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April 7, 2020 ~ Holy Week
Beloved: Ash Wednesday seems far longer than six weeks ago, amen? In the same way Jesus’ disciples had no idea what he was up to when he turned his face toward Jerusalem, we couldn’t have imagined celebrating Easter so isolated from one another. Still, grace we could not have imagined has also bloomed among us. In our physical absence has bloomed intentional connection and a new tenderness that is good for my soul, and yours too I bet. I am profoundly aware of a deep and wide degree of patience and encouragement among family, friends, neighbors and strangers. Easter marks the destruction of the divide between time and eternity – the propulsion of eternal grace into temporal time – so that even while we are separated physically, we can more fully experience our spiritual unity. This is why I love our visits on Life Together Live – the Sunday Zoom meetings at 4 PM. Yes, they are loud and crazy as everyone talks at once and kids show each other their latest artwork, but I still love it! If you haven’t joined in yet, I hope you will next week. My plan is to continue doing church this way until the scientists say it’s safe to gather once again. Your patience, encouragement and good humor these last three weeks are like honey on my heart, and I’ve no doubt we can do it as long as is necessary.* The effort, extra hours and creativity of this part-time church staff to create online worship and church programming humbles me more than I have words to say. I am in technology kindergarten while Rob and Laura Beth guide me with the patience of a thousand preschool teachers. Fan has her eyes everywhere so that nothing essential falls through the cracks. Be sure and take advantage of the extra Holy Week offerings they are delivering each day this week on Facebook and YouTube! Rob has a family Easter activity and Laura Beth a Holy Week Reflection drawn from our usual Good Friday service. And thank you, thank you, thank you for putting your offering in the mail to the church office! More honey on my heart as it makes sure our bills are paid, especially our amazing church staff! An online giving mechanism should be ready for use on Sunday too. Keep in touch. Stay connected to each other, and remember that you are so very dear to me. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette *Like honey on my heart is a phrase I learned from Dalia O., who called this week to check on her UBC friends and say she is doing well.
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All the news is noise and chaos, but not one thing told is new. When I shift my gaze just slightly, I see winter passing swiftly as a thought. The forest outside of my house is full of singing birds now. They land on my deck flowerpots to pick through last year’s leftovers, choosing twigs for their new nests. I save up bits of yarn to leave them and hunt for later when I look up in the trees. Once I saw a strip of dried-up duct tape woven to look like silver brickwork.
The seasons turn and I feel older; older and deeply beholden to the One who allows me another turning of the light. Another Holy Season to reconsider what to keep and what to let go. I’m letting go of worry, especially about whether I am getting enough done, which is actually just cover for “do other people think I am getting enough done?” — which is actually cover for my insecurity and doubt. I’m keeping joy -- the joy of having work that matters, that I enjoy doing, with awesome people who are not in fact judging me. I am keeping that joy by working enough but not exhausting myself or others. I am keeping the joy by resting, by eating kindly, moving kindly and seeking the beauty only found in a southern Indiana late winter season. Keeping joy when I am so tempted to worry and fret is a fundamental exercise of faith for me, and I suspect for others too. If you haven’t come upon a particular Lenten practice yet, I invite you join me in it. March 10, 2020
Beloved: Like everyone else, I’m following the news about the coronavirus epidemic. Like my colleagues, I’m thinking about the appropriate ministry response and responsibility in the midst of the crisis. Some pastors wear surgical gloves to serve communion. South Korean churches have cancelled services altogether and are posting sermons online instead. Reading the public health information available right now and revisiting our own mission statement,* I’ve concluded that for the time being, the UBC response plan shall be:
~peace & prayers, pastor annette * UBC exists to share the gospel message of the love and grace of Jesus Christ with our community and the world through worship, service, and discipleship. March 17, 2020
