Reflection for Wednesday, April 8 from Pastor Lauren

Holy Wednesday

Did Jesus know that this would be his last night as a free man? Had he already heard that Judas had been seen talking to Roman officials earlier that day? Was he angry at Judas? Though little is written about what happened on Jesus’s last full day and night of freedom, I wonder what was on his mind. What did he do? What was he thinking about?

I wonder if Jesus was soaking in one last day of life, knowing his death would happen soon. I wonder if he went to the markets to look around and watch people interact. I wonder if he watched children play and gave them apples to snack on while they took a break from the sun. I wonder if he hiked through a wooded area to notice the ways spring was coming forth from the soil and the trees. I wonder if Jesus took a bath and remembered his baptism -- remembered all the places he had traveled and gave thanks to his weathered body. I wonder if he lit candles and prayed for the people he loved, for the people he was leaving his unfinished mission to, for the poor, and for the powerful. I wonder if he laughed with his friends and played the flute for them while they danced.

Thinking about the death of Jesus makes me think of the amazing way he lived his life. It makes me think about the people he healed with his hands, about the places he walked through, about the conversations he had, and the commitments of his life.

How do you think Jesus spent his last day fully free? What are stories of his life you are most grateful for? How do you strive to keep his memory alive thousands of years later?

Reflection for Tuesday, April 7 from Pastor Lauren

Holy Tuesday

“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.” - Matthew 22:11 (The Message)

What do you think of when you think about service? Perhaps you think about community service projects like cleaning up public spaces or painting a school. Maybe you think about your church’s charity ministries like the free store, winter outreach, food collections, or operation backpack. Maybe you think about people in helping professions like social workers, non-profit staff, medical staff, and public service personnel. Or perhaps you are thinking of the ways you are serving your neighbor in this unprecedented time.

This passage from Matthew invites us to consider that service needs to be rooted in humility. Often when defining humility, we define it as being small or feeling insignificant. But that’s a very limited definition. Humility is really about honest self-knowledge. Humility is knowing what you excel at and what you are challenged by. Humility is the space between ego and self-consciousness. Humility is seeing the big-picture and knowing that you are a part of something much greater. Humility, thankfully, is also knowing the world doesn’t rest on your shoulders.

So today, I invite you to think about the best things about yourself. Give thanks for these things and ask God to guide you in being open to ways these gifts can be used to serve others. Become aware of your growing edges and ask God to help you find balance between the best parts of you and the parts that need to be strengthened. I love how Marianne Williamson helps us to bring together the idea of service and humility saying:

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”

Reflection for Monday, April 6 from Pastor Lauren

Holy Monday

After worship yesterday, I was brought to tears by this video of a mom lifting her beautiful voice in song to the accompaniment of a karaoke track with her toddler on her hip, another kid in the background, and boxes of diapers piled high next to the couch. It is chaotic, honest, humble, and delightful.

As I think about the typical Palm Sunday, all the preparation, careful planning, big anthems, and vibrant palms that usually mark this occasion, it strikes me as a very unexpected gift that this week we have none of that. As excited as I was to celebrate Holy Week with MCCGSL in a big way, I am overcome with the presence of God because of the simplicity, not in spite of it.

Our online worship services and prayer calls are modest and humble. It strikes me that our worship was probably like Jesus‘s entry into Jerusalem that we celebrated yesterday. A bit thrown together. Planned, but loosely. Triumphant, but not flashy. After all, Jesus was in a donkey, not a war horse. His way was lined with coats and palm branches. He was protesting the greed and militarism of the world while entering into the last week of his life, preparing for his final lesson.

Eighth-Century Martyr Andrew of Crete wrote, “Let us say to Christ: Blessed is [the one] who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Let us wave before him like palm branches the words inscribed above him on the cross. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches, but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our own hearts under his feet like garments, so that he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us.”

As we enter into Holy Week, let us open ourselves to the wonder and chaos of the Palm Sunday procession. May we throw down our cloaks, raise our palms and do our best to stay true to the way of Christ: a life of service to one another, and to the poor.

This week, we will be reflecting on the theme of service as we humbly mark Jesus’s last days.

Reflection for Friday, April 3 from Pastor Brad

A prayer

Gracious One…..

We wake to this day, and may we know the way your Spirit now wakes up in us.

