A recent theme in worship has to do with waiting, an apt topic for this time. We are eagerly awaiting the end of the pandemic. We yearn for the peace of loving, just and respectful relationships.

But there is more to waiting than getting through the current season of adversity…

Charles de Foucauld is a saint of the church who lived from 1858-1916. Born into a wealthy French family he lost his way as a young man when his parents died, leaving him with great sadness, no firm direction and too many resources at his disposal. A life pursuing self-centered desires brought him to a place of emptiness. Not knowing what else to do, he joined the French Army…

The stories from our sacred scriptures we study in Sunday worship provide a surplus of meaning. There are always ideas and insights yet to be explored. For instance, this past Sunday we looked at the story of Jesus walking on the water in order to come to the aid of the disciples who were facing stormy conditions. You can read this mysterious and astonishing account in 

Matthew 14:22-33.

In a meditation entitled By Their Fruits, Howard Thurman writes:

Further, I may not ever be deeply assured that I am not mistaken. I may be appraising my experience in the light of my own great need or my own previous conditioning or teaching. As a matter of fact, it is true that most of the fundamental decisions which we make are made on the basis of insufficient evidence. We cannot wait for final proof or verification. It would be too late. Thus, we wait as long as we can and then act on the basis of the total knowledge up to the present, with the hope that the future may verify our decision. This means that the decision does not have integrity in itself. Its integrity rests upon how it works out, how it unfolds.

God is good, all the time.

We face two daunting challenges in the world our Leader loves and gave his life for: healing a novel corona virus and dismantling systemic racism. As with all daunting challenges, God is with us to guide us toward wise words and actions.

Dear Members, Friends and Staff of Friedens Church,

I love you.

I love you so much that I have been staying home as much as possible to help stem the tide of the virus

I love you so much that when…

These words of Brené Brown articulate well how I have been feeling and the work to which I feel called to devote my time and energy:

We will not go back to normal.  Normal never was.  Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack.  We should not long to return, my friends.