March 15, 2020: Church in the time of coronavirus, part 1

We met for worship service in person this morning, although it was a much smaller crowd than usual.  A link to my sermon and prayers of the people are attached.  In my message I remarked how Jesus was one to bring wholeness to people through connecting with them, but that it was the spiritual connection that was most important.  In these times connection is even more important, as people face challenges and anxieties we only imagined a few weeks ago, but just because we are not meeting as much physically, doesn’t mean we cannot connect together spiritually.  Write a letter, make a phone call, send a card — connecting with others helps them, and it helps us.

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One of the hymns we sang was “We Yearn, O Christ, for Wholeness” (tune by Hans Leo Hassler, words by Dosia Carlson, from The New Century Hymnal; I thought I’d share some of the words, which you may find as blessing as those who sang them this morning.

“We yearn, O Christ, for wholeness and for your healing touch; too long have we felt helpless; our burdens seemed too much. Forgetting all pretenses we make our pleadings heard, in hope and expectation await your gracious word.

We long to have companions who travel by our side, strong friends to call and answer with whom we are allied; as we lift up each other when struggles lay us low, community develops; our faith and caring grow.

We need your living presence, O Christ of Galilee, a presence that revives us and sets our spirits free. No longer are we fearful, your love pervades each place. Empower us with courage to claim your healing grace.”

Blessings,

Pastor Leslie

Immigration Resources

At the UCC’s national gathering (aka General Synod) in Milwaukee this weekend, I will be participating in a panel discussion/workshop (Saturday at 1:30 pm) on how congregations can be immigrant-welcoming and/or sanctuary churches.  I will have some hardcopies of the handouts posted below.  Both have some aspects that are specific to south-central Wisconsin, but we hope they are useful as you seek to respond to the biblical mandate to welcome the stranger and to love your neighbor — all your neighbors.

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Resource sheet April 2019

June 2019 Newsletter

June Newsletter

May Newsletter

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April Newsletter

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March newsletter

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Whose Voice? Sermon for 3/10/19

Whose voice do we listen to?  Whose voice tells us who we are, or who we should be?  In our gospel reading today from Luke, we hear about Jesus in the wilderness, tempted by “the devil,” just as we are plagued by devilish voices who try to convince us we are other than God’s beloved (all of us!).  See today’s sermon for more, including some Lenten practices to lighten your load.

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Reflection on the Border Trip

Below is a reflection on our recent border mission trip by one of the participants, Katarina Klafka.

On the last night of the mission trip, all eight of us gathered together to share images and scenes that had spoken to us. There was a lot to process. We had heard several accounts of what crossing the border—and life across the border—are like; we had crossed the border for ourselves. From priests, lawyers, Samaritans, and hosts, we had heard stories of desperation, of love, of shattering horror. A woman had fled alone after her husband and child were brutally killed before her eyes. A man, skin blackened with dehydration, close to death, had asked for a Coke. Families had been separated; seven women, arriving from a caravan, had tested positive for pregnancy; Mexican migrants had taught a fellow Honduran traveler their national anthem in the hopes that, if caught by ICE, he would be deported to Nogales, Sonora instead of to Honduras, so that he might try again to seek a better life.
All of this—all of what we saw, what we heard—was incredibly powerful. Yet what has stayed with me the most was—is—the laughter. Gleeful shouts from children out on a sunny, bare playground, contained by an imposing fence, not fifty feet from the Wall; giggles, at once buoyant and poignant, of other children, who awaited asylum in a tiny, dark room; belly laughs from classmates in our workshops, sharing artistic faux pas; the awkward yet unifying chuckles at the border checkpoint, when a stray dog—tail wagging—made his way inside the building twice, his joyful determination at once ridiculing and calling into painful relief the industrial concrete, the dour faces behind the desks, and the omnipresence of the Wall itself.
The Wall is shameful. Of that, I have no doubt. Fear hammered its panels and ignorance rivets it. Miles of razor wire have come to crown it with a sharp sneer at those who behold it. Its whole is a towering, ugly, monumental rejection—and a testament to the fear, ignorance, misinformation, and racist beliefs that characterize and color American life for millions of its citizens and residents alike.
On that last night in Arizona, one of the workshop teachers performed “The New Colossus” to music. The song was haunting, and Emma Lazarus’s words of welcome, refuge, and community felt intensely relevant—all the more so because the Wall’s existence, its policing, its physicality, its everything, mock both Lazarus’s verses and the Statue of Liberty with which they have been inextricably linked. “The New Colossus” illuminated the way for those “yearning to breathe free”: the Wall stands as a denunciation of the very people most in need of that poetic light.
As we come back and share our stories with you, we are also inviting you to join the continuation of this mission trip by loving greatly, serving compassionately, and helping those most in need. You might donate to groups who help migrants directly at the border, like Cruzando Fronteras or the Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans; you might call your legislators to talk about the wall and immigration on local, state, and national scales; you might try to overcome the fear of embarrassment and speak up when you see harassment; you might strive to be more informed, open, and aware in your day to day life.
We all learned to laugh before we could speak; we all love; and I truly believe that, in those two languages—those of joy and of the heart—we are, and always will be, able to connect to, help, and unite with one another.

February Newsletter

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Border Trip -Desconocido

 

On display in the sanctuary at Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Sahuarita, AZ, site of the Border Fair/Common Ground on the Border Fair today and tomorrow, were a series of quilts bearing witness to the thousands of migrant deaths in the Arizona desert each year.  The quilts for each two year time span are different design, but each have memorabilia depicting the victims (or from the victims), and the names of those who died.  That is, the names of each victim are included if the name is known.  Many of the migrant dead are never identified.  In some years, like the quilt in the center photo, each “unknown” victim is listed.  In some, they are listed by the Spanish term “desconocido,” unknown.

Our presenter in the second set of workshops this afternoon, Shura Wallin, posed a question to us: what can we do?  Shura, who is one of the founders and key life forces behind the Samaritans group that provides humanitarian aid to migrants in the desert, also got us thinking by posing the rhetorical question “How many people do you know who really want to leave their country?”  So what can be done to change things?  Migrants are forced to leave home to find a better life, a safer life, and they fall prey to another sort of persecution — indifference.  So what if they die, they were crossing illegally.  It is their own fault; stay where you are and you will not die in the desert attempting to cross.

Is this who we really are, that we will allow this to continue?  We have another session with Shura tomorrow afternoon, and maybe, just maybe, we will come up with some answers, some action items.  This cannot be what we want.

Leslie