Listen! I will tell you a mystery!

Ella Mae Greene is changed.

What a marvelous aching mystery.

 

On October 19 we got a call - my mother-in-law Ella Mae Greene had had a massive stroke. It did not look good. A week later, Mrs. Greene left this earthly life. I loved Mrs. Greene - still do - and I love her daughter Lisa. I had briefly hoped that they might allow me the honor of officiating at her funeral but that was not to be. Still, I had things I really wanted to say so I wrote the message below.

It is a gift - a gift to my beloved Lisa, a gift to Donna, a gift to Lonnie and to all those who knew and loved Ella Mae Greene. May her memory be a blessing.

The text is 1 Corinthians 15:51-57.

Listen, ladies and gentlemen! Listen friends and family! Listen all who have ears to hear!

I will tell you a mystery.

Ella Mae Greene has been changed.

The pain and sorrow, the body that didn’t function right; the heart that ached for hurting kittens, puppies, and children; the ears that didn’t hear so well; the knees and feet that hurt… all have been changed to something else entirely. Something without pain, tears, or sorrow.

It happened in a twinkling this past Monday. You might think that a change so big would be met with trumpets and streamers, announced on all the news channels, celebrated with wild joy and delight.

But it didn’t happen that way. In fact, the nurses didn’t even notice right away when it happened. It was quiet and quick. On this side of eternity it looked a lot like going to sleep – but oh what joy was in heaven on Monday morning, October 26! One of God’s own favorites had come home.

Now, I know that you – the people beloved by Ms. Greene, the people who loved her the most – cannot yet celebrate because it is too hard, too sad, too much a reminder of how awful and broken our world is. You would not have chosen this sorrow and pain, and God has not chosen it either. 

The God who created a perfect world teeming with life abhors the brokenness that leads to death. Abhors it so much that he sent Jesus to provide a way out of that sorrow. Mrs. Greene followed that way and many of you do, too. You seek the good that can come from a God who loves you, who is watching and crying alongside you. And that God – that Jesus – is the one that has welcomed Mrs. Greene home and the one who will be with you in the coming days and weeks and months.

That God who has enfolded Mrs. Greene into a blissful eternity will also give you moments of bliss as you live out your days here on earth. Maybe it will be seeing a puppy and thinking about how Mrs. Greene could charm even the most timid and fearful animals with her quiet gentleness, or remember her Shelly-Bell demanding treats and knowing without doubt that she would get them. Maybe you will see flowers growing in a yard and remember times that she was on her hands and knees, cultivating her own beautiful gardens; planting pallets of annuals on Mother’s Day. Maybe you were one of the people who felt the light of her smiling heart shine on you as she gave you safe harbor in her home when your world was much, much more broken than usual. Maybe you will remember the endless cups of coffee, the searches for forgotten presents, the dubious gifts of oil to grandchildren, the all-night story sessions, the much-delayed facebook posts and all the other things that make a life unique and that brought laughs then and will someday bring laughter again.

Those moments – and the stories that I know you will be telling each other for years to come – will be winks from God. Reminders of the love that is there for you and for everyone. Reminders that if a broken human being can love so much, then how can a perfect God who IS love leave anyone out?

There are many, many feelings here today – appreciation and regret, happiness and deep grievous sorrow. Maybe even all of those and more at the same time.

Please – give yourself permission to feel all of those feelings because like the life of a woman who packed so much life into a mere 87 years, 10 months, and 1 day, one feeling or word or image can never capture it all.

Most of you knew and loved Mrs. Greene for a long time – possibly even your entire life. Give yourself time to sort through all that, to feel every feeling and let it be a reminder that you never would have loved or been loved as much if life was not rich and deep, wide and layered.

But as you grieve, also know this:

Mrs. Greene has been changed. In the mystery that is heaven, she is safe in the unfailing, unbroken arms of Jesus and will also rise with all of us when the final trumpet sounds. 

The God that Mrs. Greene loved created this world to be perfect, sent Jesus into that world to show us how to live when the brokenness was too much, and is now tending the places prepared for us when we too will be changed. 

The Jesus who came to show us how to live never failed to help the poor and the helpless. Those sick in body, mind, and spirit. Those who were cast out. Jesus did not focus on the people who had privilege and position, Jesus focused on the ones who were being kicked in the streets. The one who couldn’t get a fair hearing. The ones with such incredible stories that nobody believed them – and therefore nobody bothered to help.

And what it got for Jesus was death, because that is what happens to human beings. Jesus died like Mrs. Greene has died. 

But then Jesus rose! 

I remember standing in the kitchen with Mrs. Greene around Easter time one year. She looked at me with shining eyes and an almost bewildered look on her face as she said “Jesus did that for me! Can you even believe it? That doesn’t even make sense… but isn’t it the most wonderful thing of all?”

Yes, Mrs. Greene. It IS the most wonderful thing of all. She knew it and believed it.

And so in the coming days and weeks and months when the grief comes crashing in waves, remember that God cannot be tamed and that God’s love will continue to carry you through. 

When you wonder something like “what difference do prayers make anyway?” be reminded that praying is for us. God already knows what is in your heart – is in all of our hearts – and is prepared to heal our every sorrow. Those prayers are a large part of learning to love each other through the pain.

The sting of death mentioned in our text today comes from sin and there is a temptation to give up and decide that death has won. BUT DO NOT BE FOOLED. When Jesus arose in the Resurrection, the sting was healed. 

Death has not won.

Death cannot win.

Because the stinger is removed.

And Mrs. Greene is now home with her Jesus, the same Jesus who will be loving you extra special much through everything yet to come.

May her memory be a blessing.

Amen.

A Wedding Message

 On Sunday, October 25 I was honored to officiate at the wedding of J and J, a delightful couple who had planned their entire wedding during the COVID pandemic and who ran into an array of pitfalls and difficulties that would have scared off many people. But not this couple. They persevered.

After the wedding I would drive to Augusta, GA where my mother-in-law would die the next morning from the effects of a massive stroke the week before. It was a huge contrast and working on the wedding message during the grief and sorrow of watching my mother-in-law decline into death made it all the more special. A new life together for J and J, and a life well-lived as my mother-in-law left this earth as her husband had done several years before, leaving her middle-aged children orphaned.