As our muscles and bodies gently alert us to being in the mystery of this moment, may we sense how you are moving to gently stretch our spirits from the core of our hearts and lovingly warm us up for being in this day….

That we may care well for the hope in our own hearts.

That we may share signs of blessings with other hearts that we encounter.

That we may know our lives are always upon the ground of your love; even -- and especially -- when the shadows of life seem to be long and deep.

Though we are closed in more these days, encourage us always not to close ourselves off.

But let us find the simple delights of your presence and your love that beckon us to share generously the treasures you have given us…..in this moment…...and in the next…..and for this day that you have made.

Amen.

Reflection for Thursday, April 2 from Pastor Brad

In our Spiritual Practices class this week, our virtual guide Shane Claiborne said that, when it comes to generosity, “we were made for this.” It’s true that there is plenty of evidence to the contrary in our world, but we are made for being generous -- blessing one another with the unique gifts and resources that we can share; opening our heart to our neighbors and stretching our lives to help make the world more just and whole; yes, we were made to be generous.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve heard a little more than just a handful of stories from church folk about the creative ways they have seen generousity or they have lived generously in these unusual days. That’s not even counting those sorts of stories and images from media that I’ve seen, and I heard even more inspiring tales of generosity in our Lent class last night. All are reminders to me that we are made for being generous, and the Spirit is moving wondrously to help us grow in living generous lives -- even, maybe especially, through these trying days.

What a difference it makes when we practice generosity in our lives. May you know the way you already are generous with the resources you have - in little and big ways, and may you know the leading of the Spirit that continues to guide your life on the creative and joyful pathways of sharing that are ahead.

Reflection for Wednesday, April 1 from Pastor Brad

Several years ago, Carondelet UCC received a financial gift from an unexpected source. The gift was sizeable; that mattered and it still does insofar as it goes for making that gift stand out in my mind. But the most amazing thing about that gift was the place from where it came. Upon her death, the giver shared some of her financial resources with the church and other community and educational service providers. She, as far as I can tell, had no real connection to Carondelet UCC herself in the span of her life, but the church had made such a difference in her father’s life when he was growing up and that she wished to support its ministry with her gift.

That gift gave me a whole new wrinkle in how I would think and talk about signs of grace. Out of nowhere, this gracious gift came. It was received as a blessing, which it was -- it made the elevator in the building possible. But it was more than that; it was an invitation to respond and to imagine how we might live graciously and creatively and with love after receiving such a loving gift.

That’s one example. But you know, those grace notes from the resources we are led to share are played all the time - every service where folks give faithfully to sustain ministry in our congregations and the community it builds; every time folks contribute to those who help neighbors make the ends meet or who are bending our society to be more just; every time we share from our resources to build up goodness in the world.

We never quite know the ripple effects of generosity and how the Spirit may use it for good, but may we simply trust that the Holy One will do “more than we can ask for or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Reflection for Tuesday, March 31 from Pastor Brad

“And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying…”

-Luke 12:29

“Don’t worry?!” Much of the economy is grinding to a halt, the stock market has gone down, our own financial futures might seem at least a little more uncertain and even more, the economic conditions have slammed even further many of our neighbors who are wondering where the next source of material livelihood might be coming from. And Jesus says…..“Don’t worry??”

In this moment when folks like you and me might be carrying around a bit of the weight of worry, this extended teaching of Jesus in Luke’s 12th chapter about not worrying is a bit puzzling on its face. After all, as those of us who might do some worrying know, it’s not simply a matter of “snapping out of it” or “bucking up” or “looking on the brighter side” that absolves worry within our hearts or in the heart of our communities.

Jesus doesn’t think it’s just a matter of these things, either. As much as it may be anything else, Jesus’ counsel not to worry is an invitation to us to remember the ultimate things: We belong to God and are gifted by God. We are all loved more than we can ever imagine. That love binds us together in the human family, and those bonds find their strength in how we respond generously to it and to one one another. When we remember these ultimate things and when we practice living generously in love toward one another, Jesus might be telling us that the worry takes care of itself because we know we are in God together and we can lift each other up, too.

In what can be a worrisome time, I know God is at work; bringing up lights of generous living in each of our hearts and the hearts of our communities and neighborhoods -- local and global. As you find those lights, may they be beacons for your journey through these days.