Third Week of Lent: Community

We have journeyed through about half of the season of Lent. The first few “words” from Jesus on the cross focus outwardly to the world. This last weeks word community comes from Jesus seeing his mother and the “beloved” disciple (who is not named) and entrusting their care one to the other. Here Jesus establishes a new community, a new family based on their relationship to Jesus.

This week has been filled with all kinds of memories as COVID-19 was named as a pandemic for the first time. This was the week that cities and states, businesses and school and even churches shut down. Not much was known about this novel coronavirus as year and fear and anxiety permeated everything from the airwaves to conversations to political discourse.

Suddenly we were isolated and social distancing. As we learned more about COVID-19 it became apparent how easily it was passed through the air. A year later, restrictions are slowly being lifted and vaccines are becoming more readily available. We are not out of the woods yet, but there is light ahead.

I have been pondering this week how as a community we are still carrying grief and anxiety, sadness and uncertainty. Or maybe it is just me. A little over a week ago a friend died, not of Covid but of cancer. From his diagnosis to his death was about month. A well known United Methodist, The Reverend Junius Dotson was a bright light to so many across Wichita where was a colleague and across this nation and world. I was so stunned by the news of his death, because that morning I woke up and thought, I should text Junius.

I have to say that grief and sadness tops off a deep well of sadness I carry from this last year. How about you? Colleagues, friends, parishoners have died from this horrible pandemic and countless have lost family members as well. Then there is the loss of gathering whether for a meal, or a drink in a restuarant, or our an outing or worship makes the human connection we had and will have again all the more precious.

This week, our devotion guide focuses on community and Leslie Coates does a wonderful job both in his video devotion (you can also find it our our webpage under the worship tab) and in his daily prompts. Community is such a gift and one that I have easily taken for granted. I do not intend to take it for granted again.

In the Christian tradition, community has stretched the followers of Jesus to include all, welcome all and embrace all. The church has never found it easy. Generation to generation new understandings of what it means to be a community and a family has pushed our comfort levels. Jesus pushed them through his ministry and on the cross, whether it be the theif on the cross, the woman the well, or the tax collector.

I continue to look for new ways to connect in community and to be in community with others. This pandemic has offered us multiple opportunities to reach out through the internet, through the telephone and good old fashioned mail. As human beings we need the physical contact, it is part our nature. That doesn’t mean the other ways we connect are bad or less than optimal. COVID-19 has engaged our creativity and courage and commitment to community in new and wonderous ways.

Community gives us the grace to connect in our grief over the losses of this past year. Community offers us connection heart, soul and mind to support one another and share with one another. Community gives us a space and a place, both in person and online, to share our joys and sorrows, our fears and anxieties, our love and loss. I am grateful during this third week of Lent to celebrate and embrace community in all its forms.

All Souls and Giving Thanks

Today is All Soul’s Day, the end of the All Hallow’s Triduum. For Protestants this doesn’t mean much, All Saints Day if celebrated at all is honored on the first Sunday in November. All Soul’s Day is also known as “Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.”

In other words, everybody. Our loved ones may never have a day set aside for them or a festival, but in more liturgical traditions, we remember all those we have loved and lost on this day. Each year, these moments to stop and remember, regardless of whether or not I call them All Saints or All Souls, become more tender, more reflective, and more poignant. In my own life, we will remember the one year anniversary of the death of my mother-in-law and a few days later, the six anniversary of my mother’s death.

I reflected on my own mother’s death in a couple of blog posts, that you can access.

https://revcindylee.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/all-souls-and-being-thankful/

https://revcindylee.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/gratitude-and-grief/

And these are not the only deaths that I am reminded of during these holy days. Family, friends, colleagues all come to mind and I am grateful for our relationship, love and laughter shared. I miss many of them deeply, but not to the point of great pain. I miss them because of their unique and unrepeatable spirits which can not replicated, only celebrated and remembered.

Carrie Newcomer has a beautiful song called “All Saints Day” In the Celtic tradition the last few days have been a thin space between life here and the spirit world collide. Perhaps it isn’t the space, but the time where we can almost sense the world beyond this one, the place and space and time when the prophets promised there would no more tears, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more death.

