Sunday Worship8, 9:30, & 11 am
We had some crazy wind in and around the metro Cincinnati area this week. Branches landed in our gutters and yards. Rain came down sideways. Garbage cans ended up in the neighbor’s yard. Thankfully, some of the wide-spread destruction that was predicted didn’t happen.
Wait, what season are we in? This year, the in-breaking of spring as been chaotic to say the least. Still, despite the fierce chill, the buds on the stems and branches have fought through the cold and have sprouted into life. There is nothing more beautiful in all of God’s creation than to see the colorful flower petals peeking through the snow.
When I was younger, I never understood the idea of giving someone flowers. If you think about it, how romantic is it to give someone a gift that will die and wither away?
We’ve all heard that E=mc2. I’m not a physicist, so I won’t pretend to understand how mass and speed come together to make energy or how energy divided by speed becomes mass or however that works. I was probably sitting at a piano when I should have been studying for a science test. I managed, at least, to rattle off for a test that the E in the equation stands for “energy.”
So what does the E in ELCA stand for?
This past weekend our Confirmation students visited two other local congregations as a way to explore how other Christian denominations speak, sing, and pray in worship. Saturday afternoon they attended mass St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish and Sunday morning joined our neighbors for worship at Lakota Hills Baptist Church.
Pastor Lowell caught up with a few of our youth after the visit and asked them to reflect on their experiences.
I didn’t expect to find myself putting together a crib on Monday afternoon. My work day was almost over when I saw Pastor Lowell dashing from one part of the building to another, trying to prepare for Family Promise guests to arrive for their second day. A new family would be coming – one who was new to Family Promise and had an 18-month old and a 6-month old to care for.
Thanks to IKEA’s online assembly instructions, we finished the crib just as families began to arrive for the day. Kathy and Maddie Wagonfield were putting the finishing touches on dinner and Jenny Smith greeted several children and a few adults as they came in from a day of work, school, and job interviews.
Each Sunday there are several times during worship when a rubric indicates “A Brief Silence for Reflection” or some similar phrase. It is meant to be a time for us to prepare to pray, but the brief silence can be uncomfortable for us. Some of us fidget. Sometimes someone jumps into the next prayer before the worship leader starts it.
With all of our technology, it is rare to find a quiet moment. If you walk or run, you probably put some headphones in and listen to music. When you get home, you might turn on the TV. If you’re like me, you don’t even go to bed without some sort of intentional noise in the background to drown out ... what? Creaky house noises? My own thoughts? What is it about the quiet time that makes us squirm?
Moving is exhausting. Planning and packing and tying up loose ends and organizing and loading and transporting from one space to another depletes every last ounce of energy. On top of physical fatigue, the emotional toll is also great. Extensive farewells to people and place can bring deep grief. Life as we know it is changing.