NEWTONVILLE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

Courage to Care

8/31/2020

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
-Jesus the Christ (according to John 13:34-35)
“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” -Paul of Tarsus (according to Philippians 2:3-4)

A member of our congregation recently shared an article with me comparing face covering usage in Asian countries and the U.S. While, several factors influence willingness to mask (for example, those with a higher trust in government are more likely to comply), there is a cultural distinction between emphasis on the person and emphasis on the society, rugged American individualism versus cultures with a different sense of communal responsibility.

The author explains that in Japan, it relates to the concept of giri, or duties toward others. Koreans refer to inhwa, the social value of cultural harmony. It was striking to the person who shared the article with me that these historically non-Christian or Christian minority cultures have a clear sense of the values espoused in the above scriptures. Placing the interests of others alongside, or even above, the interests of self was a core practice of the early church.

If you’re a person of extraordinary empathy it can be overwhelming to experience, process and understand all that is happening in our world. Many of the issues and events affecting our daily lives are about care for the other. Throughout the scriptures there are calls, again and again, to care for one another. And as we live into that call in this moment by limiting our personal freedoms for the common good, we will hone that skill and better live into being the church.

Loving with the love of Jesus is tough. It’s about empathy and humility, and it requires sacrifice. It’s about a sense of duty to others and a value of social cooperation. Those are all things of which our world is desperately in need right now, things Jesus not only teaches but embodies, things that we are called to as disciples. I’ve seen it at work in our congregation, so I trust that in the days ahead we can muster the faithful courage to care for others all the more.

Peace for the journey,

Pastor Steve

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What Will It Be Like?

8/6/2020

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Using New York State and Upper New York Conference guidelines, the Reopening Task Force offers this glimpse of what in-person sanctuary worship will look like when the time comes:

If you don’t need the elevator, you will enter the rear of sanctuary from the Loudon Road doors. Those using the elevator will enter downstairs and after exiting the elevator proceed to the front of the sanctuary through the lounge. Only members of the same household may ride the elevator together.

At both entrances you’ll wait at 6 foot intervals to be directed to a pew by the ushers. Seating will be assigned to maximize the limited capacity and maintain distancing, and only those from the same household may sit together. Masks covering the mouth and nose must be worn in the building at all times, including during the worship service. There will be hand sanitizer stations at every entrance.

Everyone must remain in their seats unless needing to use the restroom, the use of which will be limited to one person (or one person with caregiver) at a time. Worship will begin precisely at 10 for those joining by live stream. The service will include instrumental music and solos, but no congregational singing. At the end of worship you will be asked to remain in your seat until directed to leave by an usher. You will then proceed to an exit and depart the building.

We are still looking at options for overflow, or possibly utilizing a reservation system as some churches are doing. At the outset we won’t be offering nursery care or in-person Faith Village (although we will be offering something for children online).

Our greatest concern is to maintain everyone's safety and well-being during this challenging time.

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Lifelong Learning

7/30/2020

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“The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning.” — M. Scott Peck

Just because we’re not together in-person doesn’t mean people haven’t been gathering to learn. A total of 16 people participated by Zoom in our recent conversations and study on racism, including people joining us from Florida and Massachusetts. We will continue that study on August 5 and 12 (Wednesday) at 7 pm by looking at Racism and the Bible. The Zoom link and handouts for each session are available on the “Anti-Racism Resources” section of our website. You don’t have to have participated in the first study to join us for this one.

Because we haven’t been able to offer Sunday school for our children, we’re also putting together a series of Vacation Bible School videos that will be uploaded to YouTube daily from August 3 to August 7. These can be watched any time, and will include a Bible lesson and story, songs, and an activity, all led by members of our congregation. The theme is Empathy and Kindness, traits much needed as our society navigates the challenges of a pandemic, seeks ways to overcome racism, and faces ongoing economic struggles for many people.

