Category: Interim Ministry

Proverbs 3:13-18
Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding,

I spent a couple of hours yesterday listening to arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States.  I’d never heard this before – it appears it’s never been on radio before – and it was fascinating.

I’m sure the legal experts have all kinds of things to say, and good guesses as to what the decisions will be.  And it’s not that I’m not interested in that, but what fascinated me yesterday was how pleasant it was, how encouraging it was, to listen to all those people – men and women – engaging in thoughtful, intelligent discussion of such very important issues, thinking about all the sides of an issue, not just the quickest way forward.

It’s not that easy, you know, to take the time to think through the implications of our decisions.  And most of us don’t….don’t think about the next step.  We just take it one step at a time.  At one level that’s right, but if we think “one step at a time” means we don’t need to lift our heads to figure out where this path is taking us, we’ve missed the point.  That was the lesson I took away from the Supreme Court Justices yesterday.  Live for today but plan for tomorrow.

Listening to the Justices was listening to a group of people whose minds are awake.  Age didn’t matter: Justice Ginsburg’s questions were as well-formed  as those of the youngest Justice, Neil Gorsuch.  Experience, it turns out, did matter.  Former professors asked different kinds of questions than former trial attorneys.  But what mattered the most was that each and every one of the Justices clearly had invested time to study the case, to look up background, to think about implications, and had brought all of that to the table.

In Proverbs, we’re told that happiness lies in finding wisdom and understanding, and this is a great example of that truth.  For us in our current position, the understanding we seek lies in learning as much as possible about covid-19 and in taking the time to be as sure as possible that we understand the implications of our decisions. Even more than that, however, the conversations I heard were a reminder of how much sheer pleasure it is to be around people who take the time to really know their subject – whether it’s the law or the best ways to make strawberry jam!  Learning is one of the great gifts of life.

May you all have a wonderful day of learning and joy,

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

 

What do you mean, we may not sing?  When I first read the recommendation that churches refrain from singing, I thought, sure, ok, better to be safe.  And then it slowly began to sink in.  No singing.   Not just no singing the first week, the first month, we’re back, but probably something like no singing until every person in our church has had the shot to prevent Covid.  And that’s not going to be this summer.  No singing.

Everyone has that edge they stumble on.  No singing seems to be mine.   Yesterday I wrote about how challenging this is when we focus on what will happen “then”, and lose all sense of the value of the day.  What do you mean, we won’t open for “Rally Day”?  or what about the big July 4^th celebration?  Over here in Rhode Island, this was to be the last season for the PawSox before they move to Worcester (and become the WooSox? Ick) and now how will we say goodby to them and to McCoy Field?  For many of us, it’s these less important things that help us cope with the harder ones:  my 99 year old cousin Thelma died last week; we know there’ll be a graveside service, but when?  And in the meantime, her son has to empty her home alone because his sister is quarantined 200 miles away.

Singing helps us cope will all the losses we’re experiencing every day.  And now there’s to be no singing in church.  The good news is that church isn’t the only way we can sing our faith out.  So, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite faith songs with you today.  I play some of these most days.  They’re the background to my prayer time, the accompaniment of many of my drives over to Wareham.

My mother loved to sing, and she taught me to love “In the Garden” and “The Holy City”.  It’s really hard to find a good recording of the latter – too often the recording skips a verse, and leaves out part of the story.  Like “In The Garden”, “The Holy City” is a story song; it makes the best sense when we sing all of the verses.

Some of them, like the Bach chorale “Alleluia, O Praise the Lord Most Holy” or Stainer’s “For God So Loved the World”, are anthems I learned when I sang in the choir at Grace UCC in Rutland, Vermont.  I learned the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” during a year-long sojourn in a Presbyterian church in New Jersey; my mother didn’t like the church, so then we went back to the Quaker Meeting in Rancocas, NJ, where singing only took place in First-day School.  It was easy to persuade the pianist to play “Angels We Have Heard on High” in July.  I loved the “glo—o—o—ria” refrain!

Some of the faith music I love is 70s folkie stuff – “One Bread, One Body” or “Here I Am, Lord” by the St. Louis Jesuits, or “For Those Tears I Died” by Marsha Stevens.  I learned to love country music when I was stationed in the Carolinas in the Marines – so I listen to Roy Acuff’s “I Saw the Light” with joy.  If, like me, you watched the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou?”, you heard Alison Kraus’ version of “Down to the River to Pray.”  It’s a wonderful song to sing.  Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver do marvelous close harmony on old songs like “Prayer is a Wonderful Gift from God”.

