the grace of the  Holy One, whose “ready or not, here I come” of incarnation and resurrection seeks us in even our most hopeless unreadiness and finding us, loves us absurdly. 

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

• prayers for Chris Markola’s son and family in Holly Springs NC, where they’ve had tornadoes today.
• prayers for utility folks out repairing lines and restoring electricity today and tonight.
• from Oonagh Brault:  Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list.  She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
• from Elaine Johnson:  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. (4/9)
• Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis. (4/7)
• 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 11, 2020  Holy Saturday

On the cross, Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Let that sink in.

God felt the absence of God.

We can ponder that for the rest of our lives.

No matter how dark it gets, or how lonely you feel…

God has been there too.

Shane Claiborne

Today is an in-between day.  The drama of Good Friday is over.  The rush and the anger, the beating and the death. . even the burial is over and done.  And now, there is nothing.  Nothing at all.

It’s hard to live in this sort of in-between time.  We have been through the really bad, and everything tells us there’s something better coming down the line.  But it’s not here, not now, and it doesn’t feel as though it’ll ever arrive.  More than that, I suspect many of us aren’t sure what “something better” will look like when it comes.  When will we be comfortable in crowds again?  I’m betting we’ll want to go to the beach, but. . . when it’s not filled with people?  Who knows?  Today there is no answer but tomorrow is another day.

In the in-between times, when nothing is certain, here’s a song I’ve found comforting ever since I first sang it as a choir member:  “God So Loved the World” by Sir John Stainer  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lljhbni65pk

Many blessings on this Easter Eve,

Pastor Virginia

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

• from Oonagh Brault:  Please add my friend Lindsay to the prayer list.  She has just been diagnosed with COVID-19.
• from Elaine Johnson:  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. (4/9)
• Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis. (4/7)
• 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.

Today is Good Friday: the day on which Jesus was tried, condemned and crucified.  Justice was swift in that time.  Last night, while he was at dinner with his friends, those whom we know as the disciples, one of his closest friends, a man who’d been with him almost from the beginning, sold him out to the authorities.  We don’t know why.  Maybe it was money.  Maybe disillusionment.  Maybe fear.  Who knows what runs through a mind under stress?

On April 1, 4780 people had been officially recorded as dying from this coronavirus. Yesterday, that number was 16,672.  That means that in the nine days, almost twelve thousand people died.  It took twenty days to get to twelve thousand deaths, but counting backwards, only nine days…  this outbreak is not yet over.  It is not yet time to relax our vigilance.

Jesus’ followers followed him to the place of judgment.  It was while they were there, waiting, that a maid came up to Peter, the most loyal of the disciples.  She accused him of being one of Jesus’ pals.  And Peter denied it.  He denied knowing Jesus, not once, but three times.  

This time, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, is all about betrayal.  It’s all about those times when even the best of friends step back, or even the most reliable of backstops fail.  What could speak more powerfully to us in this time of loss?  Everywhere we turn, those things we have depended on are failing us.  If we go out (and we’re really not supposed to do that), we need to wear masks, dart in and out of the grocery, go home and wash our hands.  We can’t gather in crowds, won’t be able to have Easter dinner with family or friends.  We worry that investments have tanked; we wonder if jobs will still be there, or if we’re going to get paid through this season.  Certainties have been dissolved by fear.

Like the disciples, we don’t know what’s going to happen next.  On Friday, they did not know what Sunday would bring.  Like them, we wait for. . . what, we’re not sure.

Yet, in the midst of fear, in the midst of uncertainty, we still have God.  We still have this Holy Week story to tell us that in the midst of the worst, we still have God.  So hold on!  It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming.

Blessings on this darkest of days, 

Pastor Virginia

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

• from Elaine Johnson:  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. (4/9)
• Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis. (4/7)
• 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.
• Steve Chanona’s daughter Annie, who is in Florida,  has recovered.

April 9, 2020 Maundy Thursday

I just returned home from Donald Hall’s graveside service  – a melancholy time on a cold and rainy day. Here’s a copy of Donald’s obituary:

Donald Barnes Hall, 86, of Pinehurst Beach, Wareham, passed away on Friday April 3, 2020 at the Nemasket Health Care Center in Middleborough, MA.  Mr. Hall was born in Middleborough, the son of the late Henry L. and Helen (Barnes) Hall. 