I'm not sure I would be sharing this otherwise, but given the circumstances, it's all pretty special to me. So here it is... the readings and wedding message from the wedding of J and J on Sunday, October 25, 2020.

The Art of Marriage 

by Wilferd A. Peterson

The little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say "I love you" at least once a day.

It is never going to sleep angry.
It is at no time taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all the years.

It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating
gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.

It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.

It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner. 

***

The second reading you requested is from the New Testament of the Bible, 

In this passage Paul is speaking to the Christians in a place called Corinth who have been plagued with arguments. Paul is explaining a better way to be in relationship with one another with a rundown of the dos and don’ts of loving. Listen now:

1 Corinthians 13 

13 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Can you even believe you are standing here today? 

It certainly has been a long haul. A global pandemic that keeps dragging on.

Job changes – even if you thought you are in the same job!

Uncertainty about the weather… uncertainty about all sorts of things.

Delayed planning – because that’s how it goes in a time of global pandemic.

But HERE. YOU. ARE.

Standing here in front of your closest friends and family members and in front of God. Defying the forces that would keep you apart and refusing to give in to the negatives that are so readily available to all of us right now.

Today, Josh and Jen, you have stepped forward in this time of extreme uncertainty to do something very definite.

You are getting married.

And you know, marriage is not a contract. It is not a thing that you can say “well, we said this and that, and you broke the contract, so that’s the end of that.”

What you are promising today is a vow. A covenant. 

You are promising to be there for each other, to cling to one another, to turn away from everyone else and towards each other as you move through your life.

You are also promising that when things do not go well – and I am sad to tell you that there will be times when they most definitely do not go well – then you will work through it. 

You will remember the covenant that you would be there for each other and you will work it out. You will do what it takes, because you will be married to each other. 

We have talked about how you both think that Jesus was a pretty awesome person. That Jesus showed love in ways that sometimes did not make logical sense, but that always meant so much to the people being loved. 

Even in his death, Jesus somehow managed to take care of his own needs in ways that helped him care for others. That is the kind of love you have said you want to have for each other. And the passage you picked from 1 Corinthians 13 is a very nice summary of the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated constantly.

When you show that Jesus-style love to each other it will show up as being patient and kind, not boastful or arrogant or rude. Even when the fashion is to make fun of others, you will look at each other and decide… I have a covenant with this person. I will not hurt their beautiful heart. I will love them before I throw those sharp barbs.

This kind of covenant love never ends. It rejoices in the truth – even really hard truths that mean saying “oh… yeah… I was wrong about that.”

It bears all things, including watching your beloved struggle with pain that you cannot heal no matter how badly you want to do just that. And instead of trying to fix things anyway, you turn to each other in love and support and being present for and with each other.

It means that even when you are irritable with one another you will not WANT to be irritable with one another, and at the end of the day you will always turn back to each other and soothe the hurt feelings with the balm of love.

Today you are putting away childish ways of being together and choosing the adult way of caring for each other with a self-sacrificing love.

TODAY you are making that bond. No matter what happens in the future, today is the start of your marriage, the start of loving each other with covenant love that is worth the work it will take to make it endure.

And if you can remember that covenant to love each other, then someday when your dream of having children together comes true, those children will be born to parents who are bonded together.

When those children come, and you both love them to the moon and back, my hope is that you remember that being parents is not the same as being married. The best gift you will give your children is to love each other with the covenant love you are promising today. To make a home for them that is secure because you are secure with each other.

That will mean continuing to turn to each other even when the babies are crying, or the middle schoolers are being endlessly inconsistent or your grown children are so beautiful that you hardly have eyes for anyone else.

When that temptation comes, remember the vow you are making here today. Make sure to always have eyes for each other first.

Starting today you are binding yourselves to each other legally and emotionally, spiritually and physically. Today is the day you are announcing your commitment to the whole world – your intention to practice loving each other every day in the little things and through the big things.

Remember that joy. Remember that it is the love of Jesus you seek to share. Remember each other. 

Amen.

Worship in 4 Parts: A Liturgy for Church Outside the Box

What a magnificent day today has been! The first "official" worship of South Durham Connections happened in an ecumenical, online extravaganza that included South Durham Connections, Parkwood UMC, and Christus Victor Lutheran Church. Plus anybody who wanted to tune in from anywhere else. 

In ELCA communities (like Christus Victor and South Durham Connections), today was "God's Work Our Hands" Sunday when congregations go out into the community for days of service. Since all the other churches were leaving their buildings for service, South Durham Connections came inside and Pastor Sharon led a service that compared the work of the Parktown Food Hub with a traditional mainline worship service.

The technology was not particularly cooperative but you can see the live stream here. I think you can get the gist of it though. Below is the script with video clips inserted, so you might want to consider using this to follow along with the video? It was fun putting this together and I am so grateful for all the people and circumstances who brought it together!

The focus text is Matthew 18:21-35

Worship in Four Parts:

A liturgy for life outside the box

 

Why do this?

 

Compassionate response to a difficult time for Pastor Anita

Pastor Ben asked what I was doing for God’s Work Our Hands Sunday

I said we are doing GWOH Sunday every day…

 

BUT THEN!

 

It seemed like an excellent opportunity to show how South Durham Connections is doing church – even if it looks really different than traditional church.

 

The four parts are Gathering (Greeting), Word, Meal, and Sending. Although some of the details are different, Methodists and Lutherans share a basic understanding of worship, and what I’m talking about today is consistent among Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians… the denominations known as mainline.

 

Some announcements: Today at about 1 pm we will have a garden workday for those of you who want to put your faith into action. We will have tasks spread out across the property so people can work in small groups at physical distance.

 

And now! Welcome to church! Welcome to an opportunity to see how God is working and leading and caring for us both inside a building and outside, online and in person.

 

GATHERING/GREETING

 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,

and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

 

This greeting opens worship. For Lutherans it often comes after a confession or remembrance of baptism. We come knowing that we are in need and that times are tough. We come seeking relief from that brokenness.

