I have to say, I am a sucker for the heart-shaped items that are prolific in the days leading up to Valentine's Day. This week, when visiting someone in the Heart Hospital, I delighted in the heart-shaped balloons that adorned the hallway while nurses sported hearts on their scrubs. While it's fun to think about St. Valentine and the revolutionary weddings he performed that led us to a weekend we celebrate romantic love, I was moved this way in celebration of the love of community.

This week, at the Maplewood City Council Meeting, nearly 10 people spoke in support of an overnight prayer vigil that has taken place at Maplewood UMC during the coldest nights this winter. Maplewood, a city within St. Louis County, is a quirky municipality known for wholesome festivals, good restaurants, and a supportive community. So, it might stand out that there is a restriction that prevents an emergency shelter from being set up in the City of Maplewood.

Maplewood UMC went into action. Knowing they couldn’t have a shelter, they set up an overnight prayer vigil for peace and justice to bring together anyone in the community who wanted to pray for their neighbors and pray for each other throughout the night.

In the downstairs fellowship hall, adorned with twinkle lights and round tables, the room buzzed with sweet energy of communion when I came for my first shift at 4am. In our tradition, we celebrate communion as a sacred meal Jesus shared with his friends and disciples, a time to reflect, to mourn, to pray, and to prepare for the work of community away from the table. Communion does not need wine or bread, though. Communion is about sharing hope, delight, and space to be vulnerable. When I joined the table at 4am, I couldn’t tell who was a pastor and who a congregant; who a member of MUMC and who from the community. Surely some came to escape the physical cold, looking for warmth in the middle of the night. Others came to escape the chill of the heart reverberating in our news cycles, our fears, and our nightmares. At the table, we shared everything from very personal situations to national headlines. Prayer and communion were shared in the middle of the night, a time when most of us have to face our insecurities alone. Maplewood UMC made a way for us to share them on a night when vulnerability was felt even more acutely, when the thermometer read far below zero.

Throughout the section for public comment, person after person (including our own Maplewood resident Deborah Sheperis) came forward offering loving support for such prayer vigils and told stories of love incarnate experienced in sharing a table, stories, and perhaps a nap in the middle of the night.

As we celebrate the gift of love in our community, I am heartened by the city of Maplewood, whose residents and council members are finding a way to work within the system to support vulnerable people now while also trying to change the system for more substantive support later.

How are you noticing the reverberations of love in your life?

Blessings,
Pastor Lauren

Today and everyday, I hope you know that you are worthy of God’s love, abundance, and grace. The way you show up in this world matters: to me, to our church and wider community, and to this world. You carry a spark of the Divine within you. You are not only loved, you are deeply needed.

Let this Pride, be a reminder that Pride is for everyone, gay, straight, cis, trans, bi, ace, or any other identity. Pride is a celebration of the courage it takes to be who you are. Let it be a reminder that we are all called to live more freely, more fully, more truthfully. Your truest self, the one that sometimes hides, the one that’s learning to speak, to sing, and to shine deserves to be known, seen, and embraced. Not just by others, but by you.

Every time you show up as yourself, even when it's hard or scary, you make space for others to do the same. This is sacred work. It is holy and transformative. You are not a disruption, you are a revelation.

Several years ago, on June 1st, the first day of Pride month, I got the word courage tattooed on my wrist. I needed the reminder that I could be afraid and still live as my whole self. That I could be tender and brave at the same time. That I was far from alone, that thousands had come before me walking this same path of authenticity, and thousands will come after. That we are never alone in the struggle to be seen and loved as we are.

This Pride, I hope you embrace the tenderest parts of yourself, the parts that need nurturance, patience, and compassion. Those are the parts that make you most human, most holy. I hope you know how loved you are in this world. How much you matter. How your presence, exactly as you are, makes this world more beautiful and more whole.

I know how hard this world can be, how isolating and how unforgiving. And I also know the unbelievable healing that can come through connection that happens within beloved community. Beloved Community is not a dream that is far out there, but it is something we create together, day by day, in the way we show up for ourselves and one another.

Baba Sheikh Farid once said, “I thought I was alone who suffered. I went on top of the house, and found every house on fire.” So when you feel alone, trust you are not. When you feel like the weight is all on you, know it isn't. When you doubt if you're doing enough, remember that your very existence, your honest presence, is more than enough.

You are God’s light in this world, radiant, needed, and beloved. The world needs your voice. It needs your story. It needs your authenticity. It needs you.

In Love and Solidarity,
Pastor Eli