Let’s Connect – Week of March 29, 2020

Opening Prayer: Serenity Prayer

O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other. Amen.

Scripture: Romans 8:31b – 39 (selected verses CEB paraphrased)

If God is with us, who is against us?...Who [What] will separate us from the Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, [or Covid-19]?...But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. I’m convinced that nothing can separate us God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angles or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, [or Covid-19] or any other thing that is created.

Musing:

Somewhere in the middle of one of the dozen Zoom meetings I was involved with in the middle of last week it hit me. I had to find something positive in all this “Stay home. Stay safe.” reality I was living. I had to come to terms with the limits, the frustrations, the lack of in-person engagement. I had to find a way to see Zoom introductions of pastors to SPRC as helpful and right. I had to reclaim something from my faith that would keep me connected to the hope and peace I so strongly believe in. And Romans 8 came to mind.

As I read the above verses over and over, in various translations and at various times through the day and week I began to slip in what the present thing is that I experience as separating me from Christ’s love, from God’s love; Covid-19 and the imposed isolation of stay at home orders.

If you don’t know this about me already let me share with you that I am an off-the-charts introvert according to every test ever devised to help assess these kinds of things. You would think that this stay home order would be a blessing. I thought it would be. But I haven’t had a day yet where I would truly say I was able to be alone, disconnected, un-engaged with others. Sure, I have been in my office space physically alone. Sure, I have had time at my computer when only a dog or two were there with me. But I am spending more hours with people virtually then I ever do when I can be out and engaging the world. I love to have the space of driving between meetings and appointments. I love to schedule my day with breaks for a brief pause by the ocean or a river or a rock formation or a vineyard or a field of flowers. My body and soul find rest and rejuvenation along the way when I can be out of my house.

Not so with this stay home order. With so many vital things to get done and so much on the to do list I go from Zoom call to emails to writing a pastoral letter to working on appointments to helping others maneuver through this strange land we are all inhabiting. I don’t give myself permission to leave it for a time. BUT, I know that I have to find ways to “pause by the ocean or river or rock formation or grand vista” so I am pulling up photos of these places that I have taken as I drove places and between meetings. Like the one I am sharing. I am learning to just breathe and visualize myself there on that beach in that forest, along that river.

And the thing I have found is that when I do this, I find Christ, I am close to God even in my office space, even between Zoom calls, even among the stack of “to dos” that surround me. I begin again to believe that nothing, not even Covid-19 not even stay home orders can separate me from God’s love.

So find your way to breathe – run, hike, garden, sew, knit, woodwork, clean, watch the birds whatever it is that helps you break free and find peace and remember that nothing can separate us from the love of God made known in Christ Jesus.

Prayer: Pandemic by Lynn Ungar

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love—
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

The agenda for the gathering is:

• Welcome
• Share prayer requests with chat feature
• Please stay muted until you want to speak
• Stay or leave as you wish
• A brief devotion
• Report about what is happening in the district, conference, episcopal area and denomination as a whole
• Extension society grants of $500 to each church. There are limits on how it can be used but I know you can find a way to use it that fits within that framework
• Thanks for keeping me in the loop about how you are connecting with your folks for inspiration and worship and pastoral care. Even though I don’t get them all, I trust that everyone is doing something worship/devotion related each week.
• Again, check your websites and Facebook pages and update them please.
• If you have a sign post a message of hope and let folks know you care – if no sign, make one and hang it up on your door/building. Send me pictures of what you post.
• If referring folks to online worship elsewhere try to do so as locally as possible and to a UMC if possible, the last district communication had a list and we will gladly add to it as links come in.
• General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference are both postponed. This will impact a lot of things which Conference and Area leadership are now figuring out.
• Decision about Annual Conference will happen just be patient
• Decision about what will happen after April 30^th will depend upon what health authorities, government officials and Governors do. The President does not have the power or authority to restrict or free up movement of peoples in a state, that is the power and authority of the Governor.
• A time for Q and A
• An opportunity for you to share something you've experienced which is life-giving or a time when you saw or participated in God's love being made real
• Closing blessing