Beloved: What does good faith require in the midst of a global pandemic? Such questions are not on every person’s mind right now but hopefully on ours. How do we do faith? How do we do church? Faith first: each one praying for peace and discernment in the midst of fear and of too much information is first every day, but especially in times of trouble. Before we can make good plans we must be able to think and act in peace instead of fear, in the terms of our faith instead of news cycle overload. My own morning prayers are backlit by another Southern Indiana springtime, glorious and yet so ordinary. Lilac buds are on and daffodils in the woods are opening. My three-year-old hens are meeting the egg quotas of a much younger flock. A pair of house finches on my window sill, not two feet from my face, are discussing something earnestly, where to find their lunch maybe. All this springtime business-as-usual reminds me I have a choice: to tune my heart to their tempo, ground myself in the goodness and the grace of springtime bursting forth in this time and place, or give in to anxiety over a hundred things that haven’t happened yet. How do we do faith in these troubling times? By being here now. By doing what needs doing here and now. Which answers the second question too: how do we do church in these troubling times? Be here, now. Do what needs doing here, now. The latest best reports from the Center for Disease Control predict no decline in transmission until an effective vaccine is delivered, several months from now. Therefore, to that end our Life Together as we’ve known it will be different for awhile. We won’t meet in a large group for Sunday morning worship for many weeks most likely. Until then the necessary precautions against transmission simply must stay in place, and we will do our part as church. If communities and countries everywhere will exercise the necessary patience and endurance, the number of people who get sick will be kept low enough that everyone gets good care. But we cannot confuse low transmission with eradication, so the need for endurance cannot be overstated. It turns out that the very constructs of our faith are what this crisis most demands: patience, courage and endurance. To that end, I am thinking prayerfully and carefully about what our life together shall look like in the coming weeks as we forgo our usual meetings and meals together. The two things we shall not give up are staying connected to one another and serving our community through the crisis. How they shall take shape largely depends on how God leads each of us, but I will have some more organized suggestions soon. For now, here’s what I have to share:
This is the time for which we pray to be faithful, friends, when we don’t have to figure out what to give up for Lent, but how to bear through the weeks of Lent with confidence that the God who brought us this far isn’t going to leave us now. Keep the faith. Reach out to somebody else today in grace and service. And for heaven’s sake, go outside so as not to miss the glory of this beautiful early spring day. Beloved:
As it happens, I’ve begun reading Erik Larson’s new book, The Splendid and the Vile, about the London blitz in the fall of 1940 when London and other parts of England were bombed continuously for months. People who lost their houses lived crowded together in underground shelters without electricity or plumbing – continuously for months. They endured all manner of shortages and hardship – continuously for months. They fully expected to be invaded by a ground army more powerful than their own – continuously for months. Suffice it to say, the book provides both some perspective and some hope. Perspective, in that nothing I endure these days so far qualifies as hardship. I have water, electricity and way too much internet.* My wardrobe is best described as minimalist. Except for my yard clogs a few times a day, I no longer wear shoes. I shower and change from pajamas into clean pajamas once a day. Three times a week I put on make-up and Zoom clothes then change back into my jammies.** I have more than enough to eat as the kitchen works over-time and nobody eats out ever. And the housekeeper is but a memory, so we all have plenty of extra chores to do as well. We are not suffering. This is not hardship. At least not yet. Hope is found in the reality that unlike a city bombed incessantly, we can protect ourselves and one another. This virus is more persistent and more patient than any human army. We will defeat it by being more persistent and patient still. The most faithful and the most care-full we can be is to do the only thing the scientists know to tell us now: stay home, stay separated from each other, wash our hands often and for twenty seconds at a time. Staying home can feel like doing nothing, but it is everything that matters now. In terms of faith, remember Jesus speaking to his disciples in John 15: My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. The lives we lay down now are not these mortal bodies but the lives of busyness and everyday activity. Jesus never promised what shape this obedience might take. We probably didn’t imagine it would be homeschooling or pre-recorded worship services. But here we are, invited to this obedience all the same. I pray that whatever shape sequestering has taken for you today, you can find some joy therein. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette * I now know way too much about America’s big cat community. ** Zoom clothes are outfits that are professional from the waist up, pajamas from the waist down. Two church projects you can help with this week:
