This Sunday is UMCOR Sunday and I have the blessing of sharing the message for worship.  While preparing the message, Pastor George mentioned that it would be a good idea to have a lot of visuals in worship, especially since we are worshipping online-only for a while.  So, I have had the blessing of looking through all the pictures that have been taken over the years of all the UMCOR Adult work Teams that I have had the privilege to lead over the years.

It has been a wonderful way to remember all the people that we have helped over the years and to remember all those who have helped be a blessing to others over the years.  Seeing pictures with people who have passed on, or moved away and seeing the rest of us a lot younger than we are now.  We had our first to the Gulf Coast to help with Katrina recovery in 2009.  How wonderful it was to recall those trips, stories and people.  Those teams are our church doing what the church is called to do, help others in Christ’s name.  They recall a time when the church is at is best.  We all participate in those teams whether we are physically on them or not.  We participate by paying, praying or playing as my friend and Cal-Pac Disaster Response Task Force Chair, Judy Lewis loves to say.

During the time of this pandemic of COVID-19 the church can also be its best.  We can help others. We can connect by computers, cards and phone calls.  We can reach out with kindness to others and show God’s love to all.  Something that is always important, but in times like these is even more important.  Know that your church is here and is open even as it is closed for physical meetings, we are meeting online and by phone.  We are streaming worship services and calling and checking up on one another.  We are dropping off prayer quilts to those in need in our church family and keeping people encircled by our prayers.  Our food closet is open with extra safety precautions.  We are still reaching out to show God’s love and care.  

God is still with us and we can still be God’s hands and feet even when we have to keep our social isolation of 6’.  Remember that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Romans 8:38-39 New International Version (NIV)

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

See you online and keeping you all in my prayers,

Suzanne

Hello my Dear Friends,

We are in the season of Lent. This is traditionally a time when believers take on new disciplines and give up things that they enjoy. The point of these disciplines is to help us remember what is important, to celebrate the simple gifts God affords us each day, and prepare to rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus at Easter.
In the early church, persons who became aware of ways in which they harmed others often separated themselves from the community. In some societies they were even “shunned” for a time. Lent was the time in which they prepared themselves to rejoin the community. In this way, Easter was a day of resurrection and restoration to the community.

We are having quite a Lenten season, aren’t we?!

For the sake of our own well-being and the health of others, we are having to give up quite a bit. Our ordinary lives have been turned upside-down. Things we have taken for granted have become precious. We are also having to learn new ways of doing things, and taking on different responsibilities. We have had to separate ourselves from each other, and from our beloved communities – at least in physical presence.

This enforced Lenten season may extend beyond this year’s date of Easter: April 12 for the Western Church, and April 19 for Orthodox traditions. But we can take heart. We will prevail. We will make it through this. We will help, encourage, support, and pray for one another.  We will learn new ways of being in community, we will learn again to cherish the simple gifts of home and family, and we will be ready to celebrate anew our restoration to physical community.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day.  Patrick was a Roman Briton, who felt called to be an evangelist to Ireland. He answered that call, later became a bishop and is considered the “Apostle to Ireland.” The story is told that he used a clover, with its three lobes, to each how one God could be the three persons of the Trinity. Legend holds that he banished the snakes from Ireland.

And what he was doing when the venomous snakes started attacking him, causing him to banish them? That’s right, he was on a 40-day fast.  He was fasting – something often done to rid oneself of poisons of the world — and in the course of that fast banished the poisonous snakes from his adopted land. This legend echoes Exodus 7:8-13,  the story of Moses contending with Pharaoh: 

^“8The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a wonder,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’“ ¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded; Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. ¹¹Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts. ¹²Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes; but Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs. ¹³Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.”

Dear Lord, we find ourselves at a time when we are contending with a new contagion which has infected so many. In order to slow the spread and provide space for healing, we have had to change our ways. Use this time, Oh God, to reform and renew us. May our frustration and anger turn them to hope and commitment to care.  May we rediscover and learn again to cherish the simple gifts of home and family. Help us to maintain community in new ways. May this truly be a time that by our separation and deprivation, we may drive out the poisons of our world. Make us ready to celebrate our reunions when that day of restoration comes. This we pray in the name of you, our Triune God. Amen.

Your church staff are here for you. While there will be no meetings on the campus and we will worship exclusively online, we will reach out in ways old and new. In the next two weeks we will seek to call each home for which we have a telephone number. We are here to answer your calls and emails. And each week day you will receive an email such as this from one of our staff members.

May God bless you this day and always.

George Hooper