 

At the Parktown Food Hub, people also come knowing they are in need. Maybe it’s because they lost a job due to COVID, or because a spouse has left, or because medical bills are too much. There is surprisingly little relief available to a surprisingly large group of people, but the food they get from the Hub can make a difference. Like people going to traditional worship, people at the Parktown Food Hub come, knowing of their need and seeking relief from a broken world. And in greeting, we say

 

Watch greeting video

 

Now we join in singing, a way that groups of people are bound into one as our different voices are joined. This song gives a glimpse of how we feel about the people who come to the Hub – and I hope the way that people are welcomed into traditional worship services.

 

SONG: All Are Welcome (this is not exactly how we sang/played it, but it's a lovely version of a beautiful hymn that is uber-important to Pastor Sharon and to South Durham Connections.)

 

In a traditional service, the next part of the greeting is a prayer – an expression of how we hope to be transformed. Like this –

 

Will you pray with me?

O Lord God, merciful judge, you are the inexhaustible fountain of forgiveness. Replace our hearts of stone with hearts that love and adore you, that we may delight in doing your will, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

 

Today’s prayer is asking that we delight in doing God’s will with light and loving hearts.

 

At the Parktown Food Hub, we put that delight into practice – the relationships among volunteers, between volunteers and people who come for food… it is fun to give away from a position of abundance. And abundance is in fact the life we lead. Come visit us sometimes and ask to see the corn shelf and you will understand anew what abundance can be! EVEN DURING A PANDEMIC.

 

WORD

 

In this second part of worship, God’s word is proclaimed. This can be by reading one passage or two passages or even three passages plus a responsive reading of a Psalm. Christians believe that these passages from the Bible – the sacred text of Christianity – are themselves sacred language. But they are more than sacred words, like some kind of spell book or beautiful literature (although it is, in fact, some pretty wonderful literature!)

The point of the sacred text – the Word – is to help us be transformed so that our lives are less like the broken world and more like the way Jesus lived.

Gospel – Matthew 18:21-35

The gospel of the Lord.

In our church outside the box at the Parktown Food Hub, the words inform our behaviors even when they aren’t being read out loud. God has promised that the words will be written on our hearts forever. The Vision Board of the Parktown Food Hub unanimously agreed that our guiding principle and guide in solving problems is to follow the example of Jesus. So the Parktown Food Hub is run in a way that is our best and most earnest attempt at following Jesus.

Sermon – 

I wish that you could all spend time with us at the Parktown Food Hub and in other places where church is happening outside of buildings and traditional worship services. Today I’ve invited some people who have extensive experience in that exact thing. I asked them to look at the gospel lesson and think of some experience they had that seemed related to the text – much like a pastor does in writing a sermon. We pray and listen and seek to find words to bring the living word of God into the lives of people today.

Today you will hear from David Krebs. David attends Christus Victor Lutheran and started the corn shelf, complete with the tag “bringing cornfort to all” - a play on the CVLC mission statement.

Then you will hear from Ellie Klein. Ellie also attends Christus Victor and took over the corn work from David. Ellie and her sons are often at the hub and their enthusiasm is a delight.

Next you will hear from Jennie Vaughn.. Jennie lives in Parkwood and came to us when COVID started, as she was working from home, and she rapidly grew into one of our super volunteers.

Finally you will hear from Autumn Boyer, who attends Parkwood UMC. Autumn has a knack for showing up at just the right moment, whether it is to organize our disorder or bring a tent when ours has been destroyed by a thunderstorm.

Listen now for today’s gospel lesson from Matthew as it appears in the lives of these four faithful friends of South Durham Connections and the Parktown Food Hub:

1.    David Krebs (CVLC)

2.    Ellie Klein (CVLC)

3.    Jennie Vaughn (PFH)

4.    Autumn Boyer (PUMC)

 

If you happen to see or otherwise interact with David, Ellie, Jennie, or Autumn, please thank them for being brave and stepping up to share. 

Over the next week I invite you to think about this text - this story of abundance and how experiencing grace and generosity help form you in wanting to share grace and generosity with others. Better yet, go find a way to be generous in proportion to the generosity you have received, and see what happens next!

As Jennie mentioned, today is God’s Work Our Hands Sunday for the Lutherans. The next hymn was written especially for this day and embodies the messages you just heard. Please feel free to sing along even, maybe ESPECIALLY if you don’t normally sing. Today is your day!

SONG: God’s Work Our Hands hymn

Words and music here (I'm sorry I can't figure out how to upload the beautiful organ track shared by Simon Zaleski at Christus Victor Lutheran, but the link will take you to another very nice recording. We sang verses 1 and 4.)

South Durham Connections, the Parktown Food Hub, Parkwood UMC, and (in a different location than this) Christus Victor Lutheran church have all decided that growing food is an important part of their ministries. Parkwood UMC and the hub garden in this space that you see here. Christus Victor congregation has a beautiful garden on Highway 54 in front of their building. As we move toward the discussion of the role that food plays in worship, it seemed right to move out into the garden. And here we are!

After the sermon and before the meal, many traditional church services include a creed and prayers. The creed is another way of saying “this is what we believe”, just like the examples in our sermon are ways that the people involved were revealing what they believe.

In addition, traditional services have Prayers of Intercession – prayers in which the community gathers to lift up the joys and needs of their community. At Parkwood UMC, there is the “Glory Sighting” time when people talk about ways God has shown up in their lives. 

At the Parktown Food Hub we gather up the prayers of our people, too. Much of it comes in general conversation: “I’m still looking for a job and worried about being evicted, will you please pray for me?” or “My father is in the hospital dying of COVID… it hurts so much” or “my heart is so blessed by the work you do… I give thanks for it every day.”  They are truly prayers of our people.

Sometimes we also collect those prayers on strips of plastic and put them out for the community to see in the form of a tapestry. The prayers are made public.

At this moment in our service today, we will now pause. Please take a moment now to lift up the prayers of your heart: your joys, your concerns, your hopes for healing and need for grace.

 <PAUSE FOR PRAYERS> 

Closing:  Whether we live or whether we die, we are yours. We thank you for those who have showed us faithfulness, for the knees that taught us how to bow to you and the tongues that taught us to praise you. Lord, in your mercy,

hear our prayer.

All these things and whatever else you see that we need, we entrust to your mercy; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.

 

MEAL

Offering and Blessings:

As we move into Part Three of our worship in Four Parts, traditional services have a time of offering (or, in current online services, suggestions for how offerings can be shared.) Offerings are a way of giving thanks, of sharing our concern, of participating in the life of the congregation. Offerings can be cash, ushering, participating in music, helping with communion, greeting, setting up the altar – there are many ways of giving thanks.

