- Thanksgiving Sunday with INC at Central Congregational church in Orange on November 24th at 10:15am (there are no services at CCNOT that Sunday).
- Annual Holly Fair on November 30th from 9-1.
- Watch this week HERE
This is one of those weeks when God asks us to Be Still. To pause and turn our attention inward.
When the waters roar and the earth gives way and the mountains scream, we naturally and primally reach out and react. We want to add our voices to the roar and the chaos. We fear that we will be lost and forgotten and unheard if we don’t.
God asks us to Be Still. Shhhh. Listen. Have faith. Have courage and always Love.
In a world that seems more divided than ever, one might wonder where in heaven’s name do we begin? We could start right there with heaven. Heaven could be defined as God’s Space. Making Earth our space. Transformation is the act of bridging heaven and earth. Inviting God in by simply listening and realizing…the divine is already there.
Emmanuel means God With Us. God is with us through Jesus, who bridges God’s Space and our space. We might begin by Remembering and following the Path of Jesus. To act as Jesus’s hands and words in this world, regardless of what we might want to do instead.
We might begin with the scripture reading for this week.
Jesus sat down and watched. It doesn’t say how long Jesus sat there watching. Sitting there, being still, in the midst of the crowds and the chaos. It likely wasn’t an easy place to be still and watch. Perhaps Jesus was jostled and it was probably noisy. Be still and notice. Watch for a time…before responding.
Jesus was always building an ever widening circle. He was ever adding seats to the Table. In this instance, his focus was on the one who “gave all that she had to live on”. A greater sacrifice than those with more showing off the amounts they gave that did not lessen what they had. She gave “all that she had to live on”. The widow is interesting because she’s part of that ever widening circle. Widows were often at the bottom of the social rungs, near the homeless and the hungry. They might have had almost enough, but were still very much at the lower edges of “who matters”. The ones who are a drain on the collective resources and barely add to the resources.
One also might wonder, why she gives all that she has? Is it of her own free will to give or is she expected to give more than she has which will continue to lower her on the rungs of “who matters”? The story changes…depending on how much we see and know. If she is giving everything freely or if she feels compelled to give more than she has…changes the story. Who’s giving, who’s compelling, and how do we know?
Maybe the important thing is that she is seen. She is seen by Jesus and she is welcome to sit with Jesus. The Table is huge and welcoming and runs the spectrum of, well, everyone. Everyone is invited to Jesus’s Table.
When we rush out into the chaos, we start to draw lines and uninvite people to our tables. It’s so easy to draw lines and separate from one another. It’s a first reaction. We might learn from what Jesus does when things get most tough.
When things start to get really tough, Jesus washes the feet of his friends. He sits and has intimate conversations with those closest to him. Even if there is silence, the washing of feet is an intimate conversation. And remember, those closest to him ran the spectrum of differences.
Then, everyone gets invited to Supper. The betrayer. The denier. The confused. The scared. The poor. The rich. Everyone gets invited to eat together.
When things get really, really bad, Jesus extends Compassion and Forgiveness to all those around him. Forgiveness opens the door to transformation. Jesus offers others the opportunity to change without judgement and without meanness.
Ever widening circles. Let’s be honest, we ALL belong.
We all belong in the neighborhood. Mr. Rogers has come up quite a few times this past week. I guess because we are “looking for the helpers”. Mr. Rogers created his Neighborhood, literally. And what did he do in his Neighborhood? He extended Love. He washed feet and had intimate conversations. He ate with his neighbors. He visited with his neighbors. He did not “begin” until he and everyone he was with was “ready”. Did you know that Mr. Rogers answered every, single piece of fan mail? He didn’t stop being Mr. Rogers when the cameras turned off. He had big conversations. He had small conversations. He sat and watched and talked gently. He taught and tended. And he had deep heart courage.
It’s easy to say, it was different or easier for Jesus or it was different times. But…Mr. Rogers was just like us. Fully human and walking on this fully human path creating an ever widening circle of Neighbor. We are Mr. Roger’s Neighbors. We are Jesus’s Neighbors.
We all have Neighbors. What kind of neighbor do we want to be? Because, it’s not so much about everyone else. It’s about us.
It is so easy to look at our neighbors and see what they are doing wrong all around us. Things would be better, if only everyone would do what I’d like them to do!!! Very few of us could honestly say we’re not guilty of that one.
What’s not so easy is to look at what we could be doing better. And, we, every one of us, can do better.
Be Still is a call to come to our senses. Literally. To sit and watch. To absorb the presence all around us. To call ourselves back to faith and hope and connection. To call ourselves back out of despair and remember hope (even if it’s a tiny micro dose shared), to call ourselves out of the division to remember community (to be a good Neighbor), and to call ourselves out of our anger into an ever widening circle of compassion and kindness (to sit Together at One Table).
Jesus asks us…Always…to Love each other. And to be merciful.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 