You can see that I love a wide variety of sacred music. From old-timey gospel, to English church music like Thomas Tallis’ “If Ye Love Me”, to Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, to the recent “The Word Was God” sung by the Minnesota Boychoir.  Recently, I’ve been listening to the Oasis Chorale.

I could go on and on….there are songs and there are singers, to name and admire.  I’ve not even mentioned the power of organ music or other instrumental music.  But time, space, and your patience….

What do you listen to?  Do you have favorite songs, hymns or pieces of music?  What place does music have in your faith life?

We are a singing people, whether or not it is safe to sing in worship.  It is through song that we remind ourselves of God’s constant presence in our lives.  The words stick in our hearts to lead us in the faithful way.  If we cannot sing together, we can still sing separately – and even if you don’t think of yourself as a singer, listen to the music and let it speak to your heart.

For today, check this song out.  It’s Ysaye Barnwell’s “Wanting Memories”, sung by the acapella group “Cantus”.  Let it lift your hearts today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FRbAbbtTU

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

May 11, 2020

Now is as real as then.

I was shocked on Friday to read that the church where I hold membership had decided to not hold worship or gather in person for the next twelve months.  Frankly, it seemed defeatist to me… a kind of giving up, declaring that there was no hope.

This morning, however, I began to understand the leadership’s position – even if I still don’t agree with their decision.  I was reading an article by the great Lutheran preacher, Nadia Bolz-Weber (you can find it here: https://nadiabolzweber.substack.com/p/optimism-wont-save-mebut-neither.  She is consistently profane and profound all at the same time.)

Here’s what Bolz-Weber said:  I realize now that when this global pandemic all started, I think I was trying to be as optimistic as possible, believing it the best way to get through. So I told myself, It’s ok to spend a couple weeks at home, because after this we will be able to go to Holy Week Services!

Then it was, “Well…I still can’t wait to preach Pentecost at the Cathedral at the end of May!”

. . . I had hooked my hope on something in the future and as each hope dissolved, I’d find another hook. Until finally, reality sunk in. 

The church I belong to found itself in that same, oh we can do this because it’s only for a week, a month, we’ll have Easter, and what about the Church Picnic?  And finally, to end all the up and down, the leaders said, nope, not meeting at all, for twelve months – a year of stepping away.  I think it was the only way they could get away from that dream of postponing today until we get to some wonderful tomorrow.

But today is all we have, really.  Now is just as real, just as important as then will be.

In Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying:  So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.  And I’m adding, turn that inside out:  don’t put off enjoying the good of today in the hopes of a better tomorrow.

Don’t so focus on what you’re missing right now that you miss what’s happening right now.  This isn’t the now that we expected; it’s not the now we wanted, but it’s the now we have.  We woke up this morning and that was a blessing.  We’re learning things that will help us be a stronger church community going forward, if only by being forced to learn how to use Zoom to communicate.

The thing is – while we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, we do know that today is here.  The sun comes up, we’re alive.  We’d like to think that someday we’ll have proper May temperatures <smile>.  We have hope that we will gather in worship once more, but we are not pinning that hope on one particular day.  When the time is right, when it is safe, when we are ready, then and only then will we worship together again.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

Today is the first Thursday in May, and for decades has been designated as a Day of Prayer for our country.  Heaven knows, in the midst of this pandemic, there is nothing our land needs more than prayer for health and healing!

It’s important to pray for our country, important to ask God for guidance for those who lead our land.  And so, today, I ask you to join me in prayer for the United States of America.

I pray as a Christian; I pray as a Christian who believes that God welcomes all.  I pray as a Christian who believes that the welcoming God asks only one thing of us, and that is to live in love with our neighbors.  Love God, love neighbor, love self.

And so I pray:

God, on this day, I pray for my country.
I pray for the United States of America.
I pray for every inhabitant. . . those who were born here. . .
those who chose, often at risk of life, to come here, to be part of our great experiment.

I pray for those who vote, for those who won’t vote, can’t vote.
I pray for those of us who have jobs, and those who don’t.
I pray for those of us who have medical insurance, and for those who don’t.
I pray for those of who, today, are healthy, and for those of us struggling to survive this virus.

I pray for people who live in apartments, ten to a room,
and for those who rattle around 20000 sq. foot houses.
I pray for families with food and with no food.
I pray for those who sacrifice to make it better
and for those whose selfishness and obstinacy endangers us all.
I pray for America.

I pray for those who serve and save – the health professions, the first responders.
I pray for those who serve in our military.
I pray for the mayor of my little city, and the select board in your town.
I pray for our governors, our state legislators, our federal legislators.
I pray for our courts, our judges, for the continuation of the rule of law in our land.
I pray that we might turn away from the assumptions that create prejudice, that lead us to think that a black man running must be a thief, and so it’s all right to kill him.