The same is true for church outside of the box.  We call them donations rather than offerings, but there are many ways that people make offerings:  cash, gardening, shelving food, bringing canned goods, packing boxes or bags, picking up food from stores, participating in handing out food, greeting, even making sure that we get our folders back for next time!

We welcome and urge each of you to provide financial support for your ministry of choice. If you wish to support South Durham Connections, go here. If you are interested in working with and supporting Christus Victor Lutheran, go here. If you are interested in working with and supporting Parkwood UMC, go here.

Today we also want to give thanks for some special gifts that are beyond money. 

<School kits made for Lutheran World Relief (LWR) by the CVLC congregation; this year LWR is not collecting the kits because of COVID so they will be going to children at Parkwood Elementary who have many special needs this year as they engage in online learning>

<Gourd painted by Lisa’s nephew’s girlfriend April Baughman. Her business is called Hand Painted Gourds. The gourd has the Parktown Food Hub logo on one side and the Thrivent Live Generously logo on the other, because Live Generously is what we strive to do at the Parktown Food Hub.

Blessing Prayer: We thank you Lord for the open hearts and creative talents of so many people. Take these school kits that have been made with such loving care and soak them with your blessings of love and grace. Let the children who receive the kits know that their community cares for them and is standing with them in these difficult times.

Thank you also for the gifts of April in taking the beauty of nature in the form of this gourd and decorating it in such a meaningful way. Let the beauty shine forth and touch every person who enters this place, and continue to pour out your grace and mercy on April as she continues her creative work.

We seek these blessings in the name of and in gratitude for the gifts of Jesus. Amen.

In a Sunday service, once offerings have been given the service often moves into communion (especially in those congregations that have communion ever Sunday – or at least did pre-COVID.)

It’s all about the food.

During these hard times, the communion meal happens much less often because of safety concerns around the COVID pandemic.

In our food distributions, COVID has had the opposite effect. People come hungry in all kinds of ways, and are grateful for the meals that they can make out of the food that comes from us.

And who is fed?

In church services, the ones who are fed are the ones who are present and come forward seeking to be fed.

At the Parktown Food Hub, the ones who are fed are the ones who are present and come forward seeking to be fed.

In both cases there are rituals:  for communion in a church there are words of institution, spoken and sung responses, prayers. People receive bread that has been baked and wine that has been purchased and measured out based on the number of people expected. There are often gluten-free and alcohol-free options. They are fed in lovely dishes like these, called a chalice and a paten. (In the video Pastor Sharon holds up a cup and plate - aka chalice and paten - that was a gift to her from some really special people.)

At food hub distributions we share information about the process, sometimes with menus, sometimes with reminders, sometimes with special information. But the format is pretty much the same each week. We greet those who come, we secure the food and plan for the number of people expected. We allow people to choose the food they receive based on their special dietary needs and preferences. They are given food in boxes, much like this: (in the video Pastor Sharon holds up a box of food to be given away the next day)

Pastors offer the communion meal to people in time of need that prevents them from coming to our regular distributions – hospitalization, pre-surgery, in counseling situations

We offer food to people in times of difficulty, when the need is so great that it can’t wait until our next distribution. Sometimes that is due to COVID quarantine, or job loss, hospitalization or a wide variety of situations in which the brokenness of the world goes hard on unfortunate families.

And in both cases we feed those who come. Without question – their assertion that they want to be fed is enough. Just like those who approach the communion tables in our congregations.

AND THEN! The people have been fed. They have experienced the transforming word of God. It is time to go.

This is how that looks at a Parktown Food Hub distribution when the food has been shared:

 

watch sending video

 

“Ok, you’re ready to go!”

Words of reassurance and blessing.

Not a question or a suggestion. People have received what we have to offer and it is time to go figure out what to do with it and be strengthened in the process.

The people go with our blessing and the fervent hope that lives will be better, kinder, healthier, more hopeful, and filled with joy and devoid of all the hungers because of our interactions.

Exactly what pastors offer to people who have been in traditional Sunday morning worship services. You have been nourished by the Word, eaten together, formed and prepared for transformation… and now it’s time to go.

So today I offer you this blessing:  

The God of grace bless you now and forevermore.

You’re all ready to go!

AMEN!!

Now GO! Go to the places where Jesus is saying yes… because in the words of Beyonce and her cousins:

play video

 

How do you measure up?

 Last week and this week, without any effort on my part, were a tiny little sermon series and it was so awesome that I could be with the folks at St. Philip Lutheran in Raleigh for both weeks! This week we follow up on last weeks question of "Who are you?" by pondering... "How do you measure up?"

Like last week, the message was shared in two services and both are available for viewing. The earlier service with contemporary music (aka The Crossing) video is here. (Don't worry that the first slide says August 23... it is actually the August 30 video.)

The later service with organ and choir music is here.

The texts for the day are:

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Psalm 26:1-8

Romans 12:9-21

Matthew 16:21-28

Holy Spirit come. Turn us to love in, through, and like you. Amen.

How do we measure up? That’s a good question, right?

Take Peter for example. Last week, in the verses right before today’s gospel lesson, Jesus was all over Peter with the praise. Peter became the ROCK – the foundation of the church! Impressive stuff.

Except that this week the ROCK – the foundation of the church – is accused of being Satan. By the same Jesus who called him the rock just a little earlier! I’m wondering if maybe that should be a warning for us about what happens when the needs and vagaries of the church become more important than the one in whom the church rests: Jesus.

That maybe the church can be so bad it is SATAN… but still be the church. Still be the one named by Jesus. Because it really is all about Jesus. And only Jesus. 

Last week I asked WHO ARE YOU? It was all about how who we say Jesus is says a lot about who we are.

And sometimes (like, a whole BUNCH of the time) we get the details wrong, even when we are really clear on who we say Jesus is. Even when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Messiah. Even when we are ALL up into the church, and making sure services continue in the pandemic and we are being generous and doing good and caring for others and feeding our enemies.

Like Peter, we can still get it wrong. Because we just don’t know. Today, for example, I think Peter was being perfectly reasonable. He said Jesus! Yes! You are the Messiah!! 

