The church has signed up to a new service whereby those with no internet access can listen to an  audio version of our regular  worship videos by telephoning 01241 545821. These audio services will be updated weekly, possibly by Monday evening at our end, but they don't update on the system immediately.   Our very first audio is available now and is for the worship dated June 14th, 2020.  Please spread the word to those who don't use computers, tablets/ipads or smart phones.

There is going to be a craft included in the worship on Sunday 21st June 2020.  To request your craft kit, please telephone the church office 01241 230300 and leave a message on the answering machine giving your name and address. Alternatively, send an email to the church office email address office.stvigeans@gmail.com 

June 2020 Family Newsletter is now on the website-Visit the NEWS page

​Hallo All!!!
 
I'm getting in touch because I truly miss you all so very much!  I miss seeing you all in person, the time we usually spend together and all the hugs I always demand from you all.  
 
I'm not going to lie, the last few months have not always been plain sailing and I don't think I was exaggerating when I said my health would deteriorate due to a broken heart. I am also well and truly out of the race for the "Housewife and Mother of the Year" award. 😂
 
I think this is why the recent Messy Church Newsletter has resonated with me so:  It’s about the fact that we might feel disappointed as we are not as productive as we would usually be, but that is ok as nobody else is either and the kindness and caring that we still show others is also a way to spread God’s message of Love.  "Hospitality is a core messy church value - and that cuts both ways, after all Jesus ate in other people’s homes much more often then he cooked for others (though he apparently did an amazing BBQ fish)."
 
It also discusses the problems we will face under the "new normal" and some ideas that are definitely food for thought.  I am hoping we can all put our heads together to see how we might move forward with Messy Church in our community.  I am also keeping a close eye on the guidelines issued for schools in the hope that some of the measures they put in place with be helpful to us when we try to bring groups of small children together again.  Having the parents with will certainly help when it comes to distancing, however I would not want our events to become too stressful for our parents, after all I have always made a point of the fact that I don’t mind when young children run around or talk, I only mind it if it’s the grownups doing the running and talking 🤣

Thank you so much for your continued support and efforts, God's blessings and all my Love to you all!
See you soon!
Gerda xx
 
To see the Letter from Messy Church, Please visit the MESSY CHURCH  page on our website.

More Than Enough Spirit

June 04, 2020
Written by Vicki Kemper
But Moses said to Joshua, “Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” - Numbers 11:29 (NRSV)

The formerly enslaved people, led by Moses out of Pharaoh’s Egypt and through the Red Sea, will not stop complaining about their wilderness diet of dewy manna that appears every morning sure as the sunrise. The only thing more constant than manna is the people’s incessant demand that Moses give them meat. Burned out and bereft, Moses asks God to kill him.

“I am not able to carry this people alone,” he wails. “They are too heavy for me.”

“Of course they are,” God says. “No one can carry a people alone – not even you. I’ll take some of the spirit I put on you and give it to 70 of your best folks. They will lighten your load.”

And so it goes. But there are these other guys, Eldad and Medad, who don’t get chosen as part of the 70. And yet they, too, speak the word of the Lord. “Make them stop!” Joshua tells Moses.

“Why would I do that?” Moses responds. “I wish God would anoint everyone with the Spirit!”

And so God has.

The Pentecost season is a great time to acknowledge that we can’t do it all – love God, eradicate racism, welcome the stranger, lift up the lowly, nurture beloved community, reinvent church for a pandemic, and more – on our own. And Pentecost is the perfect time to celebrate that we don’t have to. Because there is more than enough Spirit to go around. Because a people empowered can always do more together than the most gifted leader. Because a Spirit-filled church can change the world.

Prayer
That the load is not ours alone to bear, and that your Spirit carries us all, we praise you.



How Small the Regard of the Lord?

