Friday, April 3

Good morning, church!

Sunlight is streaming through my window and onto the plants I have been grooming. Some of them are already sitting in the little greenhouse outside that my family gave me as a Christmas gift a few years ago and will be transferred to the garden within the next two weeks. The ones sitting on my window sill right now are mostly Basil and Zucchini plants.  It’s a good time to grow some stuff at home if you can. There is nothing like fresh garden vegetables! When we moved here about 15 years ago and for the first time in my life I had a pretty substantial plot of land to work with, I started almost immediately to dig out a garden. I must admit, initially, I felt like an outsider. Our suburban neighborhood was full of well-groomed lawns, shrubs, and trees, mostly taken care of by professional landscapers and mostly designed to be low-maintenance for the owners. Most neighbors are either too busy to work a garden or they don’t see a point – you can buy all that stuff in a store, right? And it’s a lot of work! For me personally, the garden has always been a therapeutic place. There is something about working with the earth itself, the soil, the joy of seeing things grow. And the two English words “soil” and “soul” are etymologically related for a reason.    

Right now, my little plants remind me of the wonderful properties of sunlight. It’s what makes them grow so fast. In the Bible, as you know, light has special symbolic significance. This morning I was contemplating a verse from Ephesians 5: “Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” I find it helpful to begin the day with prayer and contemplation and not right away with the news of the newest Corona Virus caseload. It keeps me spiritually grounded and calm. But I was also thinking that sunlight, this wonderful gift from God and power of the universe, is an even bigger gift right now. Most of you will no doubt know that sunlight on our skin produces “vitally” important Vitamin D, which is one of the most effective immune boosters. You can buy it in the store, but as daylight time increases, your body will produce it quite comfortably as long as your skin is exposed to some sunlight. Sunlight is also a natural disinfectant that will kill most germs if they are exposed long enough to the cleansing power of the light.  Why am I writing about this? Well, let us appreciate the natural gifts around us and let us keep calm as we face together something that is bigger and scarier than what most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. Still, every day the sun rises and sets (from our point of view) and the planets spin around the sun as they have done for ages. There is something bigger out there.  

Over the last couple of days, I have found out about more people (all women!) who are making facemasks at home.  By now the public health advisories are actually tilting toward using masks, but most importantly we are well aware of the shortages on the frontlines, in hospitals and healthcare. Can you imagine being a dentist right now? They are re-scheduling most appointments, but some emergency procedures can’t be postponed. So, masks are needed in so many places. And we were not prepared for it. Most countries are facing a shortage of basic medical equipment. I spoke to Sharon B. a few days ago. She serves on our council and has raised her four (now adult) children at church. Sharon retired a few weeks ago. I said to her, “Didn’t you retire just in time?”  Well, she is using her retirement time to make face masks now. She gets supplies from Joann’s Fabric and makes 5-8 masks a day, passing them on to local hospitals and medical facilities. I spoke to Inge C. yesterday. She has been living at Brittany Pointe Senior Living Community for many years. If you know Inge, you know a person who radiates positive energy and vitality. She is involved in many activities in her community and right now her quilting group is singularly focused on making as many face masks as they possibly can. I know that Lynda C. is busy at home making masks, as is Karen S. It all feels like an old-fashioned wartime effort, making gear for the boys and girls on the frontlines, in this case, medical workers. Thank you all for doing this!!! I am including again some places that I’m aware of that accept and need facemasks. For the information, scroll all the way down to the end of this email.

Today (it is Friday, may I remind you!), we are collecting food for Manna on Main Street again. We decided to keep on going with our weekly food drive on Fridays between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.  We will not bother counting the food items, we just want to help out our local food bank in Lansdale as much as we can. When you come to church with your food bags, please put them directly onto Lisa’s brown pick-up truck. She will deliver them to Manna (thank you, Lisa!) and the bags will be in quarantine at the facility for two weeks and then help re-stock their supplies and keep food on the table for needy families and individuals in our area. With the unemployment rising and government checks probably not coming for a few weeks, that’s another good thing you CAN do.

We also decided to keep our Thursday noon Bible studies going. Every Thursday at noon you can join us for one hour for study and conversation about biblical texts. We will tackle one of Paul’s smaller letters and study one chapter at a time.  I will give you more info about that, including whether we will do it via teleconference of Zoom. Stay tuned!

For today, I’d like to encourage you again to pray for our healthcare workers and everyone on the frontlines of caring for the sick and dying in the nation’s epicenters like New York and many other places. They are so much more exposed than the rest of us and they are often making incredible sacrifices. Please also pray for the wonderful Doctor Anthony Fauci, who has worked marathon hours to give expert advice to our President and government and also the general public. He is exhausted, I read, and is finally getting more than five hours of sleep. He needs it. He served under so many presidents, going all the way back to Jimmy Carter. May the Lord bless him and sustain him! He is in my prayers today.

Palm Sunday is around the corner. It will feel eerily different. But we will once again do our best to feed your souls during this time with home-worship resources emailed to you at 8:30 a.m., a Live streamed service at 10:00 a.m. and a safe drive-by distribution of palms between 11 and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Be blessed and be safe!

Pastor Andreas Wagner

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For instructions on how to sew a face mask, check out these
YouTube videos:
https://youtu.be/VgHrnS6n$iA
https://youtu.be/BCJcE-r7kcg (pattern with a slot to insert filter)
Drop off masks between 8 am and 4 pm or mail to one of these
locations:
Liberty at Home 7002 Butler Pike, Ambler, PA 19002
Artman 250 N. Bethlehem Pike, Ambler, PA 19002
Paul’s Run 9896 Bustleton Ave., Philadelphia, Pa 19115
The Hearth at Drexel 238 Belmont Ave., Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
The Village at Penn State 260 Lions Hill Rd., State College, PA 1680
The Manor at York Town 2010 York Rd., Jamison, PA 18929