But Peter’s interpretation of Messiah didn’t quite hit the mark of who Jesus actually was. I mean, let’s be real. Jesus was talking about getting killed by the church officials who were all up into the politics of the day. The church that had sold its soul to the Romans. For safety, or some such.

Peter knew that Jesus was not about that life, but Peter thought, rather reasonably, that Jesus would put an end to that political stuff. Peter was part of the group that did not love the current government; he thought things should be different. In terms of today, we might say that Peter was a Democrat – a supporter of the party not in power - and he thought Jesus was a Democrat, too. And that’s when Jesus called him Satan.

This is a hard thing. 

When the gospel presents me a hard thing, I go looking elsewhere in the lectionary. And today what I found was a lovely list of behaviors. 

A really LONG list of things that I can perceive directly:

Love genuinely

Stick to what is good

Outdo one another in showing honor

Bless our persecutors (hmm… this is getting harder…)

Share in the joys AND sorrows of others

Associate with the lowly?

Live peaceably with all???

And there’s more! It really is a long, long list.

So, um, yeah. We could just do all that, right?

Like, definitely a checklist. I love a checklist. Maybe I’ll make a spreadsheet. So I can keep track of how things are going. How we are doing. You know, this would make a great checklist to know what’s going on with the soul of my (spouse, boss, child, …. Enemy…)

And there we are. Right into the trap. The trap that moves us from being the Rock of the church to Satan’s minion.

Because the question was who am *I*?  Who do *I* say Jesus is? How do *I* live in such a way that others see Jesus?

But in the merest twinkling I have deflected away from myself – from the *I* - to judging others. I’ve taken my eyes off of Jesus to keep an eye on the scoundrels all around me.

Let’s have a little moment of silent honesty with ourselves right quick: did anybody else’s mind go to “ooooo yeah… so-and-so surely needs to hear that!”  

Did you avail yourself of the opportunity to smack a little on your favorite classmate or co-worker or family member or political target?

I did. :(

And that, I think, might be what Jesus was calling out in Peter. Because Peter thought he knew more about Jesus’ path than Jesus did, just like we so often think we know so much about another person’s situation that we completely ignore our own.

And so Jesus started talking about some pretty strange things, like how he has to die and then come back and everybody will be repaid for what they have done.  

That same idea shows up first in Deuteronomy, as God is giving instructions to the Israelites as they get ready to enter the Promised Land.

And again in Romans, today. And again in Hebrews. All in the same words:  “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay.”

And OH how we love to emphasize that REPAY! Like “wait until your God gets here, then you will get it!” Because we love some vengeance. But I think maybe that’s not the emphasis Jesus intended.

Jesus – the Messiah – is indeed coming back to repay everybody.  It’s not up to us.  It reminds me of an episode of All In The Family when Archie Bunker is very upset about Edith’s cousin being a lesbian. He said God didn’t like that and she should be punished. And Edith said “BUT YOU AIN’T GOD.” The devoutly Catholic Carroll O’Connor had put this verse right into that satirical tv show.

God will repay. Not us. Nowhere does God say that we have to police each other and make people behave the way we think God wants them to.

The message is clear… we are not to think we know how God will do things.

And as we see what Jesus did – like walking into that hornets nest that he knew would get him killed – we see over and over that God’s ways make absolutely NO human sense.

When Peter cuts off the ear of a soldier coming after Jesus (probably with his fishing knife) Jesus says “no, don’t do that, that’s not my way.”

And when Jesus does in fact die, without arguing or calling down legions or rallying his followers.

He just took the torture they handed him and never once sought vengeance. Because Jesus is the only human being who could ever actually live like it – who could leave the vengeance to God.

Do you know what God’s vengeance looked like? It looked like Jesus being Resurrected. It looked like Jesus loving his disciples – even that wacky Peter, who had acted an awful lot like Jesus’ enemy – after the Resurrection by feeding them fish and giving Peter a chance to declare his love three times, once for each time he had so bitterly denied Jesus just a few days before. 

That’s what God’s vengeance looks like.

So when Paul says to give food and drink to our enemies when they are hungry and thirsty, that is God’s vengeance.

When we remove the power of racist policing forces and replace it with compassion for all people, that is God’s vengeance.

When we give up our own power and privilege so that others can live equitable lives, that is God’s vengeance.

But since it is God’s vengeance, we can’t even take credit! We cannot dip into pride about how great we are. Because all we are doing is a pale imitation of God’s actual vengeance.

On top of that, we cannot do it on our own. We just don’t have it in us. On our own we ARE NOT ENOUGH to leave vengeance to God, to consistently choose compassion, to let go of our fears and keep our eyes on Jesus.

Peter couldn’t do it when he got out of the boat to walk on water and what did Jesus do? Jesus reached out his hand and lifted him up.

But that only worked because Peter KNEW that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Peter knew he could cry out and Jesus would be there. Because remember, who we say Jesus is tells us a lot about who we are.

In a few weeks Peter would go from denying Jesus, to confessing his love directly to Jesus, to boldly calling out those who had killed Jesus with compassion and truth and offer of redemption (NOT VENGEANCE). And 3000 souls were added to the church on that day.

When we can say, in truth and faith, that we know that Jesus is the Messiah, then we will look to Jesus in our suffering and brokenness and insufficiency and fear and we will rest in the Resurrection.

Like Peter we can say… Yes, Jesus, I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and in your perfect, vengeance-free love I am redeemed. 

And in that redemption we DO become enough. 

Enough to live generously

To feed our hungry enemies

To outdo one another in showing honor

Enough to rejoice

To suffer patiently

To extend hospitality

We can live in harmony – even with the people that are criminalized.

We can associate with the lowly.

We can NOT CLAIM TO BE WISER THAN WE ARE.

Not on our own, not perfectly, but in Jesus. The Jesus who will reach out to lift us up out of the surf when we realize what mistakes we have made and cry out to be saved.

Because when we admit that Jesus is the Messiah we are redeemed from every error, rescued from the pain that our vengefulness brings into the world, transformed into people who look through the lens of love rather than the lens of fear.

We are transformed into someone who measures all the way up… in Jesus.

Amen.

Who Are You??