June 03, 2020
Written by Waide Harris
June 3, 2020
How Small the Regard of the Lord?
Quinn G. Caldwell
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
- Psalm 104:24 (NRSV)
If the works of the Lord are manifold, so are the mysteries they engender. For instance: is a sparrow the smallest God’s notice goes? Does God see and care for the fates of smaller lives as well? Field mice? Worms? Fleas? Does God’s regard extend all the way down to...viruses?
I ask because some of us work hard to see the world in terms of systems. Predator and prey equally important; microbes and maggots mattering as much as seeds, for themselves and for the roles they play in the system. All beloved by God.
That which humans consider pathogenic often has other functions in the world beyond its effects on us. How does God think about the tiny bits of life that make us sick?
Does God hate them? Were they created by the Adversary?
Does God love them as much God loves as us, but is just sitting back and waiting to see who wins?
Is it possible that God created them, and loves them – and sent them at us?
The options are all grim enough to put you off God altogether. So maybe – bear with me here, you’re not going to like this – maybe these questions aren’t for us. Maybe they’re beyond our knowing, at least until we’ve mastered other mysteries first.
I think I’ve decided I’m not yet ready for the mystery of whether God loves everything in the Creation as much as God loves humans. Because honestly, the mystery of how God loves me and the person next to me equally is more than enough to be getting on with.
Prayer
For a love that is so much bigger than my comprehension, thank you. Amen.
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No Justice, No Peace

June 02, 2020
Written by Kenneth Samuel
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:34 (NIV)

The lethal asphyxiation of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, is just the latest in a series of black fatalities brought about by overzealous policing, racial profiling, and white vigilantism. When peaceful protests of Black people against racial injustice turn violent, pastors and public officials are called upon to counsel Black people in the merits of nonviolence.

But we often fail to acknowledge the double standard that America holds for Black violence as compared to White violence.

Last month hundreds of angry White protesters, carrying guns, wearing MAGA hats and draped in American flags, stormed into the Michigan State Capital in protest of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Coronavirus stay-at-home order. Governor Whitmer received death threats, and Michigan state lawmakers were forced to adjourn their meetings.

Yet, not one pastor or public official was called to counsel angry white protesters to put down their weapons and protest peacefully.

A gun in the hand of a White American is a badge of freedom. A gun in the hand of a Black American is a license to kill or incarcerate. When are we going to condemn systemic racism with the same moral urgency that we condemn riots? When are we going to become as passionate about the endangerment of Black lives as we are about the protection of American capitalism?

We may try to limit the Prince of Peace to our conceptions of law and order … but God knows that where there is no justice, there will be no peace.

Prayer
Lord help us to realize the peace that is not the absence of tension, but the presence of Justice. Amen.
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One Bite


Written by Matt Laney
I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity. - Ecclesiastes 2:1 (NRSV)

One year, long before COVID-19, I decided to limit sweets to once a week. I was not only defying “dadbod” and aiming for the abs of a GQ model half my age, I thought it would be a good spiritual practice – a sort of long-term Lent that would make me more self-aware and less self-indulgent.

And, on dessert days, I would only have one bite of a dessert. I figured the fleeting memory of a sweet is the same whether I take one bite or twenty. And if I ate my “one-bite-once-a-week” with outstanding mindfulness, it was as good as eating the whole pie! What a revelation!

It wasn’t so wonderful for those eating with me. Turns out, people notice how much dessert you don’t eat. My abstinence was noted after dinner with a group of ministers and their spouses. When I shared my “one-bite-once-a-week” experiment, a colleague pinched his husband’s stomach and said, “We should totally do that!” Husband’s dagger eyes made me grateful for the table between us.

While I did not get perfect abs or become super spiritual, I can tell you this: With all due respect to Ecclesiastes which sees every sensory pleasure as a fleeting vanity, denying oneself can also be vanity.

In pandemic, my kids have been baking and I’ve had more than a few bites. When so much has changed in their lives, enjoying their gifts is a tasty act of love and gratitude.

Prayer
God, vanity is a sneaky devil. Help me to vanquish it with humility, gratitude and maybe another brownie.




All Together Now

May 31, 2020
Written by Molly Baskette
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. - Acts 2:1 (NRSV)

The beloved Pentecost story starts with the disciples all gathered in one place. Does that give you the shivers, having by now engrained the habit of social distancing?