In the coming months you’ll see more opportunities for us to learn and grow together, including a Disciple Bible Study, an online Faith Village for younger children, Zoom meetings for older elementary children and youth, and hopefully some small group discussions for grownups. It’s more important than ever that we are intentional about our spiritual, intellectual, and emotional care and development. We’re learning, however, that this is also a time of opportunity, as we’ve seen with participation in the recent racism study.

John Wesley is quoted as having said, "The first priority of my life is to be holy, and the second goal of my life is to be a scholar." While I haven’t been able to confirm the source of that statement it certainly sounds like who he was – a person with a firm commitment to both personal and social holiness, grounded in and shaped by a devotion to spiritual growth through lifelong learning.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

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Grand Illusion

7/23/2020

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“The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.” – Anne Lamott

I’ve commented more than once in the past few months that I feel much like I did when I graduated from seminary and first began in pastoral ministry – I don’t really know what I’m doing, or even sometimes what I’m supposed to be doing, but everyone is looking to me so I keep up the appearance that I do. In reality, despite the confusing times in which we live and the every-changing landscape I do, in my heart, know what I’m doing; I’m putting my full trust in God, and spending more time that ever in prayer. In other words, I’m practicing my faith.

Even though in simpler times we like to think we know things – who we are and what we’re doing, what to expect and how things will go – we don’t really. We may find our way more easily, rising to more familiar challenges and engaging more confidently in daily living along terrain to which we’re more accustomed, but when it comes down to it noting is certain except, perhaps uncertainty. That’s where real faith comes into play, where for lack of a better term our faith is tested, when we are challenged to put our trust in God and embrace ambiguity.

There’s a song by the band Styx with a line that says, “So if you think your life is complete confusion because your neighbor’s got it made, just remember that it's a grand illusion and deep inside we're all the same.” As we move through the coming days – days of uncertainty, days of abnormality, days of doubt – keep in minds that there isn’t really every any certainty, that normality is a matter of perception, and that our moments of doubt are moments of opportunity for us to practice our faith. Nothing is certain; it never was. Nothing, but God.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

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Release and Relaunch

6/29/2020

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“There is nothing more vulnerable than caring for someone; it means not only giving your energy to that which is not you but also caring for that which is beyond or outside your control…To care is not about letting an object go but holding on to an object by letting oneself go, giving oneself over to something that is not one's own.” -Sara Ahmed

Current events has thrust us into multiple areas of caring. At the onset of COVID isolation we were immediately concerned for those who live alone, especially the elderly. Soon our attention turned to children and teachers, churches and pastors, medical workers and first responders, as systems were dismantled, recreated, and overwhelmed. We came to understand the longer-term economic challenges of the shutdown. And then the violence of racism asserted itself in the midst of these myriad challenges.

Again and again we face new levels of adversity, yet again and again we see people respond with compassion, with courage, with commitment. When were told to isolate, people reached out to maintain connection. When our educational, spiritual, and medical systems were challenged, people sacrificed and adapted. When economic crisis loomed, donations of money and food were shared. And, when the violence of racism arose in the midst of all of this, people joined together to say, “no more.” Having lost control, people are letting go.

As we move forward into relaunching in-person worship, we are being forced to reimagine and recreate the experience of corporate worship and gathered community. That has already been happening as teams meet via Zoom, people gather for study, and we expand the definition of gathering across hundreds, and even thousands, of miles. When we gather it will be different because of our caring for others, our letting go of control, our giving of energy to things beyond ourselves. In our relaunch we will reclaim Christ’s sacrificial love.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

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Passio Passiva

6/25/2020

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“Suffering, then, is the badge of true discipleship. The disciple is not above his master. Following Christ means passio passiva, suffering because we have to suffer.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Maybe you’re familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, maybe you’ve only heard of him, or maybe you don’t know who he is at all. If either of the latter two are the case, I encourage you to get to know who Bonhoeffer is, and perhaps read his classic work on the role of Christianity in the secular world, The Cost of Discipleship, from which the above quote comes.

Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor in Germany during the rise of Nazism and the Third Reich. He was also a vocal anti-Nazi dissident, and a key founder of the Confessing Church, which resisted efforts by the German government to organize all Protestant Christians into the pro-Nazi “German Evangelical Church.” Bonhoeffer was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and sent to prison and then a concentration camp, where he was finally executed in 1945.

One of the central ideas in Bonhoeffer’s theological writings is an emphasis on both personal and collective piety, and on the idea of imitating Christ. Appalled and disheartened by the compliance of the church with Nazi atrocities, he argued that Christians should be engaged with the world rather than retreating from it, bringing forth justice and accepting divine suffering.

Accepting suffering, however, does not imply passivity, but rather a willingness to engage with it head-on. Accepting suffering does should turn us into by-standers, but instead make us participants with those who suffer – just as Christ suffers with and for us. In the face of racism, LGBTQIA discrimination, poverty, homelessness, hunger, and violence, Bonhoeffer’s life calls to us with his witness to step into suffering by facing it, and enduring it, as Christ does.

Peace for the Journey,
Pastor Steve

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Black Lives Matter

6/18/2020

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"While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman); and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it...And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed." Numbers 12:1-2, 9

After he fled Egypt as a young man Moses had settled in a foreign land, worked for a man there, and married his employer's daughter. Upon his return to lead his people to freedom, Moses' brother and sister complained that he had taken a Cushite wife. The people of Cush lived in the region of Ethiopia, and were understood to be descendants of Noah's son Ham. They were people with dark skin.

Noah had cursed Ham and his descendants when Ham had covered him when he was sleeping, naked, and drunk. This curse has often been used to justify racism, especially by American slaveholders and their apologists. God, however, not only rejects Aaron and Miriam's complaint, God punishes Miriam for it. God clearly and firmly says no to racism - both theirs, and ours.

In the book of Acts, Phillip is led by God to offer the Gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch and to baptize the man when he asks. This is a significant event, a radical expansion of the community's understanding of who was acceptable to God. The Ethiopian man - regardless of his nationality, his race, his status as a sexual minority - is every bit a bearer of God's image, very much a part of the body of Christ.

The witness of scripture is more than simply non-racist, however. The witness of scripture is that as long as racism exists we are all poisoned by it. The witness of scripture is that racism is sin. The witness of scripture is that God breaks down walls of racism by sending us, as disciples of Jesus, to overcome racist systems. The witness of scripture is that God is an anti-racist.

It is not sufficient for us to reject racism. As disciples of Jesus we must actively eliminate it. We must, and with God's help we can.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

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Heedful Caution

6/11/2020

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“The enlightened ruler is heedful, and the good general full of caution.” -Sun Tzu

Many of us are anxious to get back to in-person, both because we long for human connection and because we’re seeking form semblance of normalcy. At the recommendation of the Upper New York Conference, and because it just makes good sense, the Church Council has formed a Reopening Taskforce. This team will work through all of the requirements and regulations, and determine how best to apply them here in our worship space at Newtonville.

The members of the Taskforce are: Gail Cotler (Trustee and Custodial Liaison); Pam LaCasio (Lay Leader); Dr. Bryan Goddard (physician); Sandy Stevenson and Penny Tallman (SPRC members); Joan Schneider (school nurse); Kathy Franklin (Finance Secretary and BBQs); and Pastor Steve. The team met by Zoom on June 8, and will continue meeting regularly to develop and review plans for returning to in-person worship.

By now you have likely heard that New York State is allowing churches to resume in-person worship at 25% capacity during phase 2, which we are currently in. While some churches have already returned to their sanctuaries or plan to very soon, our Reopening Taskforce has met and feels that in order to do this well and not put people at unnecessary risk we would be best to hold off a little and resume in-person worship on Sunday, August 2.