 Today is my birthday! I had the tremendous joy of going back to St. Philip Lutheran where I did my internship in 2017-2018. It was mostly an online event but sometimes if you see me in person ask me about all the things that came about because I was back in that building. I had no idea how it would go, but I couldn't have asked for a better birthday event. 

There were two services with the same message, but of course they weren't EXACTLY the same. So below you will find the text of where the message started, and recordings of each of the two services so you can hear what I actually says. Yet another set of riches for the birthday - being able to share all the things!

Here are the texts that formed the basis of the service:

Isaiah 51:1-6

Psalm 138

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

I got to deliver this message twice, in two services.

Here is the recording of the 9:00 am service with (some super happy) more contemporary music. 

Here is the recording of the 11:00 am service with (some stunningly gorgeous) more traditional music.

And here is the text that was the jumping off for both services:

Holy Spirit, lead us and draw us to show the world who we really are.  Amen

Play the first 30 seconds of this clip please.

WHO ARE YOU??

Today is my birthday! 57 years ago today my mother was hot and hugely pregnant. She lived in a home in Central Texas with no air conditioning and was about to give birth to me – her 10 pound baby. The doctor had been so convinced that I was coming on July 4 weekend that he cancelled a vacation trip (ah, the days of small town doctors!) but my grandma said it would be August 28… and it appeared that I was proving my grandma correct.

Do you suppose my mother wondered what all that meant? Wondered who I would be someday?

7 years ago I was two days away from starting my first day of seminary. So much had happened and my life had been torn apart in so many ways. My central questions was “Who am I?” I didn’t even know anymore.

And here I am today, running a food pantry, reaching out to the community around me, and trying to figure out what exactly it means to be a mission developer in a time of pandemic. It certainly doesn’t fit what the working definition of the word “pastor” that most people carry with them. The call is strong and compelling, though, and I know I am doing what God has created and prepared for me to do. But still I ask….

Who am I? Who have I become? Who am I yet becoming?

Those are timely thoughts, and not only because of my birthday.

Today’s lectionary lesson from Isaiah comes in the section of Isaiah known as “Second Isaiah.” It includes the Servant Songs that seem to point to who Jesus will be. The Israelites had been in captivity but God had never stopped loving them, and the hopefulness that comes from that constant love shows up in the verses:

Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord.

Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Then many verses about how God will continue to love and care for God’s people, culminating in

My salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never end.

God is saying

     Don’t forget who you are – WHOSE you are!

      Don’t forget how much I have always loved you - even in captivity

      All that I have given you

      All that you thought you deserved

      That you had grown to trust more than you trusted me.

God is saying 

Don’t forget that you can really count on my undying love for you,

Regardless of circumstance.

YOU ARE MINE, says God.  

My beloved favorites.

Then we turn to the Gospel lesson from Matthew:

In the runup to this passage Jesus has been telling parables, using ordinary things to explain the kingdom of God, pointing out God’s order for the universe as it peeks through the cracks and brokenness of the world.

This is not how people were used to thinking about things and it galvanized people. They couldn’t get enough! They swarmed around wherever Jesus showed up.

The people of the day would have known this passage from Isaiah, at least in general, even though we have no reason to believe that there were only Jews present. People knew the stories of the Jews, though, just like many people today who have on interest in joining a church have some idea about what Christianity is about.

Today, for example, many people who decline the title of “Christian” will speak about what a good guy Jesus was, how emulating Jesus is a great way to live.

And that, I suspect, is part of what Jesus was asking Peter:  

WHO DO YOU SAY I AM? 

     Jesus wanted to know.

      Am I good caterer?

      Am I the edgy hipster rebel?

      Or am I something more?

I feel pretty strongly that Jesus didn’t need to know the answer. I think Jesus already knew.

I feel pretty strongly that Jesus was really asking  WHO ARE YOU?

Because the way I see it, who we say Jesus is tells a lot about 

     who we are, 

     how we will behave, 

     what we will value, 

     how we will treat one another.

If you believe Jesus was a nice Jewish man who loved his mother, you may not notice the gifts that God promises so eloquently in Isaiah. Because what we believe about Jesus affects what we do.

Simon Peter’s claim that Jesus is

The Messiah, the Son of the Living God

But more than that, it was beyond following Jesus the caterer, Jesus the healer, Jesus the captivating speaker.

It was not about what Jesus DID. It was about his heart, his being, his very nature.

Note that Jesus did not respond to anything about Peter’s behavior.

Or what Peter understood.

It was not about being rational or scientific or within the law.

Jesus said that Peter’s belief was a gift from God. That kind of faith is a gift that takes the believer beyond the surface of personal benefit or logic or law.

And when Peter confessed his belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus gives a gift:

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, 

and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven

What a tremendous thing! And, remarkably, as Peter and the disciples went forth with these words that Lutherans call the Office of the Keys, Jesus says “but don’t tell them I’m the Messiah.”

What?

Huh?

Don’t tell?

But what about evangelism?

Could it be that Jesus didn’t want that loosing and binding to become some kind of “I’m better than you” thing?

I do think it points us to how following Jesus changes us.  When we have faith that Jesus is the Messiah, our behavior skews to loosening rather than binding up. It’s a transformation.

We do have choices in life. We can hurl accusations and burdens, punishment and guilt, we can point out all the ways that others have failed and how wrong they are and never ever let them forget it.

BUT! We can also free people from their burdens. We can be the gentle landing spot in a hard and unkind world. But we can’t consistently do it on our own. Admitting that Jesus was a cool guy who made some good choice just doesn’t transform us to become people who loosen bindings, at least not in the same way that trusting that Jesus is the Messiah can. It is faith that allows us to let go of our need to be right and our need to show others how wrong they are.

The choices are in small daily actions, mostly:

I am keenly aware every day that at the Parktown Food Hub we can tighten the bonds by using our own standards to determine when need is great enough or we can loosen the bonds of shame and hunger for people who say they need food by giving without question.

I’ve been in enough churches and community groups to know that we can bind people by whispering and casting the side eye and demanding that another’s sexuality or gender or mode of dress fit our own standards or we can loosen bindings by loving from the heart and listening to the stories to understand other points of view.

And in this pandemic election time I am beyond aware that we can bind others by voting based on maintaining our personal privilege and increasing our own wealth or we can loosen bindings by thinking of people who are bound up in systemic racism, patriarchy, and white supremacy and voting for policies that create equity for everyone.

