Good morning, church!
In my devotion this morning I contemplated a Bible verse that we’re familiar with; it’s been set in music and liturgy many times. The verse comes from King David’s Psalm of repentance, which is also a familiar text during Lent: Psalm 51. There, David prays the following prayer: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit.” According to the stories of the Old Testament, David composed this psalm after he had made a huge mistake in his life (putting it mildly), committing a particularly disgusting form of adultery. From a position of power, he ordered the beautiful wife of one of his commanders to his chamber (while he was at war) and she became pregnant. He then had his commander killed to cover up his deeds. The Bible, as you know, is pretty realistic and straightforward about humanity’s foibles and abuses. In the aftermath, David becomes an example of what it means to repent, to be remorseful and sincerely change your ways. This psalm is just one example.
Well, why am I leading you deep into scripture’s dark secrets this morning? It’s because I believe this is a time for repentance and renewal for all of us – and since we are in Holy Week, we of all people ought to take this to heart. Let me also explain this some more, because I feel that this could be easily misunderstood. You might say, “Why do innocent people suffer and die from this virus? What have they done?” And before you get all worked up, let me make clear that I don’t believe in a God who sits up in the clouds and decides to teach humanity a lesson, collateral damage and all. That’s old-time religion, as far as I’m concerned. No, but I believe that the God who created this world and who is mysteriously present in all of creation, will and always has allowed bad things to happen to us. Very often those bad things will give us an opportunity to learn, to become better people, to gain deeper insight into life, to have salvation restored among us. I believe this is such a time! The keyword for repentance in the New Testament is the Greek word metanoia, one of my all-time favorites. It literally means “a change of thinking”. I pray that this painful crisis will change minds for the better. Will we re-evaluate our relationships with one another? Will we see the importance of a spiritual anchor in our lives? Will the human race renew its relationship with the earth and repent from egregious abuses of “Mother Nature”? (Because it hurts all of us in the end!) It is Holy Week: let us pray for our collective ability to have our minds renewed (metanioa)!!!
“Restore in US (no pun intended) the joy of your salvation and sustain in US a willing spirit!”
I promised you some instructions and ideas for this year’s Easter celebration, four days from now. We would like you to participate in making this a special time during the longhouse quarantine days of this month. For one, we ask you to send us a few pictures of your family or your home with Easter and spring images. It could be a single person in front of some spring flowers or a family with Easter eggs or whatever. Get creative. Please email them to Brian Brenfleck. Brian, who has been working hard on the technology end these past weeks (I spoke to him last night. He is still happy to do it!), will use the images for an Easter picture show that we will stream at the beginning of the 10:00 a.m. FaceBook Live Service on Sunday, with Bob and Carol providing the background music. Please send your pictures to Brian by Thursday night (that’s tomorrow!), so he has time to process it. Wouldn’t it be nice to see some familiar faces on Easter? Speaking of familiar faces: we will also host three different Easter Morning Zoom Café’s after the service, from 11:00 until 11:30 a.m. The hosts will be Bernie Heinze, Jenn Bodolus and Brian Brenfleck. You will receive the invitation links tomorrow or on Friday and they will again appear in my email on Sunday. We’d love to see you!!!
Our youth had a wonderful Zoom Meeting last night with 19 participants. They played games from afar and had a nice old silly time. Tomorrow, I will host again a Bible Study. This one will also be via Zoom. All you need is a computer, laptop or I-pad to participate. Everyone is welcome. We will have a Bible Study every Thursday at noon. Our topic for the upcoming weeks is Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Join our Bible Study via Zoom on April 9, 12:00 noon. Contact Pastor for details.
Today, April 8, is the birthday of Elizabeth D. and Benjamin C. Happy birthday to both of you!
Today is also the Baptism day of Sarah Wagner (2001) and Nathan Heilman (2018). Happy Baptism Day!
Speaking of Baptisms: We had four Baptisms scheduled in April and early May. These Baptisms will be postponed and will hopefully take place this summer. Once we are able to make plans again (we are not there yet), we will.
For today, I would like to ask your prayers for all people who deal with anxiety. In many cases, especially when it relates to children, anxieties are exacerbated during this time because children feel that something is big going on (no kidding!) that the adults can only partly explain to them. And even the adults who deal with anxieties are having a hard time. This quarantine, not being able to see and touch other people, relatives, family friends, etc. only makes it worse. Especially if you know some people who deal with anxiety (I know several in our congregation), please pray for them today, pray for peace and pray for God’s soothing presence to find them where they are. May God bless them in body, mind, and soul!
I have so far six willing volunteers for our St. Peter’s Devotional Book project. Surely, there will be more!
Be blessed and be safe,
Pastor Andreas Wagner