Stone Belt Arc Needs Your Help! Looking for ways to help out your community while social distancing? Visit http://ow.ly/qZnA50yQb0c VIRTUAL BUDDIES We are in need of volunteers who are willing to be Virtual Buddies. If you are interested in connecting with someone on video conference or via phone call, please contact: Rev. Sarah McKenney at smckenney@stonebelt.org. OTHER NEEDS Stone Belt needs gift cards to grocery stores, healthy snacks, hygienic supplies, board games, DVDs (movies & television), craft supplies, video game consoles, etc. And we have a handy drop-off box located near the entrance at Stone Belt, 2815 E Tenth Street in Bloomington. You can also have things mailed. And there is a donation button on the link above. Donate & become part of the Stone Belt Buddies Brigade today! Does good faith demand first mention of the crisis or am I allowed to begin with my garden full of blue birds, bluer and fuller than I remember either ever being before? My brain has ceased its spinning and finally I can sleep, now it’s my arms that ache with needing something necessary to do. stay and wait . . . be still and know . . . . like the bluebirds, I suppose. March 24, 2020
Beloved: Every morning I wake up and I wonder for a moment if I dreamed it. Nope. We really are all staying put and doing our lives the best we can from inside our respective houses. Once I’m up, the day goes by faster than I expect, possibly because I’m not homeschooling little kids. I do some work, cook some food, take the dogs in/out fourteen times, read, sew and wash my hands. I also try to get outside, if only in my yard, where spring is positively exploding. I pray the days are settling into a kind of rhythm for you and yours and that you are able to connect with friends and family elsewhere via what technology you have. I got a real letter with a stamp from my seven-year-old niece, which means I’ve got correspondence piling up. A treat unto itself! Don’t forget to check on one another and to pray for those who are sick. I miss you oodles and look forward to staying in touch as we are able. See below for news about online church events and changes regarding the state-wide order to stay home issued on March 23rd. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette
The church building will not be open on Sunday mornings, but people with wi-fi-enabled devices can access the church wi-fi from the parking lot and are welcome to do so. Life Together Live ~ Twice a week Pastor Annette will host live church gatherings online. Zoom meetings are easy-peasy, and you don’t have to sign up for anything to participate. Just contact our church administrator (ubc3740@gmail.com) to receive the appropriate link. Pass the Peace of Christ ~ Welcome * Conversation * Reading * Prayer Sunday Afternoons, 4-4:45 PM Bible Chat ~ * Prayer & Discussion of the Coming Sunday’s Bible Text Thursday mornings, 11AM-12PM The Lenten Reading Group will also meet on the previously arranged dates, at these slightly adjusted times. March 29th, 5:15~6:30 pm April 5th, 5:15~6:30 pm April 14th, 6:30~7:45 pm P.S. It’s not too late to join. E-mail the church office at ubc3740@gmail.com for an online copy of the text, The Journals of John Woolman, and start reading! * Continue checking your e-mail and/or the church website (ubcbloomington.org) regularly for updates about church programming and church family news. * Please e-mail or call the church with your own family news and to let us know if you are ill or need help. November 5, 2019 Beloved: During my few days at an ashram in India, I attended teaching sessions of a guru named Sadhvi Bhagawati Sarawatiji, or Sadhvi. Not to weird you out too much, but this Baptist preacher enjoyed her immensely. She’s really smart, deeply wise, funny, kind, and practical in ways I appreciate. “It is not selfish to desire a peaceful home,” and “if someone consistently spills tea on your best sofa and never apologizes or helps clean it up, maybe they aren’t the person you want to keep having over for tea." And my favorite, “all the mystical practices of all the religions in the world send us inward to the place of spiritual abundance.” She is prayed up, as the Baptists who raised me would have said, though maybe not about a Hindu leader. But I have no doubt at all. As my heart, mind, body, and soul continue to settle down from my trip to India, I am all the more grateful for the ways I shall never be the same – in a dozen tiny ways for sure, but most of all as it has to do with prayer. With worship. And with language for the One who made and loves us all. In every people group in every time and place, language has kindled a cacophony of words and names for God while unknowingly agreeing on the message of the Divine’s unyielding love. Friends have asked, how was India? Mostly I answer, hot. To one person however I did say, if I traveled to the moon I don’t think I would have felt more like a foreigner. Which is altogether true save one thing: those sunset Hindu worship services alongside the Ganges River – Mother Ganges they call it, because all of India is fed by her waters. Weird as it is to say so, those sunset services felt like Baptist church camp to me – folks getting closer to God by getting closer to nature. The words were different, but the connection among people singing together was exactly the same; the night air was exactly the same; the sound of lapping water was exactly the same. So was the shine of the stars and the smell of the fire and the deep peace of praying with other praying people. All those people together at the ashram for Navratri are now back home at their everyday routines, where spiritual practice is always more tricky than when at camp, on retreat, or on pilgrimage. Duty so easily crowds out the things we do for pleasure, prayer especially. However you are able, try to make the time and then keep in mind that a world of folks are praying too. