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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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