I don’t know about you, but if I even see people embracing or standing too close together in a (fictional, prerecorded) TV program, I feel the urge to yell at the screen for them to leave room not only for the Holy Spirit, but an additional 6 feet for the Coronavirus.

There are two big Bible stories that indicate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus, and in both, the people who receive that Spirit are huddled up close together. Can the Spirit only be conferred when we gather together in physical space? Probably not – but it helps.

“Zoom church,” for all its creativity and flexibility and fun, leaves something to be desired. Among the things it can’t transmit: pheromones, including the oxytocin boost of a six-second hug. The poignancy of holding the warm frail flesh of a nonagenarian hand in yours in the receiving line for a minute. The eye-twinkle split second exchange between two worship leaders riffing, or a restless three-year-old flirting with the people behind them in the pews. The ineffable energy exchange of embodied worship that happens in a hundred different ways.

It may be months or (gulp) years before we can all safely be together in one physical place again. We can’t wait that long for the gift of the Holy Spirit to return to us – today on Pentecost Sunday and every day, because we need that Spirit every day.

The poet Rumi said that the longing for God is God. Even if it pangs, let’s not give up wanting that holy huddle. There’s so much Holy Spirit we’ll only get when we are together again.

Prayer
God, thank you for online church, a decent understudy for the real thing. And thank you that someday we will be able to embrace again – and the Spirit will shower us with power, and sighs too deep for words.
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I Will Not Leave You Orphaned

May 30, 2020
Written by Lillian Daniel
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” - John 14:18-19 (NRSV)

A childhood fight with my mother sent me swirling to the attic where I madly searched for documents that would prove I was adopted. I had no evidence of this, other than my incensed conviction that I could not possibly be related to this woman. When I found no actual papers, I forged some by stuffing an old legal envelope and marching dramatically into the room where my mother was, saying, “Here is proof that you’ve been lying to me all these years!”

In another childhood fantasy, I had an identical twin who had been adopted by another family at birth. In real life, I was an only child, often lonely, so in this fantasy I would one day locate a twin who would know me, love me unconditionally, and complete me because there would be no misunderstandings between us twins.

“Have you ever met any twins?” a friend later asked me, when I confessed this romantic dream. “My twin sister and I fight all the time!” And later my childhood friends who were adopted set me straight on what made someone your “real” parent. It was love, care, struggle, and time, not biology.

Yes, my mother and I were very different people and we often clashed. But after decades as an adult orphan, I can still hear my Mama’s burst of laughter that day when I dramatically presented those false documents, and how I just had to laugh too.

So whenever another Mother’s Day rolls around without her, I take comfort in Jesus’s words, “I will not leave you orphaned.” I imagine a day when we meet again, when all the real and important mysteries will be revealed.

Prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for not leaving anyone of us orphaned, and for the mothering love we can all share with each other, here on earth, in this our human family.
 



What Am I to Do with My Anger?

May 29, 2020
Written by Elsa Cook
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” - Matthew 5:5 (NRSV)

Every morning, when I open my eyes, it’s there again. It’s kept me up half the night, but in those few hours of slumber, I hoped that it might disappear. But there it is.

I’m still angry.

I don’t need to hear the news for the day. I’m still furious about yesterday. I can’t believe that this is happening, and I’m livid. It’s anger that makes me act. It spurs my resistance, but it is where my faith falters.

Faith requires meekness, not fury. We are to live by the Spirit, Paul writes, not by those opposing desires of the flesh where anger is lumped together with quarrelling, strife, and dissensions. The strife is over. A song of triumph should be sung, but I have no alleluias to give.

Jesus only gets angry once. He flips a few tables and goes right back to being meek and mild in every version of the story I’ve ever heard. So, what am I to do with my anger when the battle is not yet won?

Who will teach me that meekness is not passivity but proactive generosity? Or must I remind myself every morning that this is what it means to live my faith?

It’s not only to give honor to the most persecuted, but to hunger and thirst for change. It’s to be generous with myself and others so that we are blessed to turn this world upside down with our protest. This is my faith and it is full of rage.

