Earth Day

What a great response!  Last night, we set up the projector and prepared to show the movie, An Inconvenient Truth.  Would anyone show?  You bet!  We had a great crowd, and they were so glad they had come.  Most of us said we wanted to see the movie but just hadn’t done it.  Sharing the film together was terrific as we munched popcorn, ate cookies and drank soda.  We all left with a shared sense of purpose and a feeling of support as we confront the hard reality of our predicament.

Today’s children’s sermon on Earth Day is posted on the page for Children’s Sermons.

Grief

What are we to feel when we see children dead, their lives lost for no reason?  The lively minds of the college students who died today at Virginia Tech lived within bodies at their peak of fitness and beauty.  And this optimal physical and intellectual state was intended by God to create loving unions and the new lives that issue from these bonds. The contributions of these young men and women to our world would have been important, meaningful, and productive to the state of life everywhere. 

One commentator on television noted that this incident is creating huge press in the US, but this scale of loss occurs every day in Iraq. Of course, that fact does not reduce our collective sense of loss but increases it instead, as we add seven more young people, US servicemen and women, to our total of those lost on this day, April 16, 2007.  Many Iraqis suffer today in the same way that we do in far greater numbers.  We hurt for them but can’t know their pain.

We have no capacity for retribution in any of these instances.  Jesus never said that we can do more than look at our world with loving eyes and ask for his help when we pray, “Please dear Lord, make this evil stop. Give us love sufficient to heal the wrongs in our world and those who suffered today.” 

Amen

   

The Big Easter Egg Hunt

Imagine an activity that is guaranteed to bring 12-15 families with small children to your church for a relatively easy-to-do event.  Imagine that the event itself spurs interests in other church activities and even prompts questions about the time for the next day’s worship. Sounds perfect. right? It does unless you are the preacher and you worry about what having an Easter egg hunt between Good Friday and Easter says theologically about what you are doing.

When I got here I was told that they always have THE EASTER EGG HUNT, with hundreds of small children. Of course the crowd was smaller than that, a lot smaller. Everything is smaller than we remember in a small church. We seldom saw the families who came at other events either. The folks who ran it did a wonderful job, but they were not going to be able to do it this year. In my heart of hearts, I was delighted.  We are too small to expend lots of effort into areas that do not bring interested visitors.  That, and my theological problem was resolved.

Then one of the moms, with three children of egg gathering age, said that she would like to run the hunt this year. So much for the theological issue.  The hunt was back. She did a great job with help from others. It was a smashing success.  Every child went home with enough candy to stay awake until Easter morning.  We had lots of baked goodies from Celebration Food, and coffee for the parents on a surprisingly cold spring morning.

So the children had fun and may continue to associate Easter with eggs. What then, theologically, can we say in our defense?

The borough has an egg hunt which has about 3 eggs per child.  We had about 40 per child. Score 1 for God. God is generous.

The borough’s event is a battle of speed and tenacity. At our place, all children, no matter how young or slow,  got more candy than they have teeth. Another 1 for God. God shows no partiality.

If Easter is about rising from death’s door, nothing says rebirth like happy youngsters.

Besides, God can still work it out by giving me a really good Easter sermon.

Maundy Thursday

The Bible slams shut at the same moment that lights behind the cross are exinguished. The santuary is dark and silent.  The bell is struck and it rattles the nerves. So begins the end of our worship service. It is an unsettling benediction.

We had our Maundy Thursday service tonight.  It was a very good, very moving service. We join in collaboration with the local Methodst Church.  We have a couple of hymns, lots ot readings, lots of prayers, a meditation,  Holy Communion, and a stripping of the altar and paraments. We close in darkness with 33 gongs of the bell.  While we will be open for prayer tomorrow,  we do not have the bodies to observe Good Friday also.

These folks have been doing this service for a long time. The liturgy is from the desks of preachers past, both Presbyterian and Methodist. The couple who strip the table and paraments are the next generation from the couple who did it when I came here. It is  their tradition, of that family and of these churches.

It is interesting to see who comes to this service. Maundy Thursday services are never heavily attended, but we had a young girl as well as older congregants.  There just are not a lot from any one group. A minister who died last week, Rev. Norman Dowe, once told me that the folks who came out for these services are the faithful remnant. Lots of folks like to go from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without visiting the cross, so I concentrated more on the Passion last Sunday. I have also been discussing with clergy friends the idea of opening the Easter service in continuity with the end of the Maundy Thursday worship.  Of course, we would not want to turn Easter attendance into Maundy Thursday attendance, would we?

Hunger and Thirst

Spent today at the soup kitchen in Newark and had a good surprise.  We served leftovers from the seder;  matzo ball soup and matzo on the table were not huge hits, but the brisket was beloved by all!  One lady began to lecture the others about the matzo;  she was adorable.  Now, my good surprise.  One of the younger men, age 28, whom I have been advising about his resume, came up with a well organized folder after his lunch and asked me to fax a letter and resume for him to a prospective employer.  He also shared his overall plan.  I had given up since lately he had not seemed focused. 

We will take up our One Great Hour of Sharing offering this Sunday, and its focus areas make our local needs seem like ones we should have solved. Did you know that lack of clean water kills more children than any other cause?  Or that North America has 6% of the world’s people but receives 22% of the world’s food supply vs Africa with 12% of the people but 8% of the food? Or Asia with 58% of the population and 23% of the food? 

Of course, even the most affluent societies have inequities, and people who are displaced socially, unable to earn or integrate productively with the larger enterprise.  This is our sad little lot in Newark.  

Ups and Downs

We had our Christian Family Seder on Saturday night. The food was great, courtesy of Celebration Food.  The liturgy was faithful to our understanding of the Exodus experience and a great send-off to Holy week.  Alas, we set up the room to bring forty around a single table, when it would have been far more intimate and appropriate to have been prepared for twenty. So, I was a little down.

But what a difference a night makes.  We had a great crowd for Palm Sunday.  One of our young couples was here with their baby, and we will be having a baptism soon. A young man from our congregation played the guitar and sang. Wonderfully.  We even had one of those special moments in our Chilren’s message.  Do you know what is special about today? Yes, it is April Fools’s Day.  God bless.  Days like these make you love a wee kirk. And you know God loves the wee kirk, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many.

Children’s Sermons

One of the hardest but most rewarding parts of worship is the children’s sermon. We have two faithful young ones and others who are present sporadically. The children’s message fills our congregation with life and imparts simple lessons to these little ones. As they grow up, we will be able to have longer and more complex messages, but for now, we keep it simple!

See our new page on Children’s Sermons when you have a week that might like a new idea. And be sure to look over the Easter message – it was a big hit!!

Christian Seder: Done!

The picture shows early arrivers settling in for our seder last evening. Our second annual Christan seder was more thinly attended but much more spiritual. Sharing food and the haggadah was rewarding in the waning light of a beautiful, early spring day. My husband reduced the haggadah’s length considerably and to good effect. Less is more so long as the key messages are emphasized. We left a place for Elijah marked “Reserved” and opened the door for him at a late point in the meal. Since no small children were present, we did not hide the afikomen.

The dinner plan and preparation process were manageable, and we used foods that were eaten in Jesus’s day. Unfortunately, we don’t have records of his meals, but we do know what folks ate in that part of the world. I felt very connected to the experience of Jesus and his followers through this meal.

I would recommend this meal plan to families for use during Holy Week. It was lovely especially for children. I wish I could share the leftover matzo with you! While the other leftovers will be welcome at the soup kitchen, I don’t think my regulars will like these much!

Next year in Jerusalem!

by Mrs. Weekirk