There are a lot of ways to live into faith in Jesus.  In today’s New Testament lesson Paul tells the Romans that we might prophesy or minister, teach or exhort, give generously, work diligently, or exhibit great compassion or cheerfulness. And how you vote or give or welcome will be different in different situations. It isn’t one size fits all, and that’s why being transformed by the renewing of our minds (as Paul puts it) by faith is critical. 

But if you do the thing you do because you are living your faith and following Jesus, it will show. Whether you realize it or not.

So… Who are you?

Jesus – and the whole world – really wants to know.

AMEN.

Abundance or generosity, which comes first?

Today was so exciting! I got to preach a call and response sermon with my good friend Pastor Dana Cassell of Peace Covenant Church of the Brethren here in Durham, NC. Dana's congregation is meeting interactively online and today's texts from Isaiah and Matthew were all about feeding and eating and generosity and abundance. Dana is brilliant and kind and thoughtful and lots of other good things so preparing was as much fun as sharing the message. What a gift to be able to participate!

Today's texts tie together food and God. God is all about feeding whatever our hungers are. Or as Sara Miles put it in her book Take This Bread, “There's a hunger beyond food that's expressed in food, and that's why feeding is always a kind of miracle.” 

The texts were:

Matthew 14:13-21

Isaiah 55:1-5 (How can anybody not love a text that starts "Ho"?)

As usual, what follows are the script notes from which the sermon was delivered. If a recording is available I will link it here.

Dana:

This is such a strange season – for all of us. I'm so grateful that we are finding safe and creative ways to gather and continue in fellowship and service – church workdays and graduation parties, book discussion and prayer time, doorstep cookie drop-offs and these regular WebEx worship services. 

I confess, though, that one of the things I am missing most are our Peace Covenant potlucks. I miss having time to sit around a table with you all without an agenda, talking about who made which dish and how our lives are going. The standing monthly meal together is one of my favorite parts of our fellowship: it makes it easy to invite people into our community, it creates an obvious way to connect with our community partners – like EAPC and the ESL class a couple of summers ago - , and it is built in time to just...be together. We nourish our bodies and our relationships at those monthly potlucks.

Those Peace Covenant potlucks are more than just people hanging out together, though: I believe that they are tiny little glimpses of what life in God's Kingdom looks like. Everybody is welcome. Everybody eats. No one bothers to check to see if you brought something to share or not, and even when the pickings are slim (sometimes, so slim that an envoy is sent to Harris Teeter during worship for a cheese tray to supplement the seventeen pies), we still leave the meal nourished. 

Eating together is a sign of God's plan for the world. All throughout scripture, God's provision is explained as a meal; a feast; a banquet. When the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness, God rains down manna from on high. Isaiah proclaims that God's people are the ones who “share their bread with the hungry.” When Elijah is on a prophetic journey and at his wits end, a poor widow cooks the last of her flour into a cake for him and saves both their lives, along with the widow's son's. Elisha, following in his mentor's steps, multiplies the oil of another widow and feeds one hundred people. Ezekiel says that one of God's promises is that “...the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their soil … when I break the bars of their yoke, and save them from the hands of those who enslaved them … I will provide for them a splendid vegetation so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land … ” (Ezekiel 34:27-29). The Psalmist sings of God who satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things, a song that Jesus' own mother echoes, singing about the God who fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich empty away.

God loves a good feast. Feeding and being fed; eating together; sharing a meal; bonding over food is a deeply important part of what it means to be witnesses to God's reign in the world.

So, I'm missing our monthly potlucks – those little monthly opportunities to participate in the reign of God's grace and mercy and provision here and now.

I think God loves a good potluck, but I also know – especially in these days – that God is not bound to the boxes of human habit that we try to keep Her in. We might not be able to participate in Peace Covenant potlucks right now, but that doesn't mean that we can't partake in God's holy banquet.

In fact, a few of us have been participating in the feast right down the road at the Park Town Food Hub during these pandemic months. And if the story of the Food  Hub isn't one of loaves and fishes, well, I don't know what is. Sharon Schulze is with us this morning, and I'll just invite her to tell that story herself.

Sharon:

When I started seminary two days after my 50th birthday in 2013 I was very clear that my call was not to parish ministry. I had a lot of reasons why but those reasons weren’t actually what was going on. I did not know what the call WAS – but I knew it wasn’t traditional parish ministry.

The last great hope of the denomination folks was the year-long internship I would do from 2017-2018. You will do your internship and THEN you will understand that being a parish pastor is the BEST THING EVER!

Instead I learned that the ELCA has something called mission developers.

So when the bishop visited a few weeks later I told him I knew what I was going to do – I was going to be a mission developer. He did not miss a beat but asked “what mission will you develop?” I knew at some rudimentary level but I didn’t say it. I didn’t want anybody else to tell me I wasn’t hearing what I was pretty sure God was saying.

Several years later I found out that Aja Purnell-Mitchell, my partner at the hub and the person who started the food pantry work that would be the seed of the Parktown Food Hub, was having a vision of a community gathering place where people could have their needs met – food, housing information, whatever needs they might have.

When Lisa and I met Aja for the first time we expected to ask her a lot of questions. What actually happened is that she described her current activities and we sat with mouths open. Then we squeezed into my little red Ford Ranger (not the room Blue Thunder I have now!) and drove over to what is now the hub space. Aja walked in and said “Oh yes, this is it. This will work for the hub.”

And that’s the day the Parktown Food Hub was actually born.

There had been talk of moving Parkwood UMC to a more community-oriented group and call it Parktown to indicate that the reach is beyond the Parkwood community into all of South Durham. 

Lisa had secured $2500 from her employer, RTI International, to upfit the space bringing the first employer in RTP back into the first neighborhood in RTP, to start something new for what is now one of (if not THE) youngest and wealthiest regions in North Carolina.

Local stores kept giving us things (like all the paint) so in the end the original funds were essentially more than doubled.

It was as if a little bit of seed money was growing something much bigger and the entire community was getting excited.

