Hello Faith Pals,
No need to water your garden this week!
A friend in another congregation sent me their newsletter which had a picture of Jesus at the Last Supper, during Covid 19. Police were gathered around them, and the caption was along the lines of “I don’t care who your father is, this is an illegal gathering.”
I went on-line to find it (their version was in a version which did not allow me to just copy and paste) but couldn’t find it, but found these instead:
Then there was this one:
I thought, “That isn’t correct.” It portrays the absence of Jesus. Nowadays, Holy Communion is postponed, but we remember Jesus whenever we eat bread and whenever we take the cup (whatever the liquid-water/tea-it is IN THE REMEMBERING).
Then I found this one:
I thought: Yes! Jesus is here, even if we are not. Jesus accompanies us through the tough times.
I had been reading about the ocean, and sea monsters. Apparently what we see, is not a strict photographic image. At sea, elements such as balance/light/distance play a part in what we see. In the past, sailors were inclined to ‘see’ things at sea (like sea monsters) because of balance/light/distance-and hypothermia, vitamin deficiencies, lack of sleep, anxiety and their own cultural stories and folklore. So the brain would distort their perception of what they thought they saw in the rough seas, especially during storms. The ocean was (and still is) an untamed region.
‘Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar-
the Lord of hosts is his name.'(Jeremiah 31:35).
It made me think about out own times. We are scared, we are fearful-BUT is that overpowering us, distorting our view of the beauty and wonder of God and of God’s world? Is our fear stopping us from living? Yes, there are things we are not allowed to do-but there are many things we can still do!
In this edition of the Presbytery Newsbeat: http://www.ucappep.org Rev Greg Crowe addresses that topic.
Count your blessings. Another version of this hymn has ‘when you’re worried, and you can’t sleep, Count your blessings instead of sheep.’ Well, I had lots more to say, but I think that might be enough for you! I might just get into another sermon if I am not careful! I will leave you with a prayer that was in a Presbytery mailout:
The She Oak Prayer
Michael McGirr
God of bad hair days
We thank you for the she oak,
perhaps the most untidy of all your trees.
It looks like it just got out of bed,
its branches and leaves all over the place.
Yet its texture of greys and greens are the most subtle shades in the bush.
Its thousands of tiny branches dance in hot winds and cold gales
when the rest of us have sought shelter.
Help us to be true to ourselves,
to appreciate our unkempt beauty,
to stand our ground in all seasons,
not to disguise our mess, our confusion, our search for love
which is wonderful in your eyes even when it is frustrating in our own.
Amen.
Michael McGirr’s Trees Without Masks
Blessings and love, Barbara
Hello Everyone,
I forgot to say, that I included those cartoons not to make fun of a significant faith event, BUT to highlight it has got people (including the secular community) thinking about the impact covid-19 has on faith, and how we continue to worship, when in isolation. If we had been worshipping in church, we could have projected one of those images on our screen and used it as a time of reflection:
What does it mean to worship in lockdown?
Is Jesus still here when we are not in the building? (or in the Upper Room, the place of the Last Supper)
Where is Jesus?
Where are we?
Now you have questions to use when you look at those images again.
Where is God? Beside you.
Perhaps in the cartoon with ‘cancelled’ there could have been another image, off to the side, of a hospital room, and Jesus there next to the bed, holding the hand of the covid-19 sufferer.
NOW I will stop because THIS is getting to be a sermon!
Blessings
Barbara