I pray that we might turn away from the belief that my way is the best way,
that you’ll be ok when you’re just like me.
I pray that we might remember who we are, and live faithful to the promise of our land. for we were made to be people of love.

We were formed to care for one another.
We were charged to be generous, to reach out to serve need.
As Americans, we are bound together by that intention –
not by our birth, for that is not the only way to be American;
not by our color, or our background, or our gender preference or who we want to marry. We are bound together by the vision of a land where all are created equal,
where we will give of our abundance to help those in need.

God, send down your guiding hand upon us that we not forget your vision.  Let this country be what we aimed to be, a land of liberty and justice for all, tempered with the mercy of caring people.

Amen.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

I can’t possibly be the only person here who learned this psalm at a very early age.  The earliest church I attended must have said it on a regular basis, because we stopped going there before I was five, and yet the words still bring back memories of a large dark room with lots of maroon velvet and how important it is to praise God with gladness.

The Psalms are an amazing collection of poetry.  They’re not all as kind and uplifting as Psalm 100, though.  Some  of them are really really angry, some downright murderous.  The Psalms, in their entirety, display all the characteristics of a fully human family.  That makes them especially valuable in times like these.  Are you angry right now?  There’s a psalm to give voice to your anger.  Are you sad?  There’s a psalm for you.  Did you wake up this morning with joy for the sight of the sun and another day?  There’s a psalm for you.

Take some time today to read a psalm or two; find one you really like.  Circle it, mark it, put a bookmark in your Bible… and read it every day this week.  Let it speak to you, give voice to your feelings, bring you closer to the God who knows us well and love us always.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

 

Proverbs 31:10 A capable wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels.

Occasionally, I am still asked to read this selection from Proverbs 31: 10-31, often by mourning sons.  Their mom was the greatest mom, the best wife their dad could have had.  But over the last fifty years, the idea of celebrating a wife who works like a dog from dawn to dusk, so that her husband can sit around debating “important things” with the elders of the city (vs23).  That’s certainly why families don’t ask to hear this as often these days.

But as we approach Mother’s Day, let’s forget all that and move into what it means to be a mom today.  Today, in the middle of this pandemic, with schools closed, kids home, jobs challenging, and perennial anxiety about whether or not there will be toilet paper in the store when we need it, it’s time to celebrate the work of those women who mother our world.

A capable mother, who can find?
Her family trusts her to do the right thing.
She teaches by her example to love God and serve neighbor.
She makes sure the home runs well.
The clothes get washed.
The dishes are cleaned.
Meals are planned, groceries purchased, cooking done.
She doesn’t do it all, but she makes sure it all gets done.
When something new comes along, she adapts and adjusts.
She works from a home office set up on the dining room table
She shares space with her fourth-grader and tries to help with the math problems.
The dog goes out, the cat comes in, and she sets up a backdrop for a Zoom meeting
While listening to the fifth grader practice the French horn.
Her job has stopped; she is on furlough and no money is coming in
And she works to make a meal from a bag of rice, some beans and a little spice.
She washes her children’s clothes in the kitchen sink every night
Because they don’t have a change of clothes.
A capable mother; she loves her children through thick and thin;
Many women have done excellently;  you are one of them.
We thank God for mothers.
Amen.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

Choral music has always been an important part of my spiritual journey.  It was music – hymn singing, and when I discovered it, choral singing – which enriched my life when I joined the United Church of Christ.  In times of trial, singing has been what kept me going.  Now, as we find ourselves in a place where singing in crowds may be (likely is) dangerous, there is still strength and power in that music.  I may not sing in a choir, I may not sing in a congregation, but I can still sing in my heart.

These days, most often I listen to YouTube videos of the Oasis Chorale.  One in particular, their rendition of “We Are Not Alone” is enormously moving.  The song begins with a solo; the choir responds with the chorus, “we are not alone, God is with us”.  I’ve posted a link to this song before; this time the link is to a shorter version by a smaller portion of the chorale.

We are not alone.  Think about that.  We are not alone, for God is with us.  I know I’m not the only member of our church who lives alone.  We hear, almost daily, of people who are alone in nursing homes, alone – dying – in the hospital.  We know there are those who are alone in their apartments, without the money to pay their bills next month.