These holy, hallowed days invite me to pay attention to the sacredness of time, of place and of relationships. I am grateful, deeply grateful for those I have loved deeply and who no longer walk this sacred earth. I smile, I sigh, I say a prayer of thankfulness. On this All Souls Day I am blessed and I continue to be graced to serve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankful for All the Saints

Today in the Christian tradition, it is All Saints Day. This day sits in the middle of a triduum (a series of three days, we use the word for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday as well.) This period begins with All Hallows Eve ( Halloween) continues with All Saints Day and ends with All Souls Day. “Traditionally” today is the day we remember the named saints and tomorrow is the day we remember “everyone.”

I almost always write a blog on this day.  A couple of examples of what I written are here:

https://revcindylee.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/all-saints-day/

https://revcindylee.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/all-saints-and-remembering/

So many people have touched my life and I miss them. After 35+ years as a pastor, I have done countless funerals and this day is always a big poignant for me. I don’t think I am maudlin, but I do believe that as a culture we are uncomfortable with grief and tend to want to move on. I know I often do.

Today, after a couple of unseasonable cold and blustery days, the sun is shining. I have taken down the Halloween decorations and am working on the Thanksgiving decor. The colors of autumn remind me of how precious life is, how deeply grateful I am to be alive and to remember. As the leaves turn colors, I think of how many share the best of who they are in the final time of their life.

Autumn is an invitation for me to take each moment as a gift, and to live with love and gratitude. As I finish up an intentional year of gratitude, I am grateful for “all the saints who from their labors rest.”  I am grateful to honor their lives and spirits and be challenged to share the best of their faith, their love and their gifts with others.

Year of Gratitude

Last week, I didn’t get a prompt posted for our year of gratitude. It’s not that I wasn’t grateful or that I didn’t send a thank you note, I just didn’t get the blog written. Some of that had to do with the life of the global United Methodist Church. While I have tried not to be anxious, I have been.

As I write, General Conference has not yet concluded, but the One Church Plan which I supported and many of my colleagues and friends supported was defeated twice. I am heartbroken. Sunday, I preached a sermon about why I was going to continue to be on the side of love and acceptance of all. You can find both the worship service or the sermon by itself here.

Today I was attending a Sunday School lunch which was called  “picnic.” There was napkin that looked like this:

Honestly, I have probably felt more like the cat than the girl! And yet being sad and angry and grieving does not mean I am not thankful. Many of my collegagues and friends from the Great Plains Conference have represented the church I love well. In the four short days, these persons have found themselves at the microphone using the legislative process to do what is right and just. The have diligently worked for good for the greatest amount of people. I am grateful for their passion, their faithfulness and willingness to serve in such a difficult time.

I can not say thank you enough to Amy Lippoldt, Adam Hamiliton, Cheryl Jefferson Bell, David Livingston, Mark Holland, Shayla Jordan (one of the youngest elected to the General Conference), Stephanie Ahlschwede among others. I know I missed some, but still I am deeply grateful for their commitment to living out God’s love for all people. I don’t know what the future holds. For so long, 35 plus years as a clergy in the United Methodist Church I have supported and worked for full inclusion of my LGBTQ brothers and sisters and friends. I don’t intend to stop.

I want to tell those who feel most bruised and broken by what is occuring that you are not alone, there are many allies who will continue to work for justice, for love, for grace, for everyone to be part of the community of faith. We do not lose hope, we cling to faith, we remember that nothing, NOT ONE THING can separate us from the love of God in Christ. I am grateful for the reminder of that promise and that somehow, in someway, we will go forward.

Years ago, a wonderful song was penned that has been sung for several decades: the story and sharing of that song is one that I pray brings hope and promise to those of us who continue to sing for our lives and the lives of the church together you. You will find that story and song here.

 

 

Thankful 24/7 For All the Saints

We started a new sermon series yesterday, “Thankful 24/7.” Now I am aware we all KNOW we are supposed to be thankful, grateful for all of the gifts of life we receive. I also know how easy it is to forget. Sometimes the road is rocky and the path is difficult and it becomes harder to experience the blessings of life.

The journey of grief is one of those experiences that both encourages gratitude and blocks the feelings of thankfulness. Grief reminds us how short life really is, and how quickly we can lose someone we love. Grief is the great equalizer as that all people experience it one way or another.

Perhaps that is why All Saints Sunday is one of my favorite worship services of the year. Not because it is a “happy Sunday” but because All Saints reminds me of how precious life is and how each person can make a difference in the lives of others. During worship, as always, I am reminded not only of those persons I have loved and lost this, but of those I have lost in my lifetime.

