From the Pastor
Since there wasn’t much else I could do, given the stay-at-home order from the state, I decided to call everyone. I went through the church directory, calling everyone I knew. And I got ahold of most everyone. I am pleased to report that everyone appears to be doing fairly well, given our circumstances, and that everyone seems to be in pretty good spirits, all things considered. I plan to make another round of calls next week. I plan to do this until we are able to worship again, until I can see you again.
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This is a strange and dangerous time. This pandemic reminds us just how dependent we human beings are. We are dependent upon the natural world. We are reminded of those natural processes and powers in which our lives come to be and which sustain our well-being. Our lives are given to us, are gifts. In this time of pandemic, we become acutely aware that those same natural processes powers can threaten our lives and well-being. It is in those same processes that the virus now spreading among human beings around the world came to be. There are, of course, other diseases. And hurricanes and earthquakes occur. We cannot completely control these things. We are not in charge of everything. We are mortal. These lives we have been given are not, in the end, our own. They belong to God. We belong to God.
This time also reminds us just how much we depend upon other people. For all of our talk about rugged individualism, we have created a society in which we very much depend upon other people. Sure, we pay them, but we still depend upon them. We depend upon the healthcare workers in our hospitals. We depend upon scientists working in labs on a vaccine. We depend upon truck drivers to deliver to our grocery stores and upon the clerks to stock those shelves. And a person’s job may well depend upon another person being able to do his or her job. We very much depend upon other people, people we don’t even know.
Just the same are all of these other people depending upon us. We need to be dependable. Some of these other people are very worried and afraid. Some of them are sick. Others a grieving. We need to care about people in this strange and dangerous time, to care about those worried and afraid, those sick, those grieving. We need to care about them and, when possible, to care for them. This we need to do in this strange and dangerous time and then when this time passes. For these people are like us. They belong to God, too. All of them and all of us belong to God.
Neal Kentch