- Neighbors Waffle Breakfast on March 21st 9:30-11:30am
- This Lenten Friday is at the Universalist Unitarian Church (downtown)
- We have begun collecting items for our Adopt a Family for Easter
- Death Cafe March 28th at 4pm (please RSVP)
- Upcoming Membership Service: if you have been considering becoming a member and would like more information, please reach out
- Discussion Circle is on the last Sunday after Church; this month we will look at passages from Matthew to inspire, teach, guide, and challenge us–all are welcome to join us (this is an exploration of sacred passages, poetry, and words to inspire us toward freshness, surprise, and wonder)
Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times
Our Sunday Reflection is recorded and can be found HERE (posts each Sunday late morning or early afternoon).
All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).
Sometimes, I think my work is to collect things. I collect the words of those around me who are also pondering and reflecting on life and “bigger things”–I find that we are often collectively reflecting on the same themes. I collect our feelings; those worries, cares, fears, and rages. I collect our thoughts; what’s on our minds and what’s stirring in our hearts.
Sometimes, I hold them. Sometimes, together, we try to make sense of them using the wisdom that came before. The knowledge that we have guidance. The truth that we are not alone.
Right now, the collective is that things seem cold and hard and endless. This long winter is coming to a close, but it is still cold and unpredictable. There’s war. There’s violence. There’s a sense that there’s not enough of what we really need, of what’s really important. There’s uncertainty everywhere we look. There’s a deep sense of fear and grief.
Sometimes, we mask both fear and grief with anger, but anger (let run wild and out of control) only makes things cloudy and unclear. It can lead us astray, sometimes to a point where we become exactly what we began working to resist.
We must feel grief, which is often a form of fear. We cannot ignore grief. We must ride the waves of it. If we tuck it under the mattress or hide it in a closet, it comes out in other, more unpredictable, ways. We have enough unpredictability.
If we let grief be a part of the story, we find the sweet in what feels so harsh and bitter. Sweet is the reminder. Remember. Many of our greatest stories are simply…Remember.
Remember Love. In personal grief, those we have loved and lost and we are trying to find and hold onto in new ways. Remember Love in community and the world, with and for one another, when it’s so easy to get caught up in the discord and hate.
Remember love, compassion, and hope. We’ve been here before. We’ve felt this before. We’ve thought this before. Likely…it’ll all be here again. Grief gives us the big lessons in what matters most. PAUSE. What is most precious and worthy of saving and protecting. PAUSE. We get distracted by the stuffs and the louds and the busies…sometimes to avoid feeling what we think could be impossible to carry. It is when things are messy, even ugly and scary, that we really remember what most precious, what matters, and what is worthy of saving and protecting.
Those lessons can move us.
We can be moved by what matters most.
Move us toward what is most worthy of Love.
We cannot save the world alone. That “impossible to carry” is not meant to be carried alone. We are not superheroes. We are not single vigilantes “fixing” the world’s problems singlehandedly. We see this in action when individuals try to “fix” things…and it’s not pretty. It’s not helpful. These are not our helpers.
We work best clusters. We make change toward what matters most best…in community. Around a table. Maybe it’s a council table, a working table…the best tables are the ones full of “enough”, enough to eat and enough to drink, and enough room to be together.
If we are moved by our feelings, we don’t get stuck. We don’t get stuck in anger and rage. We don’t get stuck in dividing and conquering. We don’t get stuck in revenge or vigilante “fix it”. We are moved by the heart, by compassion and kindness. This is one of the things to love about the Jesus Story, in all the opportunities to pick up a sword, to start a revolution, or to take revenge…Jesus met the moment with Compassion and peace.
We are led, and moved away from, anger that can lead us toward more violence. Hate that excuses violence. Hate that blinds us to believe that this piece of violence will be different, this time it will bring us peace. Violence always brings about more violence. Anger always breeds more anger. Division always brings more separation and isolation. Hate always, always, leads to more hate.
When we are truly moved by our real feelings and real clarity, we discover and uncover better ways than meeting violence with more violence. Thou shalt not kill, becomes something deeper, it becomes: Love thy Neighbor.
When we aren’t moved by our feelings, we can get stuck in despair. Despair is freezing and paralyzing. It’s a “why does it matter”? “Nothing I do matters”. “I don’t matter”.
It stops us from being a part of the work. It leads us away from what matters most. Because what matter most…moves us.
Moves us toward what God asks of us. There are wonderful asks in this passage (thank you Reverend Trimble for the inspiration). God asks of us to live well.
God asks us not to stop living because it’s hard or it’s different or we’re far from home or we’re lost. Live well…where you are. Wherever you are.
Plant gardens and eat.
Build homes and live in them.
Bear witness to one another. Weddings, births, baptisms, graduations…
Live well. Tend to where you are.
Love the neighbors where you are. Whether you are in exile (this passage) or whether you are home. Love your neighbors where you are. Whether they are in exile or whether they are home.
Help build homes.
Help plant gardens.
Eat together around a table.
Bear witness to your neighbors’ joys, sorrows, and concerns.
One of my favorite bumper stickers was: The Meaning of Life is to Live it.
Living keeps us from despair. Living keeps us from being paralyzed by what’s around us. Living connects us. When you plant too much zucchini, notice a neighbor in need. When you have too many flowers (impossible), share them with your neighbors.
Living and planting seeds means we are invested (and investing) in a future that matters. We are invested in a world that matters. We are invested in what matters most. Dirt, earth, creation. Food, flowers, more seeds…more seeds for a coming future. We are moved toward a future we can be proud of being a part of.
We plant seeds and then we must tend them. Planting seeds and living well leads us toward caring for the earth, caring for ourselves, and caring for one another.
It is an active movement of love. Actively living out love is more powerful than hate and rage. Planting seeds means we believe in our future. We believe in hope and life. We believe that there is something worth living for and working for.
We practice the slow work of the heart. Caring for the earth and one another. Tending to ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. Building community…a community of welcome, a community of hope, a community that sits all together around one Table and makes change…one single step at a time.
A community grounded and rooted in Love and Grace.
Holy One, help us to be moved. Moved to plant seeds all around us when it sometimes feels like nothing good can grow. Guide us to tend toward those seeds so that good can grow.
Holy One, help us to live our lives in harmony with our neighbors and friends and all of Creation. Holy One, may we have the courage to do the hard, slow work of being a community grounded and rooted in Love and Grace. Always.
Amen
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 