This year particularly I am more aware because my mother-in-law is journeying through final days. As the days turn cooler, the leaves fall and the earth prepares for another winter, I am praying that mother in law transitions from this life to the next in peace surrounded by love and grace.

Here is the link for yesterdays worship service where prayers were raised, candles lit, communion celebrated and music shared to commemorate this most sacred of Sundays.

No words, AGAIN, just grief

I have to admit, I have been avoiding social media in the last couple of days. Other than post Birthday wishes to my friends, and a quick peek, I am not spending much time there. I could say that Lent began and it is part of my Lenten devotion to spend less time on social media and more time with God. That would not be true.

On Wednesday afternoon, as I was going over the service and putting last minute touches on my sermon the news flashed about another school shooting. This time in a high school in Parkland, Florida. I don’t need to post any links it is all over the news. Confronted with services starting soon, I was frozen and unable to figure out what to do. In odds with how I usually handle these things, I didn’t change my sermon. The tragedy was mentioned in the midst of the prayers.

I am immobilized by what seems to be a non-stop litany of mass shootings. I have several drafts over the last year of blog posts that never got finished because I couldn’t figure out what to say. There are so many blog writers that can articulate the grief and pain and anguish better than I can.

In November of 2017, I started a blog and this is what was saved in my drafts:  

Another mass shooting. ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING. This time in another church, a small church, 26 dead,, 20 injured. I don’t know what to say anymore.

I didn’t post last week about the attack in New York City where bicyclists and walkers were run down by a truck. What is left say? I find myself sick to my stomach, numb to the numbers and my mind blank as to how to respond.

There are no words. None that can speak to this insanity.

And then three months later, there are still no words. I have wandered around with tears in my eyes and what little I have glimpsed on social media sites hasn’t helped. The left and the right posted incredibly unhelpful memes pointing fingers. These tactics do not change hearts and minds and spirits or bring back one of those loved ones.

I want to rant and scream and point fingers and assign blame. Instead like Jeremiah, I am appalled and grief stricken over the platitudes and empty words of us all, myself included. In chapter 8, the prophet says:

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
   my heart is sick. 
Hark, the cry of my poor people
   from far and wide in the land:
‘Is the Lord not in Zion?
   Is her King not in her?’
(‘Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
   with their foreign idols?’) 
‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
   and we are not saved.’ 
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
   I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 

Is there no balm in Gilead?
   Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
   not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water,
   and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
   for the slain of my poor people!

Or from the thirty first chapter of Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
   lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
   she refuses to be comforted for her children,
   because they are no more.

In Lent, in some denominations, Christians are marked with ashes. It is a reminder that we are fallible, sinful, prone to go our own way, prone to only look after our own interests to the exclusion of others, with a propensity for evil. We don’t like to admit to sin or at least to our sin being as “bad” as others.

In my Ash Wednesday sermon, I gave permission for people to not berate themselves, that instead of giving up chocolate or candy, to give up bitterness and anger and give it up to Jesus among other things. I am not berating myself, but I am confessing that I do not know how to address this kind of evil in the world. I am ill equipped to change hearts and minds and spirits and lives in a way that stands against the forces of evil and destruction and death that are so often made real in these mass shootings. I am an utter failure at encouraging and helping people be change agents in this world of violence and hatred.

What I can do is stand in God’s grace and love and be challenged to not give up, to believe that God is still active in this world and has not deserted us in the mess we have created. Thoughts and prayers are not enough to bridge the gaping canyon between so many people. Thoughts and prayers will not change the violence, the hatred, the bigotry. Thoughts and prayers will not heal the deep despair, pain and fear so many feel.

In verse 16 of Jeremiah 31:

Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping,
   and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work,

and a promise of a new heart and covenant for a people in exile:

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.  (31: 33-34)

I will trust that God is challenging me, and perhaps you, to not turn away from what is happening, but face the evil in the world with power given through the goodness of God’s grace and love. If Lent teaches me anything, it is that I believe in a God who is embodied in Jesus. In Jesus, God confronts evil all the way to the cross. Jesus doesn’t shrink away, but stands against the powers of evil. Jesus proclaims a new way of livings and reminds me and us all that the kingdom of God is at hand.