But the song reminds us that, in an essential way, we are not alone.  God is with us.  What does that mean?  It means that when we are feeling most alone (and even if someone is with you, you can feel alone), you still have God.  When you’re sitting in the waiting room at St. Luke’s, not sure about the test you just had, you are not sitting there alone, for God is with you.  If you’ve listened to the music, you’ll hear it in your head, reminding you that you are not alone.  The music carries the words, gives them power, helps us remember them.  That’s why I love choral music and hymn singing.  When I’m down, when I’m alone – the music is always there.

This week, I want to urge you to take the time to click on this link, to listen again to the chorale sing, and as you listen, hold in your hearts the sense that the song includes you in its “we”.  For we are not alone; God is with us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtjlInSK3g

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

I Peter 1:22  love one another as if your lives depended on it.  (Eugene Peterson, The Message translation)

I think this sentence, and in this translation, is becoming my new favorite Bible quote. That’s because it so clearly gets to what I think is the core and center of our Christian faith.  We are here, our purpose in life is, to love one another.  We are not given life to make money; we make money to have more resources to love one another.  We are not powerful that we might be important; we are here to use what power we have to help the powerless – because we love one another.

This was brought home to me this morning in an odd way.  I began the morning by watching the worship service from Dornoch Cathedral in Dornoch, Scotland.  The pastor, the Rt. Rev. Susan Brown, of the Church of Scotland, was talking about the centrality of love, even in the midst of pandemic.  And then the vagaries of web browsing brought me to the funeral eulogy Andrew Cuomo offered for his father, NY Governor Mario Cuomo.  Not one to mince words, Andrew Cuomo made it clear that every single thing his father did, he did because he believed that the central tenet of the Christian faith was that we must love one another.  And then I took part in the Livestreaming of Old South Church in Boston’s Sunday service and got yet another serving of love.

It struck me so powerfully – sandwiched between two good sermons was this powerful testimony  by a lay person that the lives of the people of New York State had been changed, bettered by a man who profoundly believed that it is our job to love one another.  It’s not just a pastor’s platitude.  This was a report from the trenches by someone who knows what he’s talking about. Love makes a difference.  Love saves lives.  Love makes life worth living.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

John 10:1-10  (verse 4)  When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Tomorrow is Good Shepherd Sunday in the church calendar.  We read the 23^rd Psalm, and the Gospel story is about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  In this tough pandemic time, I’ve been thinking about what it is to be a shepherd, because, you know, it’s not all nice days on the moors, just us and the sheep. . .  The sheep want to go left, but the good grass is to the right, and all the sheep begin to demonstrate and yell and scream, because they have a right to go left. . .   Or the sheep can’t wait to get home to the sheepfold, but if we let them run amok, they’ll run over one another, and someone (many someones) will end up dead or injured.  And it’s the job of shepherds to prevent that from happening.

It’s easy enough to see how our governors – Gov. Baker, especially – are functioning as shepherds right now, but we too have our shepherding tasks.  Because, despite the metaphor, we’re really not sheep.  But we do want to get back together; we want to see one another, we want to give and receive hugs.  We want to sit down and hear a sermon, hear our own music, sing together, and afterwards – share a cup of coffee with the friends we miss so much.

But it’s not going to happen – yet.  And we have to be shepherds to one another, to help keep us on track, so that it can happen.  Around my neighborhood, more people are out and about.  There’s more traffic on the streets.  The local ice cream stand has opened and people are lining up for cones.  You can’t eat ice cream with a mask on, you know.  The only safe way is the thoughtful way – just how will we do this, how will we handle that?

I’m paying close attention to my colleagues and to the experts, remembering always two things – first, this has never happened this way before, so advice may and should change rapidly as we gather more knowledge.  And second, if we allow our urge to be together to push us too quickly, we could all die.  That’s a sobering thought.

There’s a lot of inflammatory stuff out there on the internet these days.  People are frustrated and angry, and some folks – particularly folks who struggle with the concept of vaccinations – distrust all mainstream medical experts.  Be careful about what you read or listen to; do your best to insure that you’re listening to the best experts for  our place and time.  That’s why I listen most closely to the medical folks around the governors for Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York.  And remember that as they learn more, their advice will evolve to deal with today’s challenges.

Here’s an example of how knowledge and suggestions are evolving.  First we were urged to sanitize hymnals between services.  Then someone suggested that instead, we should print the hymns out in the bulletins.  And now, the best suggestion is that we shouldn’t sing together, because singing projects air so far out in front of our faces that if one of us has the covid coming on, we could all be infected.

Each of us is a shepherd for our own community, whether you see your community is our church, Wareham, or your household.  We all have to make our decisions on how to be in the world based on the best knowledge we have right now.  We have to keep up with what’s being discovered.  We have to pay attention to the way our world is changing every day.

Easter blessings, Pastor Virginia

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