Prayer
Help me, O God, to find the right road to live out this faith that gives honour to your people and your hope. Use the flesh you gave me to change the world.
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Always Sophia
Marilyn Pagán-Banks
May 28, 2020

 
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in God’s word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
- Psalm 130:5-6 (NRSV)

Maybe it is my empathic spirit, but I can literally feel it in my chest as the psalmist waits with bated breath, as she tries to be non-anxious and fully present.

Perhaps like me, you too need an image reminding us that our waiting on God is not in vain – even as the entire world watches and waits for the end of the daily terrors caused by Covid-19, inhumane policies, and the ever-present evils of racism, greed, and militarism. Perhaps like me, you need reminders about how God has equipped us to co-create the kin-dom.

“Lord, hear our voice!” we cry with Psalm 130:2.

The Holy Spirit conjures up in my memory a response to verse two written by Rev. Jennifer Garrison Brownell in The Words of Her Mouth:

“Always Sophia
leans in. …
I speak, one word or
a thousand.
She hearkens. She hears.
… Remind me that I have the voice
to speak words that bring down and build up
whenever necessary.”

I am grateful for reminders of God’s faithfulness, for words that linger with me and keep me company while waiting. I am grateful for Sophia – for Wisdom – who leans in and equips us.

Prayer
I remember, O God. I re-member, O God. Thank you for waiting and listening, too. Amen.

Visit the WORSHIP page to view the video invitation from Martin Fair to watch this service at 10 a.m. on Sunday (31st May, 2020) morning. Underneath the video is a pdf documenting an order of service and providing the words to the songs, etc.  This service will remain on YouTube for some time, so if you cannot watch it at 10 a.m., you can watch it later.  A link to the broadcast will be posted on our WORSHIP page, etc,  at a later time.

Our own service for Pentecost will be available on YouTube, Facebook and our WORSHIP page from 11.30 a.m. (or earlier) and will remain available for a week or two.

The Moderator of the General Assembly, Right Reverend, Dr Martin Fair, is to host a Pentecost service on Sunday 31st May, 2020.

Congregations across Scotland will be joining together—remotely—for a special Pentecost service on 31 May.
Rt Rev Martin Fair will be hosting the service which will include worship, prayers, music, a sermon, Bible readings, and will close with the Moderator’s wife Mrs Elaine Fair singing The Blessing.
The Moderator is encouraging congregations and people of faith across Scotland, and beyond, to join together in worship as a whole church.
“Pentecost Sunday is an opportunity to rejoice in the birth of the church and to celebrate our togetherness as a church family,” Dr Fair said.
“It was the coming of the Spirit upon those first disciples that brought the church to life, with power and passion - and the same Spirit unites us still.”
“Even though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit. We can share in the same worship, pray together using the same words, be inspired together by the same Bible verses and affirm our unity as the body of Christ here on earth.
"Ordinarily, the worship of the Church is offered locally, rightly so. But it seems to me that in these present circumstances there is merit in giving over one Sunday to come together.”

​

Therefore...
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May 26, 2020
Written by Martha Spong
The end of everything has come. Therefore... - 1 Peter 4:7 (CEB)

In the past few months, blogposts, think pieces, and memes have offered both recommendations and explanations for human behavior during the new abnormal of pandemic response. We list our Netflix favorites, or share our accomplishments, or fuss at people handling things differently, or offer to let ourselves off the hook entirely for the basics of life.

The letter we call 1 Peter went out from Rome, we think, to a young Christian community. As the community grew deeper in their faith, the writer offered a word about how to live alongside the “normal” way of being for first-century people. They were a minority in their beliefs, which included the belief that normal was temporary. The end of the world was coming, they thought, when Christ would return and all the bad things would be over and God's goodness would prevail.

Therefore...

How do we know how to act and what to prioritize when everything we counted on seems to be over? The letter recommends exercising self-control, remaining clear-headed, showing sincere love for others, and serving people in need by using the gifts God has given us.

It’s a good word for this season, when we may be spiraling over the news and tempted to deny what’s happening and play games on our phones instead. The situation in the world is complicated, and it feels like the end of everything we have counted on for our security.