We know that this may seem like a long time from now, however the Taskforce needs time to develop policies (required by New York State), work through all of the logistical challenges, and determine best practices for us. The team will also be rehearsing with those who will be in Sunday leadership to make things operate as smoothly as possible. This is a challenging proposition. We appreciate your patience, and we treasure your prayers.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

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Getting Ready

6/3/2020

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“Again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; farmers will plant and then enjoy the harvests. The time will come when the watchmen shout from the highlands of Ephraim: ‘Get ready! We’re going up to Zion to the Lord our God!’” –Jeremiah 31:5-6

It is now approaching three months since we’ve gathered together in worship. Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost have come and gone without gathering. Perhaps none of us ever realized just how hard it would be. The Jewish people, our siblings in faith and Jesus’ ancestors, have a long history of being away from home – their wilderness journey, their exile to Babylon, their life in Diaspora – and so we can look to the words of the prophets for hope, for an assurance of God’s presence, for the promise of return.

We are also now receiving signs of that possibility from leaders in our state, although that return will certainly not be all that we would hope for. The Upper New York Annual Conference offers a glimpse in the Reopening Task Force Guidelines: “In order to hold worship services, churches need to consider many factors from continuing online services, refraining members from singing, avoiding printed bulletins, to refraining from using a common offering plate, and not holding a coffee hour.” Our return will be a journey.

Later in that same chapter of Jeremiah the prophet writes, “Set up markers, put up signs; think about the road you have traveled, the path you have taken. Return, virgin Israel; return to these towns of yours.” Our way of setting up those markers and thinking about the road we’re travelling will be through the work of our own Reopening Task Force. This team includes people with medical knowledge, longtime members, and a custodial liaison, so that we can best examine and implement the guidelines and regulations.

In the short term we will work on some other opportunities to gather, like drive-in worship and, if regulations allow, outdoor services. We will also do our best to keep you up to date on where we are, and where we’re going.

Peace for the journey,
Pastor Steve

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Spirit Found

5/27/2020

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Pentecost is thus about the reversal of Babel. For the author of Luke-Acts, the coming of Jesus and the continuation of his presence in the power of the Spirit inaugurated a new age in which the fragmentation of humanity was overcome. Or, in words attributed to Paul, through Christ and the Spirit, the breaking down of "the dividing wall of separation" and the creation of "one new humanity" had begun (Ephesians 2:14-15).
–Marcus Borg, Pentecost and Babel/Babble

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, an important, powerful, and somewhat mysterious celebration in the church. It is the time when we remember and rejoice in the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the people of God in new and profound ways. It is the time when we hear once again the story of tongues of fire, a rushing wind, and diverse voices speaking as one. It might be said more precisely that it isn’t so much a celebration in the church, but of the church.

Theologian and author Marcus Borg helps us to work through some of the mystery, to bring into focus just what God is doing at Pentecost with his reminder of the story of Babel. The people of the earth sought to build a tower that would reach the heavens, and thus were scattered by God and given different tongues. Now God is breaking down those barriers, reminding us that we are all God’s children, creating a new way of being in Christ.

Times such as the current pandemic offer us the possibility to remember and rejoice that we, all of humanity, are one people in God. Moments such as this challenge us to embrace the full humanity of all God’s people, challenge us to reconsider our economic systems, our distribution of resources, our core values and institutions. The COVID-19 virus is not selective, yet survival rates are lower for people of color, the poor, the homeless. Clearly walls still exist between us.

Walls do not exist in the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims. When we build walls, when we separate people based on race, culture, nationality, language, class, gender, when we allow resources to be scarce for some because of the greed of others, we’re counter to the Kingdom. The proclamation of Pentecost, however, is clear – all people are God’s, all people are one, in Christ Jesus. This is the new age, and it is at hand. This is the new age, with no more walls.

Peace for the Journey,
Pastor Steve

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Courage to Care

What Will It Be Like?

Lifelong Learning

Grand Illusion

Release and Relaunch

Passio Passiva

Black Lives Matter

Heedful Caution

Getting Ready

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