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette  October 29, 2019 Beloved: Inside the last five minutes, the skylight outside my window has turned from grey to some odd shade of orangey-pink. The day is coming on. I hear we’ll have killing frost by Friday, which means I’ve got last tomatoes and beans to gather in. In another month one of my favorite jobs comes due - clearing off the garden beds, just like cleaning up after a big dinner party. My husband will write down lots of notes, no doubt, as we collect the little name tags that came with seeds and starts we bought last May. We’ll dump some of it on the coop floor for the hens to scratch through for fun. They’ll break it down and fertilize it more before we move it back to the beds next spring. I make it sound like so much more work than it truly is. Dividing investment by the effort required essentially amounts to free food. Last night I ate sweet potatoes for supper from three tiny seed starts it took thirty seconds to plant in the ground. Digging up that little basket full was so much fun, it is a sin to call it work. More like finding treasures in the ground. I gave away the green beans just because I couldn’t face putting up another round. Our freezer is stacked with them already. Daylight is full on now, the house quiet as a candle. Once we move we stay so busy until bedtime. May we be busy with the things that matter. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette  October 22, 2019 Beloved: Willing to experience this aloneness, I discover connections everywhere; Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within; Opening to my loss, I gain the embrace of the universe; Surrendering into emptiness, I find fullness without end. Each condition I flee from pursues me. Each condition I welcome transforms me And becomes itself transformed Into its radiant jewel-like essence. I bow to the one who made it so, Who has crafted this Master Game; To play it is purest delight; To honor its form – true devotion. Nothing sums up my trip to India more precisely than this poem my yoga teacher read to us our second morning together. I can tell a story for every nearly every line. For some, I can tell a dozen. My body has been home nine days but my heart and mind are still only halfway here. India is an ancient place where modern ways look almost like a joke, the man driving his camel-drawn cart while talking on his cell phone. “Did you see that?” my group members asked each other, wondering if we all simultaneously had a vision. Turns out construction companies use camels all the time for hauling extra-heavy supplies. A week in and none of us even get out our cameras anymore. India is a colorful place that left my eyes aching from the beauty of her people, their clothes and their food. The flowers, the field, the animals, the waters, the mountains. I am so glad I saw it. India is a spiritual place, reminding me that God is both really, really old and has at least a thousand faces. No words of mine will ever tell it. I took a few pictures which I’ll have on slideshow tomorrow at Wednesday Night Supper if you’d like to come and see. We’ll share a meal I call “What’s in my freezer that I can cook up nice?” Think rice and tacos. We’ll also have all those Sunday potluck dessert leftovers and have some sweet table time together. I hope to see you there. We pray and serve at 6. I’m so glad to be home again!
September 17, 2019 Beloved: I am going on an adventure! My first stop is Toronto, where I’ll spend a night and a day having a ball with two Canadian preacher friends, Takouhi and Jill. From there I’m headed to India for three weeks of yoga, sight-seeing and time with the family of one of our sons-by-other-mothers, Seine. His parents live in Imphal, a city in the far east of India, nearly to Myanmar. I’m very excited to negotiate such complicated travel by myself (I meet up with my group once arriving in New Delhi) and even more excited to be in a place so different from Indiana. I’m excited to be changed the way only travel can change a person’s heart, mind and soul. In my absence, Rob, Fan, Laura Beth and the deacons will take care of everything at church. We’ve lined up wonderful supply preachers and I’m counting on you all to watch out for each other like you always do. Welcome new friends and don’t forget to eat together on Wednesday Night, September 25th. Tuesday morning columns will still appear and I’ll post trip pictures on Facebook as I have wi-fi access. I will be back in church on Sunday, October 20th and look forward to seeing you then. Much love and, as always,
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I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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April 2020
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