Join us October 3 at 5pm for an outdoor Blessing of the Animals. Animals on leashes or in carriers are warmly welcome, as are stuffed animals and photos.
“It feels like this is something of our last Sunday of the school year, before we shift into summer mode next week with one 9am service. It’s also like we are at this societal moment of pivoting out of COVID-19 restrictions and more or less going back to normal – if there ever was such a thing. What’s been a bit disorienting for me was the radical abruptness of reopening. It was like the CDC and our civic leaders just got tired of the gray zone of semi-regulated communal life, and rather than slowly undimming the lights, they just decided to flick the switch on, and many of us, accustomed to the dark and coziness of quarantine, are squinting a little bit, trying to acclimate to the bright lights of normal.”
“Imagine a Portrait Gallery approached you and wanted to capture your image for posterity. How would you like to be portrayed? What picture of yourself would you like others to see? And do you think that picture ties up at all with the pictures others have of you? How would you be in this portrait? Where would you be? What emotion, position, look would just capture you?”
“Human beings take around 650,000,000 breaths in their lifetime;
About 25,000 a day. How many of those are we aware?
My Apple watch rings once an hour with a reminder to Breathe.
It’s kind of annoying:
What does it think I’ve been doing for the last hour?
It doesn’t give me a reminder to tell my heart to pump blood
Or to my intestines to digest food.
Why does it suppose I’ve neglected my breath?”
On Easter Sunday, we heard in the Gospel of John that the first person to discover the tomb empty was Mary Magdalene. In the Gospel of Matthew, she arrives with a second Mary, mother of James and John. Join us for a presentation and art project as we process and wonder about the Resurrection of Jesus!
“On this second Sunday of Easter, when we read the story of ‘Doubting Thomas,’ preachers will talk about what faith really means, why doubt is really important, or maybe—depending on how far afield they want to go—what this whole resurrection thing is really about anyway. This year, though, this story of Thomas and the other disciples feels more immediate to me. The reasons it feels relevant and interesting in other years are abstract and cognitive. This year is different. If in other years, I can identify with how Thomas thinks, this year I have a very real sense of solidarity with how the disciples feel, how they worship, what they do as they gather behind locked doors.”
“Tonight, we celebrate the end of the forty days of dreary fasting and rejoice at the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. And then Monday morning, we’ll wake up for yet another week of rainy, isolated walks with no end in sight. So this year, nothing’s going to change on Easter Day in any sense that really matters to our everyday lives. But then again, this has always been the case.”
“The question a spiritual mentor of mine asked me during tough days in my early twenties came back to me this last week. She asked, ‘Garrett, how are you praying these days?’ If you’re like me, Week 4 of the pandemic feels different. The routine of it has set in. Whatever it is, however it is we spend our days, we’re pretty much locked into it now.”
“My mother, my four siblings, and I were gathered around my father on my parent’s bed, waiting anxiously for the hospice nurse to show up. Dad was struggling for breath and could not speak. He was dying and was clearly in great pain and distress. We sang his favorite hymns, talked of what a wonderful father he was, told him how much we loved him. He understood everything we said, but was unable to respond.”
Mr. Small has made a video with two songs about peace. As you watch, listen, and sing along, remember this week that we are servants of God and followers of Jesus when we spread peace — in our homes, through messages to friends and teachers, and by our actions and encouragement of neighbors and strangers wherever we meet them.
Thank you, Mr. Small, for your gifts to our Sunday School and for visiting us in this way — in our homes, from your home!
“I spend some time in the summer at the Cape. The house has a covered, but open porch, and I love to spend time in an Adirondack chair reading a book or watching the clouds roll by. Also enjoying the hospitality of the porch is a family of finches. They set up housekeeping each June in a cozy spot under the protective roof of the porch. I watch as both male and female bring twigs and fluff to shore up last year’s home.”
God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. —John 3:16-17
