Let’s Connect – Week of March 22, 2020

Scripture: Jeremiah 29: 11-14a

I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the LORD; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope. When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you.  When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me. I will be present for you, declares the LORD, and I will end your captivity. 

Musing:

In times like these I like to return to passages of scripture that help me cope, that allow me to breathe, that clam me and bring me a sense of the presence of God. I also like to remind myself that there is something bigger than me that I can put my faith and trust in. So, I turned this week to Jeremiah 29 verses 11-14a.

This image of a flower blooming from the solid and lifeless concrete helps me visualize what Jeremiah writes. Even encased in concrete life comes. Even when I feel isolated and cut off, life breaks in. Even in the vast, uncompromising reality of Covid-19 a flower brings joy.

At this time, in our congregations yes, but even more importantly in our communities we can be the flower. We can break through the concrete of isolation, personal distancing, sheltering in place, and all the disruption we are experiencing. The how is up to you, what you feel called to do, what you feel you can do, what you feel safe doing. When I think about this, I remember the cello player, Vadran Smailouić the one who for 22 days played his cello in a public square in Sarajevo during the siege in 1992. What can I do that would echo hope, that would show strength, that would bring comfort? These questions are what I wrestle with as a partner of God and Christ seeking ways to love my neighbor when I can’t do it like I have always done it before.

Find life where you can. Find hope where it lives. Be the hope and life you seek for others. Together we can search for God and god will find us, we can break through the concrete and find the sun.

  

The agenda for the gathering is:

• Welcome
• Share prayer requests with chat feature
• Please stay muted until called on to speak
• Stay for leave as you wish
• A brief devotion
• Report about what is happening in the district, conference, episcopal area and denomination as a whole
• Two things:
• Please on small groups – we are the vulnerable population
• Find a way to collect food and deliver it so food banks stay stocked – if you run a food back, use distancing and cleaning recommendations but please still give out food.
• Extension society working on special grants more news this week
• Gift Cards
• Get me info on Sunday worship – I don’t need each week just point me to where I can find it
• Everyone should be doing something worship/devotion related each week send written stuff to me or let me know where it will be posted
• Check your websites and Facebook pages and update them
• 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.
• If referring folks to online worship elsewhere try to do so as locally as possible and to a UMC if possible
• Decision about Annual Conference will happen but not soon
• Decision about suspended gatherings will come out on or before March 24^th from the Bishop. Being lifted by Holy Week and Easter seems unlikely.
• 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 prayer