Take a minute, an hour, a day to do what helps you feel better, but let’s not give up on what matters. Let’s look around for something, one thing, we can do to help someone else.

Prayer
Holy One, help us to help each other, for your sake. Amen.



Why Bother?
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May 25, 2020
Written by Donna Schaper
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. - Luke 18:1 (NIV)

One of my students in a chaplaincy course this spring was a 70-year-old psychoanalyst considering transitioning to a chaplaincy role. She said to the class at the height of the Covid-19 crisis, “I woke up this morning and said to myself, ‘Why bother to get out of bed?’”

She did get out of bed, showed up to tele-meet her first patient, and took a kind of counselor’s risk: “I took my first patient and she said to me, ‘How are you doing?’ And I told her I woke up this morning wondering why bother? Then of course I turned the question on her. 'Why did you wake up this morning?’”

“She said, ‘So I could talk to you.’” That response kept my mature student going.

Sometimes we give up prematurely. Sometimes we hang on too long. Sometimes we over function. Sometimes it is just hard to function.

Sometimes we do too much. Sometimes we do too little. When Covid-19 is all gone and but a faint memory, I wonder what story we will tell about ourselves.

Prayer
O God, help us be the subject of the story we tell about ourselves and not its object. And let us surely receive the gifts others make to our stories. And never to be afraid of our weakness. And never to stop bothering. Amen.



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A, B, C, D, E, F, G
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May 24, 2020
Written by Mary Luti
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear …
though the mountains should shake
in the heart of the sea. - Psalm 46:1-2 (NRSV)

In a recent pastoral letter, the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts told this story: A man was caught in an earthquake. Stricken with terror, he tried to pray but couldn’t find any words. He’d recited countless prayers all his life, but in his panic, he couldn’t recall a single one. So he recited the only thing that came into his head. He prayed the alphabet. “A, b, c, d, e, f, g…” he offered fervently, “…h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p…” It was the most genuine prayer of his life, and there can be no doubt God heard him.

These days, lots of us can’t focus. We forget what day it is sometimes. Things that once came naturally to us seem unfamiliar and require concentration we don’t have. The ground beneath us is shaky. The danger is real. So is the dread.

We cope with it by paying loving attention to the details of daily life, observing the rules of confinement, sharing our resources, being patient, and mustering hope and good cheer. This is what life is now, and it’s good. It’s also exhausting.

This is no time to be worried about finding the right words or looking good or getting a hundred on the quiz. It’s not the moment, if there ever was one, to prove anything to anyone. It’s a time to be real, and to let that be the good thing it is.

We’re all praying the alphabet as the world shakes. It’s all we can manage. And it’s fine.

Prayer
Hear my prayer, O God: a, b, c, d, e, f, g….
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God Is Still Sleeping
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May 23, 2020
Written by Kaji Dousa
Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We're going to drown!” He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. - Matthew 8:24-26 (NIV)

The idea of Jesus sleeping seems … bizarre. It is hard to imagine God asleep. With eyes closed. Did Jesus snore? Did he kick in his sleep? Did he wander about in holy somnambulance? If so, did that make the disciples nervous?

Even asking the questions of what Jesus asleep might look like feels … irreverent. For me, imagining the contours of Jesus’ humanity makes him feel more human than my faith has prepared me to consider.

But the Gospel tells us that Jesus slept.

The story of Creation tells us that on the seventh day, God rested and Shabbat – or sabbath – was introduced. The Decalogue made it a commandment: Remember the sabbath and keep it holy.

So if rest is so holy and if God has rested since the dawn of Creation, then why do I have such a hard time letting Jesus sleep?

Could it be because there's always a storm raging somewhere? Could it be that I worry that God will sleep through my own storms and ignore my pleas for help? Might it be all well and good that God rests, but what about when the waves sweep over my boat and I fear it will pitch over and take me under? God can rest except when I need my rescue, I feel.

Jesus’ words to the anxious disciples in their own “furious storm” are instructively salvific. Rest matters so much that even God does it. But faith means knowing that when we need to be saved:

God will calm the lake.

Prayer
Maybe we think, O God, that you are sleeping away our salvation. Thank you for sending Jesus to show us better. Amen.



