Looking Ahead

June 24, 2020

Beloved:

Already this morning I’ve been to the doctor for a check-up and to Walmart for a long list of things like eye drops and laundry soap.  From the store and doctor’s office, I came to work and have been here ever since, except to go out for lunch.  I’ve not actually left the house in two days and "out for lunch" was to the kitchen and back.


So goes the summer in semi-quarantine.  We don’t eat out but we do get carry-out from restaurants.  We don’t have our normal gatherings but we had a picnic at a park for my sister’s birthday, our lawn chairs the appropriate distance apart.  My garden is bigger since I have no travel plans, thus no worries about wasted food.


I have home life figured out, but what of church?  As congregations begin to reconvene for worship, we too are thinking, praying, talking our way to a new way of holding life together, together.  I am so grateful for your thoughtful response to the deacons’ survey and want to share four conclusions I have drawn from what you told us.  If and where I have missed the mark, I count on you to correct me.


The strongest message I received from the survey responses is that you want everyone to be as safe as possible.  Secondly, you very much want to be together in person when such safety is possible.  Third, clarity is important to you — you want to know exactly how gatherings will work before deciding to attend.  Fourth, you want an online worship option to continue for people unable to attend in-person worship gatherings.


Succinctly, I understand you to say these are your priorities, though not necessarily in this order:

1. Safety
   
2. Community
   
3. Clarity
   
4. Inclusion.
   

This information is hugely helpful, and it makes me grateful to pastor people whose concern for others exceeds their desire to have their own needs met.  Self-denial for the sake of one another is exactly what Jesus asks of his followers (John 15:13) and is our only means for navigating pandemic faithfully and successfully.  All we have to protect one another from this disease is the fortitude to stay six or more feet apart and wear our masks for however long it takes for a working vaccine to be available.  It will surely take months.  It could take years.  But until then, we have nothing else — only our fortitude, also called faithful obedience to the truth.


As your pastor, let me say this:  if we have to wait a year, two years, three years to gather like we used to, we will wait.  We will wait patiently, joyfully and gratefully for the experience of waiting, as others who have also waited.  People of faith have always waited through times of unknowing, discomfort and fear.  So can we.  So will we.  In the meantime, we will find ways to gather that will be new, that may be strange and, possibly, that we end up loving.  But all these new ways absolutely deny this disease the contact it requires to infect other people.  On my watch we shall not aid the enemy.


To that end, while we still have no definite plans to gather in-person for Sunday morning worship, on Sunday July 5th at 4 PM I’ll be in a lawn chair in the church parking lot, wearing my mask and some bug spray, to host Life Together Live.  You, your lawn chair and your mask are invited to join me.  We will park in the lower back lot and sit up near the front porch in the shady area, 6 feet apart of course.  We won’t hug or shake hands.  We won’t provide refreshments.  We won’t have a sound system, so we will have to talk loudly to one another.  We’ll only stay an hour or so.  If it rains, we’ll take our chairs into the sanctuary and follow the same seating and masking procedures.  Only the upstairs bathroom will be available, with disinfectant wipes for everyone to use on surfaces after every use.


I’ve been thinking about things this way lately:  I would be terribly sad if our building burned to the ground; but wouldn’t it also be terribly exciting to build a whole new building from scratch, a building built to fit our life together, rather than a life together organized to fit our building?  I choose to imagine this pandemic as our chance to build a church program that fits our life together, both now and post-pandemic, and I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone but you all.


Just one more word:  you have been awesome givers through the first months of the year.  As of the end of May, we are ever so slightly behind budget, about 5%, and I wanted to bring it to your attention so as to get it caught up before we have a problem.  No doubt everyone is busy with so many things.  It’s easy-peasy to give your offering online now at ubcbloomington.org/ give.  You can also mail it to the church, and counters will get it taken care of quickly.  Thanks so much! 

~peace & prayers, 
pastor annette

PS – Don’t forget our plans for participating in MCUM’s safe, socially-distanced annual “Each One Feed One” food drive, as shared by our awesome MCUM donations coordinator.  It will take place this coming weekend, Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28.  This year, due to COVID-19, people in different neighborhoods across town have been recruited to volunteer their homes as drop-off sites for donations. Two UBC-ers' homes will be drop-off sites for church folks and their neighborhoods, and you can just leave items outside their homes in specific spots described in a detailed e-mail.


Each month MCUM distributes over 7,000 pounds of food to more than 200 families.  Now, their food pantry has been hit hard by the pandemic and they have experienced an increase in demand.  They are hoping to raise 12,000 pounds of food through this food drive.  If you aren't able to donate directly to this food drive, please remember that there are lots of different ways to help out right now, including donating to MCUM through their website or through the church; or you could send a donation to our coordinator or one of the UBC staff, and they will shop for the items for you.