Newsletter

Pastoral Letter April 3

A Time for Worship Video worship is almost normal… Videos of a time of worship will be posted onto YouTube. YouTube is not a special program or computer app. If you have internet, you can go to the YouTube web page [youtube.com] and see the video. You can check it all out now. Click this link and it will take you to the YouTube channel for Sharon Congregational UCC in Vermont. You can see the last two weeks of worship and a blooper. You will see future ones there as well. Please note, new videos will be released on Sunday at about 9:30. Last week I discovered that when a video is first posted it becomes a “Premiere”. This means that a chat window opens up and people can chat in real time with each other and me. I found that really really cool, so I am moving the start time “premiere” at the normal time for our worship. Now I have to figure out how to save that chat so prayer requests and Spirit Sightings can be acknowledged. But still, it was very cool to see people chatting during worship and not have it distract me. It may start at the normal time, but things are not normal. So I do not really have any way to wave palms (although a Psalm might be read). And it feels like we are far from a “Triumphal Entry in to Jerusalem”. So we will worship, but not really focus on Palm Sunday.  BUT, Maundy Thursday will have a video. Time is pending, stay tuned. If you hit the “Subscribe” and the bell Icon then YouTube will let you know when knew videos arrive. But I will tell you as well. Go ahead and have something ready for communion (bread and wine or something and a liquid). Easter will also have an Easter message on that Sunday. Still thinking about how best to do that. The Deacons have offered a few ideas, thank you.  Tip of the hat to Irene! she may have helped with adding some music to the video.  Mark  If you have never done much with YouTube, here are a few hints for ease of use. In your web browser (Chrome, Bing, Explorer, or that Apple thing) you can save YouTube like any other web page. Also, under the video and to the right you will see a button that says “subscribe”, pushing that means this ‘channel’ is on your list to watch. If you click the bell icon, you will get a notification whenever a new video is posted to this ‘channel’. Also, in that same area you will find a ‘share’ button allowing you to share/send it to people you know in one of many ways.  A Quick Reminder.  We hope and need you to continue to donate to the work and ministry of the church. We wont have an Offering for a while. So please mail them to the church.  Bible Study is Zooming The Bible Study on Wednesday ends for now on April 8. If you would like to join the Bible Study, Let me know before 6:00 pm on April 8 and I will email you a link. Given that it is Holy Week, we will be looking at Psalm 22. Some Thoughts to Share. Things are not normal. Not at all, in many many ways.I have to acknowledge that reality. I do not want to enumerate all the ways (I don’t actually know ALL the ways). because that would be depressing. But I am not going to lie nor will I pretend to make people feel better. Personally, I find this whole thing hard enough to get my head around, trying to pretend so someone might ‘feel better” would be dangerous for me as I try to keep focused. To lie would only undercut my grasp of the obvious but slippery-things ain’t normal. As a pastor my job is not to make people happy by helping them avoid reality. I may not always know what day it is (I can work it out) right now. Time seems so vague and nearly unimportant. I have looked forward to being with everyone on Sunday mornings and seeing the knitters on Thursday and having my schedule back to what it was. It will feel normal, and normal is good. Right? Well. They say that a person who grew up in an abusive household thinks that is normal. Insight and therapy can change that. And a new normal is born. Normal is really a statistical average, something people agree on until they do not agree. THEN we will have a new normal. As people of faith, we also know that this world is not yet a world our God has described and called for. The prophets of old and Jesus were constantly trying to bring us to create a different world than what is normal. Heck, churches have missions because our mission is to change the world! I find myself hoping that after the isolation, after the curve is as flat as the Great Plains, and after we have a vaccine (that some will not take) I find myself beginning to think about and wishing for a new normal. Not that I think that what will be on the other side could possibly be like it was before January when we first heard about an epidemic that had the potential for a pandemic. Jobs will be changed for 10 million of the currently unemployed. Retirement accounts will push that glorious day farther down the road. Friends, family, and people we know of with skills and talents will be dead. A few of the really rich will be really really rich. Going back is never possible. We are new creations. Why go back to a normalcy that might not be the best normal we can have? This pandemic has shown that having health care tied to employment might not be the best system when our own health is obviously tied to the health of everyone else. Individually we are only as healthy as the 10 million without insurance – unless we like this stay at home to stay safe model as the new normal. Have you heard the joke that if you can not afford the coronavirus test the best way to get a test to see if you have Covid-19 is to cough on a rich/connected person? It is no joke. But, it is normal. It is also normal to have the hourly people (like the ones in grocery stores, gas stations, cleaning in hospitals – you know the essential workers of today) paid a wage that is not enough to live on. Heck, we even pay our own soldiers around the poverty line ( a family of two the line is $15,000). It is normal for the government to seek to increase the profits of business over the costs to citizens (just in, President Trump is trying to get Saudia Arabia and Russia to an oil agreement so the oil and gas industry will have increased profits, but gas and heating oil prices will increase for us) You do not want to check on the industries 2019 earnings. Normal is not the same as good.  There is good in normal. For us, it is normal to look to God for the way to treat neighbors and strangers. It is normal to place our families close to our heart. It is normal for us to remember that, because of God, we are all connected. What effects one effects all and even the least among us needs essentials (Matt. 25). It is normal for us to argue about the best way to follow our faith and its expectations, to argue about how that should impact government. There are parts of normal I want to have back. But not the inequalities, injustices, and intolerances. Even the ones that benefit me. I look forward to life on the other side of life in a pandemic. But not exactly looking forward to getting back to normal. Mark Keep the faith.