​Noah's Advice
Donna Schaper
April 1, 2020

 
God said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.” … At the end of the forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark. - Genesis 6:14 and 8:6 (NRSV)

Noah’s ark is the boat God uses to spare Noah, his family, and a bunch of animals from the stormy torrent. It’s not just a children’s toy or fantastical book, but a profound memory of a deluge. The story of Noah’s ark is told, with variations, across Abrahamic traditions. The tale of a great flood is found in the oral tradition of many ancient civilizations.

In other words, it ain’t the first deluge and it won’t be the last one.

When children play with their toy arks, they lose pieces along the way. Just one giraffe remains. The monkeys disappear, only to turn up years later under the bed. Today we have lost more than our toys. We have lost a lot.

We are desperate for a forty-day calendar invite – and none is forthcoming. We are counting the days one “slice” of toilet paper at a time; those paper perforations let us laugh at how scared we are.

We so want to come out of zombie zoom and unmute ourselves. We want to touch or be touched. For now we are all untouchables and very touchy.

I miss the future. And from within the ark, all I can see is a different future. The end of the office. The end of school. The end of church. The end.

Advice-givers say, “Lower your expectations.” So, I will. I will make this journey without a suitcase, without a map, without guides. I’ll travel itinerary-free. Noah probably did too, until the dove and the rainbow changed his mind.

Prayer
God of flood and ark, calendars and eternity, draw near. Future us in new ways. Amen.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donna Schaper is Senior Minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her most recent book is I Heart Frances: Letters to the Pope from an Unlikely Admirer.


 

​The Hard Stuff
Tony Robinson
March 31, 2020

 
"For he will be handed over to the Gentiles; and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon. After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.” But they understood nothing about these things.” - Luke 18:32-34

Just as we are now nearing the end of our Lenten journey, so in this passage Jesus and disciples were near the end of the journey to Jerusalem, and all that would happen there.

Just as our churches are publishing their list of all the (now adapted) Holy Week and Easter services soon to come, so Jesus listed the events that lay ahead.

And the disciples, par for the course, didn’t get it. They didn’t understand. They didn’t want to hear about the mocking, the insults, the flogging, the death.

It is easy to stand in judgment on the disciples. “Foolish, faithless disciples! So unwilling to walk the lonesome valley with the Lord.”

But before we chastise the twelve, take a moment and look at the attendance numbers for two services at your church last year. First, Good Friday. Then, Easter.

We’re not a lot more interested in the hard stuff than they were, are we? I suppose that’s human nature. Yet still the hard stuff happens.

Fortunately, it is the nature of our God to go straight into, and through, the hardest stuff. So that when we do get there, we know we are not alone. “Only a suffering God can help,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded us.

Prayer
We don’t really understand either, Lord. We don’t grasp it all or comprehend it all. So help us to “understand” differently. Simply to stand beneath, to “stand under” the mystery of the cross. Amen.



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

​Everything Is Changing
Molly Baskette
March 30, 2020

 
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” - Matthew 6:34 (NRSV)

Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Jesus, you got that right. You know what the trouble is: a novel coronavirus that has an alarming fraction of the global population ill or dead, and the rest of us hurtling toward lockdown.

Are we allowed to worry now? Are we allowed to stock up on canned soup and toilet paper and ice cream? How exactly will God provide these things if we don’t take responsibility for getting them ourselves? Sometimes life provides us with a problem so big, so complex, it is undeniably a today-worry and a tomorrow-worry.

We are at the moment when we know everything is going to change, but we don’t yet know how—and that is the hardest part. We know people we love will be taken from us, but we don’t know who. We know it will threaten our retirement funds, our livelihoods and jobs, our mental health. We know that it will put some people who are already at the edge, economically and emotionally, over it.

We ask God the ultimate question, “What if it changes everything?”

And God answers, “What if it doesn’t?”

Because some things need changing.

Good things can be caught from this pandemic, as well as bad. Already, you are calling friends you haven’t talked to in ages or checking in with your mother every day. You are pulling out the watercolours, reading novels again, watching documentaries with your fur person, cuddling your kids.

The pandemic is revealing, once again, what really matters, and what the good gifts of life are that don’t arrive by two-day shipping. A particle one-900th thousand times the width of a single human hair has done what we were not able to do by ourselves: stop us in our tracks, personally and communally.