No Good Christians
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May 22, 2020
Written by Matthew Laney
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of good works, so that no one may boast.” - Ephesians 2:8 (NRSV)

I sometimes hear people say that Christianity is all about being a good person, or becoming a better person. While I appreciate the sentiment, I think it’s off-base.

For me, Christianity has little to do with being a good person. The essence of the Christian faith is this: God loves us not because we are good but because God is good. The above text says it best.

Christians are not measured by their good deeds or bad deeds. In fact, let’s ditch the notions of “good Christian” and “bad Christian” altogether. Christians may do good out of gratitude for the goodness of God, but if we fail to do good, well, God still loves us and the core truth of Christianity is undisturbed.

Does that mean a person can be an authentic, faithful Christian while being a lousy human? Absolutely yes. I’d be happy to introduce you to a few, including me in my worst moments.

Please do all the good you can. Our world can’t get enough. But no amount of good deeds can save you or earn God’s love, which is a free gift. That is not only good news, it’s the best news ever.

Prayer
Let my life be my hallelujah in response to your gift of unmerited grace.
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Clothed with Power
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May 21, 2020
Written by Talitha Arnold
“Wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.” - Luke 24:49 (WEB)

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is much in the news right now. From grocery clerks to medical staff, bus drivers to nursing home aides, essential workers need protective clothing, goggles, and other gear to ward off the coronavirus and stay safe. The rest of us also need masks and gloves, not just for our protection, but to protect others from ourselves.

In Luke’s final resurrection story, the risen Christ reminds his disciples of their need for another kind of PPE, too. “Wait in Jerusalem,” he tells them, “until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Like the disciples, we need to be clothed with God’s power, especially in this time. Whether we’re on the front lines in a hospital ICU, stocking groceries at a supermarket, or sheltering in place in our apartments or homes, we need to be clothed with the power of God’s love that overcomes despair. Clothed with the power of God’s peace that calms our anxious spirits. Clothed with the power of God’s compassion to stay open to the needs of others. Clothed with the power of God’s wisdom to know what we must do, and clothed with the power of God’s courage to do it. Most of all, we need to be clothed with the power of God’s presence that holds us, comforts us, connects us even in isolation and quarantine.

We need God’s PPE right now. Whether at home in our pyjamas or clad in scrubs, masks, and gloves, we need to let God wrap us in power and hope, love and wisdom this day. Every day.

Prayer
God, remind us to pray every morning for you to clothe us all with your power, wisdom, and love. Amen.
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Exactly
May 20, 2020
Written by Quinn Caldwell
The LORD leads me beside still waters;
they restore my soul.
They lead me in right paths
for their name’s sake.
- Psalm 23:1-3 (NRSV, adapted)

My son and I hike along, looking for the next flash of colour. Those who knew the way through this forest have gone ahead of us, painting blue blazes on the trees to lead us in right paths.

I think of the ancestors who set aside this state forest, the ones who blazed the trail. What did they think we’d be using this for? Did they know that one day we’d be out here because we had nowhere else to go except the living room? That we’d be walking their path in search of virus-free air?

What about the ones who built the local library? What would they say if they knew the building was closed, the books inaccessible ... but that the library was going strong, doing a rip-roaring business restoring people’s souls with books downloaded from the sky?

How about the founders of your church? What would they say about the still living waters God and your pastors are pouring through your screen each week despite the shuttered sanctuary? Would they recognize you as their church, worshiping there in your jammies in the living room?

Maybe hiking in the woods to escape lockdown isn’t what the sylvan ancestors envisioned. Maybe accessing your library on your phone isn’t what the bookish ancestors planned for. Maybe church on the computer isn’t the kind of thing the charter ancestors would have wanted.

Or maybe it is, exactly.

Prayer
For the gifts of the ancestors, for the paths they blazed and the institutions they started, and for your Spirit, showing us new ways and purposes for using them, thank you. Amen.
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The Power of Patience
May 19, 2020
Written by marchae grair
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. - James 5:7 (NIV)

“No mom. I can do it.”