Last year, Jan Richardson, a woman of great words and beautiful paintings wrote an Ash Wednesday blessing for the ashes. In it she writes, “did you not know what the Holy One can do with dust?”

She finishes the blessing with these words

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

So I am remembering what God can do with the dust and ashes of my life. I am reminding myself that out of my confession of all that I am unable to accomplish and do, that God is already creating in me a new heart and writing the law of love within it. Out of the tears and grief and prayers of my heart and spirit, God is making sure to empower me out of my frozen state into a renewed commitment to the reign of peace, justice and love I have been promised in Christ. During this time of Lent, I will focus on the journey of Jesus. I will walk the long road to the cross filled with evil, betrayal, injustice and pain and believe that there is resurrection and new life yet to come.

 

All Saints 2017

Each year I am moved by All Saints Sunday, which for many Protestants is celebrated on the first Sunday of November. Names are read, candles lit and we remember. This year at First United Methodist Church we lit thirty three candles for each member that had died since November 1, 2016. Thirty three….members, that does not include all the family members and friends and others that have died and affected our congregation. We light a thirty fourth candles to include all those others, plus those who have suffered pregnancy losses.

Here is the link to today’s worship service. The music was wonderful, the candles beautiful, just being together to remember powerful.

Every year as I light candles I remember ALL those saints who have gone before, those family members and friends whom I still miss. I will continue to pray for those currently walking the fresh valley of grief, those who are transitioning from this life to next. Life is good, but sometimes it is hard and filled with ups and downs.

On this day, I grateful for all the saints, for that great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, and the comfort and grace of God that goes with us on journey.

Back to blogging

It’s been a month since my last blog about the Great Plains  Annual Conference. Following conference I took a week for sermon planning and a week for vacation. Seemed fairly straight forward and well planned.

You know the saying, “the best laid plans….” It was a good two weeks, but as the week of my sermon planning time began, a neighbor and a friend died. It was unexpected in many ways, I had seen him the week before and I would never guessed I would be planning service within 10 days.

In my neighborhood, I am not the “pastor” particularly. Some of my neighbors attend church in other denominations than mine. Some of my neighbors do not. To be a “neighbor” is a wonderful thing as opposed to being whatever my “vocation” might be. Yet, it was a privilege and honor to be asked to preside at this man’s funeral. It was his request and so I sat with his daughters and we found a way to honor his life and spirit.

He had many  talents,  not the least  of which was gardening. He was meticulous in pulling weeds and keeping his flowers and his lawn beautiful. He was smart and funny. I will miss him.

During the time I was so blessed to become acquainted with his daughters, brilliant and funny and accomplished each in their own jobs and professions. I now have in my home, a few things in which to remember this wonderful and thoughtful human being. These past few weeks have reminded me again how precious life is and how each person plays a part and makes a difference in the lives of others.

As I begin my second year at First UMC, I am so grateful for those people who created this place for people all over Wichita to encounter the living spirit of God. I am blessed to continue in ministry with the gifted people in this community of faith. Life is precious and the call of Christ is to be a neighbor to every person we meet and to make a difference in lives of others. I am thankful my friend’s life and death and memory reminds me of this reality and call. I am graced to serve in this city and in this place and in this neighborhood. Life. Downtown.

All Souls Day

Part of this post was written three years ago. Our culture doesn’t know much about Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Some of what is shared in the next three paragraphs are from that blog, but I end with some new thoughts about this early church tradition.

Today, in Western Christian tradition is All Souls Day.  It is the third day of the “triduum of Hallowmass.”  Who knew that Halloween was a holy day?  The first day of the three, All Hallows Eve, October 31, was a day when early Christians believed that some how the space between this life and the next life was thinner.  They would don “masks” to keep former souls from recognizing them.  Of course in North America this became “trick or treating” through costumes and pranks and the offering of treats.

The second day was All Saints Day, November 1, which remembers all martyrs and official saints of the church both known and unknown.  The third day, All Souls Day, November 2, remembers “all the faithful departed.”  In most protestant traditions, these days are lumped together and often celebrated on the first Sunday of November.  A google search will give multiple hits on these traditions.

I, being who I am, love this history and the layers that surround these practices both from the Christian tradition and other traditions.  What I love most, is the remembering and the giving thanks.  Often in the U.S.A. graves are visited on the last weekend in May.  I always tried to avoid focusing All Saints on that weekend, because it is also the first three day weekend of the summer and consequently loses some of the religious significance that the first Sunday of November can offer.