God didn’t send this disaster, but God will for damn sure use it.

Prayer
God, this pandemic will change everything. May it be so. Amen.

Provoking Love
Marilyn Pagán-Banks
March 29, 2020

 
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds. - Hebrews 10:24

Every once in a while, I will run across a Facebook post where someone is asking their friends to shift the conversation from what is wrong in the world to something fun or to share what they are grateful for. Sometimes good news is posted and there is an invitation to “share” so that others might know that things aren’t all bad all the time.

These reminders usually come right on time. The heaviness of the struggle for liberation can cause us to burn out and even lash out at those in the fight with us and those attempting to love and care for us. The losses are real. The wounds are deep. The journey is long. Folk are tired. Damn it, I am tired!

So during this Lenten season, I commit to inserting joy and laughter into my daily fight for justice and peace. I commit to saying “thank you” more to those who put their bodies on the line and those who stuff envelopes in the office. I commit to saying “I am sorry” when I mess up or step on toes or am just plain nasty to folk. I commit to expressing tenderness and kindness with my siblings.

Perhaps this practice will provoke another to the same. And another. And another. Who knows?

Prayer
Source of love and every good thing, help me to ground my anger towards injustice and to source my rage against the isms of the world with a deep abiding love for You, my neighbour, and myself. Amen.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marilyn Pagán-Banks serves as Pastor of San Lucas UCC, Executive Director of A Just Harvest and Adjunct Professor at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

here to edit.

Good Morning and welcome to some worship and thoughts for today from the Gospel of MATTHEW 6 V25-34.
​
DO NOT WORRY
 
Easier said than done. Do not worry. During these difficult times when there are so many things that we are concerned and worried about. There are new restrictions placed on us to stay indoors, we are given advice on keeping a safe distance from other people, good hand washing and so on. All in an effort to control the spread of the Coronavirus.
I have recently discovered Facebook and am very grateful to everyone who has posted pictures of our beautiful town and along the many beauty spots along the outskirts where they have been walking taking their once a day exercise. To live in such a beautiful area, especially at this time of year, when the daffodils are out and the blossom starting to appear on the trees.
So often we hear people say DON’T WORRY, EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT.  Nice to hear but they don’t know that.
When Jesus said DO NOT WORRY, he backed it up with teaching that provided reasons. In verse 24 we are told that we cannot serve two masters. Serving God leads to faith which is expressed in seeking God’s kingdom. Serving mammon leads to worry, which is expressed in running after the things of this life.
As we have seen in the past weeks treasures on earth are very vulnerable. Jesus does not mean we should not make sensible provision for our life if we can.
1 Timothy 6v17 Command those who are rich in the present world not to be arrogant, nor put their hope in wealth which is uncertain, but put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
To store up things and money for ourselves, to make earthly possessions our priority or only concern is sheer folly. Nothing is of any value if we are not rich towards God.
Jesus then turns to nature to emphasise the point He is making, about why we should trust God and not worry.
The birds of the air, they don’t even sow or reap, or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.v26
Jesus then goes on to remind us that we are much more valuable than they.
Worry is fruitless and pointless. Can anyone of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? v27
Worry is more likely to shorten life than prolong it.
I don’t know about you but at this time of year I like looking at all the daffodils on the common and beside the statue as you enter the town. What a beautiful blaze of colour.
As Jesus has used the birds of the air to deal with the subject of food. So now Jesus refers to the lilies of the field, to deal with the subject of clothes. Flowers do not labour or spin, yet God clothes them in glory. So, just as we are more valuable than birds, we are also more permanent than flowers and the grass of the field. We must learn to trust our Heavenly Father. Jesus reminds the disciples that our Heavenly Father knows what you need and will provide.
While we must not worry, that is not enough. We must not adopt a laissez faire attitude assuming all will be well. We must seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Our goal in life must not be earthly possessions, but treasure in heaven. Not earthly rewards which fade away but God’s blessing is always there for us.
During these difficult days for all of us, it has been encouraging to see members of the church putting their faith into action. Showing the love of Jesus in practical ways serving their communities.
The kingdom of God does not need our worrying to enable it to prosper. The way of the kingdom is to seek it with all your heart.
V34 Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Jesus said in John 14v1
 
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God trust also in me.
Let us learn to lean ever closer to our Heavenly Father, knowing whatever is in store for us we are in the loving and safe hands of our Heavenly Father. 

