On Sunday, March 7th we will have our reguarly scheduled “COW” Offering that collects monetary donations for Second Harvest and Heifer International. You have two ways to donate: 1) Send a check to the church office with the memo “COW Offering”; 2) When you donate online with Tithe.ly, choose COW Offering on the drop-down menu. Thank you for helping us support these very important organizations!
Sunday, February 28th, 2021 (2nd Sunday in Lent)
“God So Loved the World” by Ann Weems
The story of Jesus Christ is this:
The people of the earth waited for a Messiah…….a Savior….
and only God would send a little baby king.
The child grew and began to question things as they were,
and the man moved through his days and through his world,
questioning the system of kings and priests and marketplace.
He was called the New Creation
the New Covenant
the Son of God
who brought to all who listened, who saw, who understood
change and new life.
But kings and corporations and churches of this world work very hard
to keep things as they are, out into forever.
And so they killed him:
he who said, love one another,
he who said feed my sheep,
for they didn’t want to share their bread and their wine.
Now the story should have ended there
except that the story has always been
that our God is the God of the covenant.
The Good News is that
in spite of our faithlessness
God is faithful
and Jesus was resurrected,
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son
that whoever believed
might have everlasting Life.
Listen, you who have ears to hear.
Listen, and sit down to bread and wine with strangers.
Feed his sheep……Love one another,
and claim a new life in his name.
Amen
Our next date to volunteer at the Project CURE Warehouse (2300 Clifton Ave.) is Saturday, March 6th from 9:30 am – 12 pm. We will be sorting medical supplies. Newcomers are very welcome but please wear a mask! For planning reasons and to make sure we are COVID safe/socially distanced we need a head count for our group prior to volunteering. Please RSVP to Cindy D. as soon as possible if you plan to attend. You can RSVP to her by email or phone. You may also RSVP to the church office at brookmeade@comcast.net. Thanks and see you there!
Saturday, February 27th, 2021
“The Merton Prayer” by Thomas Merton
from Thoughts in Solitude
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
We are looking for people to sign up for the Garden Committee for 2021. This will include working on sprucing up the front of the church. Duties may include some digging, mulching, planting, weeding, etc. Please contact the church office ASAP if you’d like to volunteer this year. Thank you!
Friday, February 26th, 2021
“Professional Prayer” by David Slater
This is a dangerous profession,
breaking bread and proclaiming it Body,
opening the Word and calling it Life,
sending infants to a watery grave,
and calling it resurrection,
asking those with a 50% chance of regrets
to promise “forever,”
burying the dead in the sure and certain
hope of eternal life.
Trading in words and acts that can, and often do,
transform is unnerving.
You ask yourself: did my eloquence, my sincerity,
my understanding nature produce this?
Of course,
Not.
But the Almighty has few untainted saints on either
side of the pulpit.
And so, for the sake of the other sinners,
chooses to work through the likes of you.
Thursday, February 25th, 2021
“God Went to Beauty School” by Cynthia Rylant
He went there to learn how
to give a good perm
and ended up just crazy
about nails
so He opened up His own shop.
“Nails by Jim” He called it.
He was afraid to call it
Nails by God.
He was sure people would
think He was being
disrespectful and using
His own name in vain
and nobody would tip.
He got into nails, of course,
because He’d always loved
hands–
hands were some of the best things
He’d ever done
and this way He could just
hold one in His
and admire those delicate
bones just above the knuckles,
delicate as birds’ wings,
and after He’d done that
awhile,
He could paint all the nails
any color He wanted,
then say,
“Beautiful,”
and mean it.
Wednesday, February 24th, 2021
“When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021
“For Courage” by John O’Donohue
When the light around lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,
When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,
When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,
Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world.
Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light,
Know that you are not alone,
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes,
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.
Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.
Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.
A new confidence will come alive
To urge you towards higher ground
Where your imagination
will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!
Monday, February 22nd, 2021
“A new birth” by Steve Garnaas-Holmes
God called Abram to leave the familiar and go, go on a road he would make by going, to a place he would know by finding.
Jesus led Nicodemus to the threshold of a birth, a newness he could only know by going through it.
Only what’s behind us, not ahead, keeps us from going on, from entering the impossible womb of starting new.
The stones of disappointment in your pockets, the grave marker of the old life, they can’t come with you.
The path is not a test. It’s our freedom. Many a prisoner has looked into the tunnel, the Beloved waiting in the light, and said no.
Where is the Spirit calling you, the wind blowing? Where is the thin place between your habits and a new birth?
These pangs, this heavy breathing: the beloved is trying to birth you. Let it happen.
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