Dana: 

One of the striking parts of this passage about Jesus is that he's headed out to a deserted place because he's tired. But he sees the crowds following him and, Matthew tells us, “had compassion for them, and cured the sick.” After all the healing, the disciples say “Jesus, tell the crowd to leave so they can go get some food! It's late! But Jesus says “They don't need to leave; YOU give them something to eat.” The disciples are sort of baffled by Jesus' command, but – unsurprisingly – Jesus turns out to be right. Sharon, does that line from Jesus “YOU give them something to eat!” resonate with your work at the Hub?

Sharon:

Thursday before last you might remember the tremendous thunderstorm that came right over this area. We had just received three trucks of food. We had so much because the food bank had extra. All that food had come to us without cost. We didn’t even have to pick it up! They brought it to us and put it wherever we pointed. It wouldn’t all fit under our big porch roof so we had set up a tent over three pallets of produce. It was a great big free abundance.

But in the storm, water gathered on the tent and it didn’t just fall over, the aluminum legs snapped. The boxes were getting soaked. 

As I sat inside and watched the tent break, watched the food get baptized in a ferocious storm, and I thought… now what? It was so easy to think in terms of scarcity: we don’t have space, we can’t even keep the vegetables dry, we don’t have the people, this is all just too much… but really the only thing that was scarce at that moment was generosity.

The largest number of families we had served before was 120… but that day 141 families came. The line routinely winds around the mosque parking lot in two rows, but that day there were three rows. The 141 families probably included about 600 people (you know, including men and children, since mostly it is women who come to pick up the food).

I cannot even imagine feeding 5000 people (plus women and children). I CANNOT IMAGINE. 600 people about did me in. But God was telling us “YOU need to give this food away to all these people who have come out in the rain.” 

But that wasn’t the end, either. Our vision board had urged us to feed anyone who was in line by 6 pm. I was still wearing my scarcity hat and I didn’t want to. I wanted to FINISH at 6 pm so we could start the hours of cleaning up the mess that remained. 

So I was what I thought was ‘generous’ and at 5:45 I went over and stood behind the last car in line. A few minutes later a car drove up and I said “I’m sorry – no mas, no mas, come back next week.” The women smiled and drove away and I looked across the street and saw that there were still eggs and produce, cold foods, and potatoes, there was still so much left. 

And I was convicted.

Despite feeding at least 141 families I was racked with guilt that it wasn’t 142. I ended up telling two families “ok, but I need you to take extra” but even now, I feel ashamed that I told that car to leave – that I couldn’t be generous.

The last two families got containers of eggs that had 1-2 cracked eggs, leftover produce and cold items. It was an unusual mix of stuff, but there was a lot of it! It was kind of like those 12 baskets. 

They received a bounty because there was so much left and because my conviction made me want to be more generous. Because somehow we did not give in to scarcity and in a rumbling stumbling bumbling way managed to end on a note of generosity. 

Dana:

Another part of this scripture that really hits home is that “everyone ate and were filled, and there were LEFTOVERS.” I love that everybody gets to eat – that Jesus didn't take names or ask for identification or require proof that people needed food – somehow, in the process of sharing and eating, everyone was filled. I think that kind of universal invitation is part of the Food Hub's ministry, too, right, Sharon?

Sharon:

It is a core principle of the Parktown Food Hub that we will never require people do “demonstrate need.” Although we do have to collect a small amount of information for the federal program that has been providing some of the food that is keeping us going now, we do not believe that it is our place to judge whether a family “is really in need.”

This is not to say that some families have greater need than others, but we feel totally inadequate to judge what that need is. If a family comes to the Parktown Food Hub then we assume they have some need that they believe food will help meet.

It’s hard sometimes because some people are VERY FRUSTRATING. For example, one family came on a Thursday but all of the non-perishables from Monday were still in their trunk. Another group brings a Suburban that is so full of tires and junk that it’s hard to find space for the three portions of food that they receive. In spite of situations like that, we have decided to just assume that every carrot, every onion, every package of chicken is somehow meeting a need. That Jesus is somehow saying “YOU are the one who can meet that need.”

And there are all kinds of needs: a young woman whose father died of COVID and was crying as she waited in line. Another woman brings me small amounts of donations – often strange things! – and then stays to talk for half an hour. We have children who QUIVER with excitement to be helping and adults who spend hours talking and sharing with one another as they pack boxes and wait for people to show up for their Monday appointments. Especially now during COVID-time, we seem to be meeting all sorts of needs.

One thing I hadn’t yet figured out was how to bring the cohort of volunteers together with the cohort of people who come to get food.

But then Pastor Dana facilitated a conversation between Darla Kay and I which resulted in a physically-distanced Story Circle with ten people from all the different groups that come to the hub… including Mega, our very brave Parkwood neighborhood Black Lives Matter protester.

Darla Kay had said “we must have at least 10 people” so I invited 12 people, hand-picked to bring together people from all of the hub constituencies. On the day of the event, 10 people had arrived and I was SO RELIEVED. And then Mega’s partner walked up and said she was here, but she didn’t know why, and would I please explain why Mega wanted her to attend?

She joined one of the groups (thanks to Darla Kay’s very warm and gracious welcome of her and her two children) and ended up saying “I’m wasn’t sure how much I wanted to share but I’m just going to go for it and share the whole story.”

It was as if God was saying “you need 10? I’ll send you 11. Because that’s how I roll. When you are walking with me you will be showered with abundance.”

The Story Circles were a huge hit and we intend to continue them – I hope some of you will attend. But it is just another part of the unfolding of the vision that was planting in Aja and I in October 2018. That Parkwood UMC, especially Pastor Anita and Lisa and Bob, bought into and helped multiply the resources made available in the summer of 2019. The vision that had us in the right place to support McDougald Terrace residents and that now has us placed as a significant support for families who are being battered by the effects of COVID.

You might think I am here to tell a story of what we did, and I will ALWAYS be delighted to tell that story… but ultimately that’s not why I’m here. This is a story of how God kept planting seed, watering the seed (sometimes with a thunderstorm!) and leading the people who need to be together to the place where their needs and gifts would intersect.

God is planting seeds for you, too. You might want to come join our group at the hub and that would be awesome! We love growing our community and caring for the existing community. But maybe your thing is somewhere else, doing something else. Then go do that. Just follow the abundance of passion and people and care.

Dana:

Specific opportunities:

* Food Hub!

* Food Bank 

* DCIA supply drive

* Help welcome Kiera & Will