Of course I knew it all at five. After relentlessly telling my mom I didn’t need her help brushing my teeth, she finally gave in. It took approximately 2.5 seconds for me to drop a huge glob of toothpaste on my new dress.

It was picture day, and she sent me to school with a smiling face and a huge white stain in the centre of my chest.

My first school picture is my favourite school picture because it was my first real lesson in the wisdom of patience.

There are so many times I’ve looked at God’s presence in my life like I looked at my mother’s hand that day. I want God to just hand over my problems and let me figure out a solution. So many of us share the kryptonite of the “just let me do it” spirit.

In God’s Divine wisdom, perhaps She knows we need reminders to slow down and wait.

James told the early Church that there is reaping in the waiting. He explains farmers must spend just as much time planting as they do waiting – and both are equally important to the process of growth.

Maybe it’s time we slow down and let God have our toothbrush.

We might just hear a Word from on high. We might realize we should go left instead of right.

We might just realize how much wisdom can be found in the waiting.

Prayer
Dear God, in a world that doesn't stop moving, help me find peace in showing patience. Amen.
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The Same Boat
May 18, 2020
Written by Vince Amlin
The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners … but the centurion ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest to follow, some on planks and others on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land. - Acts 27:42-44, excerpted (NRSV)

Some say we’re all in the same boat during this pandemic. But as this story from Acts shows, even people in the same boat aren’t in the same boat.

Some can swim; some can’t. Some have decision-making power; some don’t. Some have just been saved from death; others are still heading to their executions. Not the same boat.

When I pray with members of my congregations who still have to leave their homes every day to do work that is unsafe, I know we’re not in the same boat.

When I hear my friends Kaji and Donna describe ministry in New York City, where, as I write, almost 1 in 400 people has died, I know we’re not in the same boat.

When I see that black citizens of Chicago are dying at 6-times the rate of whites, I know.

We are not even in the same storm.

Paul himself offers a different model of solidarity. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

Rather than claiming we’re in the same boat, the gospel tells me to find out about my neighbour’s boat. Seek to understand their experience of this storm. And listen when they tell me what I can never understand.

It prompts me to ask how we ended up in such different boats. And do something about it. And not stop until everyone is brought safely to land.

Prayer
Bring us all safely to land.



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At the Cross
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May 17, 2020
Written by Mary Luti
Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. - John 19:25 (NRSV)

Most COVID-19 deaths haven’t been good deaths in that way we hope death will be: comforted by family, eased by sedatives, soft music playing in the room. They’ve been isolated in ICUs, stacked in chaotic corridors, hidden in nursing homes where no one noticed for days.

This isn’t to say that doctors and nurses haven’t been heroic, risking their own lives to render beautiful care. It’s only to say that what’s come upon us is a genuine horror.

Most of us don’t work in overwhelmed hospitals and makeshift morgues. We’re not digging anonymous graves. We’re shielded from these awful scenes.

And why would we want to dwell on them, anyway? Aren’t we an Easter people? Don’t we specialize in hope, in divine silver linings, in life in the midst of death?

Yes, and we’re right always to insist on hope. But maybe not so reflexively, maybe not so fast. For there are times when we’d do better to stay longer at the cross, to stand still there absorbing the pain for a while before we proclaim the Easter joy.

Faith isn’t faith if it marches us straight to glory without passing despair. If it notices the statistics but not the deaths. If it gets Jesus off the cross and into glory with unseemly haste. Our piety must never separate us from our humanity. If we are too quick to say, “All will be well,” we make faith incredible.

Christians live in the midst of two realities – unrelenting pain and a joy no circumstance can alter. Faith never evades that pain to proclaim that joy.

Prayer
Jesus, keep us near your cross, even as we announce in hope the death of death in your glorious resurrection.
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It’s Going to Be Bad
May 16, 2020
Written by Rachel Hackenberg
“Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away.’ … I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.” – John 14:27b-29 (NRSV)

It’s the speech that I call The Great Assurance – Jesus’ efforts to prepare, to steady, and to comfort those closest to him before the you-know-what hits the fan.