Mr. Hall was a 1953 graduate of Wareham High School.  He received his BA from Boston University and a Master’s in Education from the University of New Mexico.  He was a U.S. Army veteran attaining the rank of Specialist 4 and honorably discharged in 1963.  Mr. Hall taught Spanish and Social Studies. He taught at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, Carroll College in Helena, Montana and Furman University in Greenville, SC.  He was also a Case Manager with the Department of Transitional Assistance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  He was a long time and much loved member of the First Congregational Church in Wareham and he also enjoyed traveling and time spent with family and friends.

Mr. Hall is survived by his nephew Benjamin W. Fearing of Rochester, MA and his close friends Richard Cotton and his wife Jan and Paul Sheehan.  He was the brother of the late Barbara Coville and Natalie Fearing who passed away on March 28, 2020.  He was also the uncle of the late David Coville.

His funeral will be private and burial will be in South Middleborough Cemetery.  To leave a message of condolence for the family please visit http://www.warehamvillagefuneralhome.com.  Memorial gifts may be made to the First Congregational Church 11 Gibbs Ave. Wareham.  
 
More tomorrow, Virginia

Many thanks to those of you who have sent your pledge into the church.  Our expenses continue, so we really appreciate your efforts to help us pay our bills.  Checks may be mailed to the church at 5 Gibbs Avenue, Wareham MA  02571.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Today         2pm     Memorial Service for Donald Hall, via Zoom

PRAYER LIST

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

• from Elaine Johnson:  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. (4/9)
• Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis. (4/7)
• 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.
• Steve Chanona’s daughter Annie, who is in Florida,  has the COVID-19 virus.  Keep her and Steve in your prayers.
• Good news!  Ron and Mary Westgate report that Michael Layman, who had the COVID-19 virus is now home and doing well, though still quarantined.  Thanks for your prayers!

April 8, 2020  Wednesday of Holy Week

Mark 12:1–11

Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.  What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not read this scripture: 

‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?” 

As Holy Week progresses, the daily readings increasingly point to what’s coming.  Some years we really don’t quite get that sense of out-on-the-horizon horror, but surely this year we do, because we are also living it out.  Today’s reading tells us that no one wants to hear bad news, that even the best among us can be hated, rejected for telling the truth.  Do you see that in your world?  Are there times when you refuse to listen?  Are there times when you aren’t heard?  Are there times when the less important (in the long run) crowds out that which is really essential?  

Actually, the last question is really apt, as we begin to get restless.  I’m beginning to see articles about “re-starting things”, or “the peak is here”, and I’m afraid we’ll get antsy and want to go back to the way things were much too soon.  Will our need to see one another crowd out the importance of this physical distancing?  Will we think, “oh there are fewer cases, so it won’t matter if I . . .”  In some ways, the coming process to re-start our world will be as difficult as the last few weeks, if only because we will want to just go for it.  It runs the risk of being as if we jumped directly from the joy of Palm Sunday to the joy of Easter without paying any attention to the fear and worry of this week.  We can’t take short-cuts; we have to run the entire race to get the prize.

Today’s musical offering comes to us from Bruce Hutchins, who sang in a similar a capella group while in college:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSgFbu6c-h4

Blessings, Pastor Virginia

Many thanks to those of you who have sent your pledge into the church.  Our expenses continue, so we really appreciate your efforts to help us pay our bills.  Checks may be mailed to the church at 5 Gibbs Avenue, Wareham MA  02571.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday      7pm     Church Council, via Zoom

Thursday         2pm     Memorial Service for Donald Hall, via Zoom

PRAYER LIST

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

Good news!  Ron and Mary Westgate report that Michael Layman, who had the COVID-19 virus is now home and doing well, though still quarantined.  Thanks for your prayers!

Steve Chanona’s daughter Annie, who is in Florida,  has the COVID-19 virus.  Keep her and Steve in your prayers.

Elaine Johnson writes:  4/5 is my oldest grandson Cameron’s 14th birthday and on April 16th, his younger brother and my youngest grandson Ryan will celebrate his 12th birthday. Though my heart is so sad that I cannot be with them as they celebrate their birthdays, I am so blessed that they and the rest of our family is healthy and safe. . . .  I’m grateful for FaceTime during these difficult days we are in. At least we can see the smiling faces of our dear grandchildren. ❤️

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.

from Nancy MacNeill, prayers for her cousin Pam Bergeron

Prayers for all who work in the medical field as they deal with this crisis.