​Sometimes Too Much is Just Right
Martha Spong
March 28, 2020
 
Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. - John 12:3

I grew up Southern Baptist, so Lent was not part of my church life. Instead, seasonal goodies marked the approach of Easter. Caffee’s Bakery in my hometown, Portsmouth, Virginia, sold the local favorite. Everything there smelled so good, and there were plenty of delights year-round, but nothing matched their pound cake eggs. I've never tasted anything like them again. Frosted in pastel pink, yellow, and green, they were the perfect size for one person.

A dear childhood friend remembers that each year her dad would buy four dozen cake eggs—one box each for his wife and three daughters, marked with their names. Was he avoiding repeated requests to bring home more? Or was this outsized gesture a sign of his love? I like to think so. Maybe he knew that sometimes too much is just right.

On his way to Jerusalem, the night before what we call Palm Sunday, Jesus stopped in Bethany to have dinner with his close friends, Mary, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. While Martha served, Mary sat on the floor and poured fragrant perfume over Jesus’ feet. To some in the room, her behavior seemed as over-the-top as bringing home four boxes of cake eggs. Why would you spend money on something so temporary? Why not use that money to feed the poor?

I imagine Mary, using her long hair to wipe her Lord's feet. The Gospel writer does not tell us what she is thinking, but I think I know. Let the others criticize; she did not mind. Sometimes too much is just right.

Prayer
Holy Maker of All Good Things, inspire us to extravagant actions that fill the world with the fragrance of your love. Amen.

Dear God,
All authority is Yours, but you have given authority to leaders to protect and guide us.
Today, we ask that You would give all our leaders wisdom, discernment, strength, and resolve. Keep them healthy, safe, and rested so that they can continue to guide us through this troubling time.
Give our government leaders wisdom about what needs to be done to stop the virus and stabilize our economy.
Give our spiritual leaders discernment on how to meet people’s needs as they continue to glorify Your name and encourage the Church.
Give our medical leaders insight into how to stop the virus. Strengthen their resolve and honour their hard work in creating a treatment for COVID-19.
Give our civic leaders inspiration, courage, joy and strength to meet the needs of their communities. And help us in our communities to display courage, hope, generosity and kindness. Would the way we honour others inspire those around us. To see Your love in action in all we do to support each other in these difficult days.
In Jesus Name Amen.

​ “You cannot be the servant of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” - Matthew 6:24 (CEV, adapted)
As I write this, we’re a week into our self-quarantine, and the conversation has turned to making tough choices. We have to choose, we’re told, between people staying safe and people getting back to work.

Between our friends who are sick and our friends who have been laid off.
Between flattening the curve and boosting the economy.
Between ventilators and eviction notices.
Between grandparents and grandkids.
We have to choose.

But the truth is, the real choice has already been made:
To be guided by the excitability of the market.
To continue with business as usual.
To bail out giant corporations.
To refuse rent relief.
To serve money.
Not God.

That’s the real choice. And it’s an either/or. There’s no in-between. Try to find some middle ground, Jesus says, and your true preference will always show. Claim to be a centrist? Your loyalties will be revealed. You have to make the tough choice.
So, what will it be? Your money or your God? Your money or your love? Your money or your life? Their life? All of their lives?
There is enough wealth in this country to care for the sick and the poor, the hospital and the small business, the grandparent and the grandchild. But not in this economy. Not if we continue with business as usual. Not if we divide ourselves between tough, false choices, and ignore the real choice.
What will it be?

Prayer
My One True Choice, deliver me from specious arguments and false dichotomies. Bring an end to business as usual.
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​A PRAYER FOR CONNECTION
Dear God,
Being alone is hard. We were created for community, not confinement.
But we’re grateful that no matter how alone we may feel, You never leave us or forsake us. And we’re grateful for technology that helps us stay in touch with each other.
Today, please remind us that this time of social distancing and isolation will not last forever.
Give us the strength to endure this difficult season, and deepen our connection with You and Your people.
Empower us with an extra dose of your love, peace, hope and joy because we need it. Remind us of your promises and please heal our land.
In Jesus Name
Amen.