by Crawford UMC | Apr 2, 2020 | News
The Church Council was to have a retreat on May 2 to discuss the future of our church, what we wanted to be rolling into the future. Covid-19 made sure that didn’t happen. So the heads of the ministry committees (worship, music, youth, missions, membership) met virtually to discuss how we can be Crawford NOW. We kept coming back to the particular challenges of our sisters and brothers of color and the immigrant community in Chelsea, a city hardest hit by the pandemic. Pastor Mirna Rodriguez of the Nueva Vida UMC in Chelsea has 60 families, from 6 Latin American countries, 90% undocumented, over half out of work, sick, afraid. In our discussions with her we learned that she is trying to support her congregation with few resources. I am so grateful that during this crisis Crawford was able to contribute $10,000 to the Benevolence Fund of the Nueva Vida UMC, which will be put to good and important use. We are able to do this because for many years the Crawford congregation has generously donated and carefully stewarded money to be used for our needing neighbors. So. on the first Saturday in May, instead of talking about what the church should be, we WERE the church. Thanks be to God.
by Crawford UMC | Apr 1, 2020 | News
Our current Adult Study, based on From Jesus to Christ / The First Christians a PBS Frontline documentary, will run Sundays from April 19 through May 31 at 9:00 am. Details can be found on our Adult Programs page.
by Crawford UMC | Mar 27, 2020 | Conversations
Today, I had some really hard news. A friend whose husband had beat all the odds with a terminal disease had a heart attack yesterday and died. When a mutual friend called to let me know, I wondered how we could be present for her when we cannot visit her or hug her or let her lean on us physically, emotionally, spiritually.
This news was on the heels of a note from the Bishop reminding clergy about the theology of why we cannot virtually celebrate Holy Communion and what we are to do should there be a request for a funeral, a wedding or any other public gathering at this time. As people of faith, how do we respond? How do we, as Paul writes in I Corinthians 12, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep?
Sitting with these questions, I am drawn to the Psalm for Sunday. Known by the Latin name De Profundis, Psalm 130 is a cry that reflects our time and our physically distant lives.
Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!
Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance?
As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.
I pray to God—my life a prayer—and wait for what God’ll say and do.
My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning,
waiting and watching till morning.
O Israel, wait and watch for God—with God’s arrival comes love,
with God’s arrival comes generous redemption.
No doubt about it—God’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
In these words, in the emotion of the psalmist, I find myself and I find my prayer. When it feels like the bottom has fallen out of my life, I know that God is present with love. When I cry for help, I know that God will arrive with generous redemption and unmerited grace. I know these things because I know you. Without touching, you touch my soul. In days of physical distancing, I know you are calling each other, checking in and offering words of comfort, gestures of faith and gifts of love. I know you are praying for those who cannot see loved ones and for those who worry about being forgotten. I know you are reaching out in your own ways sending cards, sharing food, texting emojis and emailing beautifully evocative meditations and poems to get us through.
As we wait and watch, as we check in and reach out, as we sing and pray, there is no doubt about it: God is with us, God connects us, God loves us.
“See” you on Sunday,
Hope
by Crawford UMC | Mar 26, 2020 | News
A Bible story and a reason to smile: Arlo makes his acting debut in the story of Ezekiel and the Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14).
by Crawford UMC | Mar 19, 2020 | Conversations
On Monday, after homeschooling for the very first time ever, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Christian Science Monitor about how clergy are responding to the current state of life and faith. The reporter asked really compelling questions which left me thinking deeply, not about social distancing and isolation, but about opportunity and hope.
Last year during Lent our theme was reconnecting with our unhurried God. Each week we practiced breathing and noticing God with us. Even though we took a break for a little while, after the six-week journey, our routines and the demands on our lives returned with a vengeance. Some of us are even more committed to work, to committees, to councils and to organizations than we were before we reconnected with God.
Right in the busyness of our lives, as we moved into Lent this year, we began a journey toward healing and wholeness; yet, we find ourselves separated, distanced and isolated by a pandemic.
In the middle of all of this, I have seen God in friends making phone calls checking on one another. I’ve seen God in a five year old coloring cards that she plans to put in the mailboxes of all her neighbors. I’ve found God in the email conversations that imagine a Give and Take Food Box outside our church doors; a box in which people can give their extra and people can take what they need, no questions asked. I’ve discovered God in the willingness to learn from parents, the silly writing prompts, the communities that will not let us go and continue to connect through virtual meetings and text check-ins. I’ve heard God in the laughter of children. I’ve felt God in the recess break that included thrilling uphill and down bike rides. I’ve seen God in the greeting of strangers from six feet away, looking each other in the eye and saying hello.
Where have you seen, discovered, heard and felt God this week? Where have you found opportunity and hope? Where were you more aware than ever that you are not alone?
When my six year old has a Zoom meeting for Daisies (Girl Scouts) and my eight year old has daily Zoom play dates with his BFF, I say we are navigating a whole new world. The gift and joy of all of this is re-imagining our time, relearning to simply live, remembering that breathing and space is essential to being fully alive, and rediscovering that we are never alone — God is with us.
Zoom you on Sunday,
Hope