Remembering those who have gone before is holy, sacred and spiritual work.  The act of remembering is a blessing on those who take the time to laugh, to cry and to tell the story of those who have made a difference in their lives.  After thirty plus years of ministry, the list gets longer each year for me.  The spaces around those memories grow more tender as I remember, as I grieve and as I smile through tears and give thanks that I have been so blessed by so many.

The holiness of these moments become more sacred in the midst of a time of great anxiety and fear. Next week, will be an election which has been filled with bigotry, hatred, lies and ugliness from both sides. The fear mongering has been almost overwhelming. Many, myself included, will be glad when the election is over.

Add to that another horrible shooting in Des Moines where two police officers were ambushed, another black church is vandalized,  and where the deaths in Syria mount, is it any wonder that many are just tired and afraid. It is important in times like these, to remember the saints and souls and spirits who went before us. We are NOT living in the first period of time fraught with fear and anxiety.

Those who went before us lived through wars and rumors of war, violence, hatred and natural disasters. The early Christians were persecuted and wondered if the end of the world was coming. In these days, we are hearing the same from both parties. Neither is speaking the whole truth. These elections and difficulties are part and parcel of being part of this world. The saints that have gone on before us, understood that whatever occurs day in and day out is not the kingdom of God. The reign God continues to challenge all of us “saints” to live lives of faith, of hope, of love and justice.

We keep eyes and hearts and spirits focused on the promise that the time is coming when we will experience something new and wonderous. In the meantime, we lean into each other for strength, and trust God’s Spirit to help us believe and God will make all things new in God’s own time.

And so, remembering I am “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) , these saints and souls of God, I am graced to serve.

All Saints Day

Each year, I am profoundly moved by All Saints Day. Perhaps some of it has to do with the fact I have been a pastor more than three decades. The list of “saints” whom I have buried, or have loved and lost gets longer each year. Time is precious because I realize it is not a given or is not promised.

A couple of weeks ago, I was stunned by the sudden death of a colleague. A. Mark Conard has been a part of the annual conference I have served since I began ministry. Mark had a droll funny sense of humor, a depth of knowledge of United Methodist history and doctrine and loved the church with a passion unsurpassed by many. I served on the General/Jursidictional Conference delegation with home 3 times. He was an early adapter of social media and on Sunday, October 16, he posted on my Facebook wall about the sermon I had preached. I wasn’t even out of worship yet! Two days later he died.

In the service celebrating his life, all I stated above and more was shared. I still can not quite comprehend that he is gone. I will miss him, his smile, his posts, his sense of humor and his ability to lower the tension in a room by just the right words. 

Another friend, Ben Murray, took his life over Labor Day weekend. Ben was an amazing chef. It was from Ben I learned that good food is not expensive food, necessarily. Good food, was food that used the best ingredients available, cooked to bring out the essential nature of those ingredients. It was Ben, who invited me to “guest chef” at his restaurant, me, with no culinary training. It was Ben, who when a disc exploded in my back, drove to my home and as I lay flat on my back in a twin bed in the dining room, cooked me a four course dinner, beginning with a lobster entree and a lovely steak entree. 

I believe Mark and Ben, like many others I have loved and appreciated, are part of what the book of Hebrews calls the great cloud of witnesses. His memory, their memories are a blessing. I believe that, I truly do.

The problem, of course, is that I miss them. I miss those who have meant so much to me. I miss my grandmother Nana, and grandfather Big Bob, my step-father Pep, my mom. I miss my friends and mentors through the years: Charlie Harrison, Jack Porter, Porrteus Latimer, George Gardner. Bill Shuyler, Les Hankins, Forrest Robinson, Paul Matthaei, and a host of others with whom I have life and laughter. I miss them.

“I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true. Who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor and one was a queen and one was a shepherdess on the green, they were all of them saints of God and I mean, God helping to be one too….They lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still. The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains or in shops, or at teas; for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.”  Lyrics by Lesbia Scott

I sing a song of the saints of God. On this All Saints Day, I am truly grateful for those who have gone before me, for those I have loved and laughed with and for their unique and unrepeatable spirits. Their lives have not been forgotten and their lights continue to shine through all of us who have known them and who continue to live out the values they held dear. I sing not only their song, I pray that I might be one, a saint, too.