“You have heard me say, ‘It’s going to be bad.’ I’m telling you again – it’s going to be bad – so that when the bad begins and when the bad overwhelms you, you’ll be prepared to hold on to love and remember that you’re not alone.”

Infectious disease experts are telling us that the bad will be with us for many months.

Climate scientists are telling us that the bad will be impacting human behavior for decades to come.

Psychologists are telling us that the bad could have generational consequences.

Genocide scholars and anti-racism activists are telling us that the bad will keep rearing its evil head, day after day.

“I’m telling you, ‘It’s going to be bad,’ so that you’ll be prepared to hold on to love and remember that you’re not alone. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Friends, it’s bad these days – for a lot of reasons. Many of us feel unprepared. Instability is on public display when we most need steadiness. Comfort seems to be practicing social distancing.

Keep holding on to love.

Remember that you’re not alone.

Keep holding on to love.

Remember that you’re not alone.

Prayer
It’s bad, Jesus. It’s really bad, and the end isn’t in sight. Let there be love, for the living of each day. Let there be solidarity, for the perseverance of healing.
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Wait…How Long?
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May 15, 2020
Written by John Edgerton
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. - Genesis 7:11-12 (NIV)

Forty days is a good, solid, biblical number. It signifies completeness, totality. It is time fulfilled. For it to rain for forty days means it well and truly rained for as long as one could imagine.

But here’s the part of the story that I forgot from Sunday School: exactly how long Noah and his family had to stay in the ark. Hint: it’s a lot longer than 40 days.

“And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.” (Genesis 7:24, NIV)

Yup, 150 days. That’s how long Noah and his family were sequestered in the ark, forced by calamity to withdraw from the world with no human company but one another. If 40 days signifies completeness of time, then 150 days signifies … way too stinkin’ long of a time. No longer symbolic, no longer cute, no longer novel.

Just way … too … long.

As those first 40 days and nights came to a close and the rain stopped, Noah and his family must have felt thrilled. With the worst of the danger passed, they must have been itching to end their confinement.

But that’s not what happened. It dragged on and on.

The story of humanity’s deliverance from global devastation is a story of counting days and losing track of days. It is a story of thinking the worst is over, only to find it’s just begun.

It is a story I am holding on to today, because it means I am not the first child of God to feel the way I am feeling.

Prayer
God of the endless march of days, be with me in these hard times.
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​The Longest Shortest Time
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May 14, 2020
Written by Kit Novotny
With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. - 2 Peter 3:8 (NRSV)

The mysterious alchemy of sacred time, according to 2 Peter, sounds a lot like the dual nature of time with children.

Time with kids does weird things. It drags. Like an endless witching hour bouncing on a yoga ball with a colicky newborn until your arms fall off, or ten minutes keeping a squirrelly toddler from certain death (which you’d swear was at least an hour), or the longest awkward silence with a pubescent tweenager. There are days that feel like eternities, bottomless pits leading to new levels of exhaustion.

Time with kids does weird things. It flies. Like some kind of fast-forward warp-speed carnival ride, the clock hands spinning. Parents throughout every age rub their eyes and ask the perennial question: “When and how did my little baby turn into this big kid?” or eventually “…into this grown adult, sometimes, this stranger?”

The comedian Tig Notaro has a joke that all her friends who are having kids send out totally predictable updates inevitably laced with the question, “Can you believe it?” Like, “Caitlin is starting kindergarten this year. Can you believe it?” After a long pause, she deadpans, perfectly: “I don’t know. I mean, what is she, about five? That sounds about right. Yeah, I can believe that.” It’s funny because it’s true. But when it’s your kid, the simple reality of time passing is hard to believe, impossible and miraculous, both the thing most longed-for and most wished-against.

The days are long, but the years are short, as many a well-meaning acquaintance has offered to frazzled parents just trying to make it to bedtime. Time with kids, like time with God, does weird things. It is the longest, shortest time (which also happens to be the name of my favourite parenting podcast). It drags and flies, expands and contracts. And through it all, God is patient with us.

Prayer
Eternal One, all time is yours. Remind us, by your amazing grace, that when we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing your praise, than when we’d first begun.