Good morning, dear Easter people!
I missed you all yesterday, despite our chat over coffee via Zoom and despite the beautiful service we put together for you. It required a lot of patience, not only on your part but also on the part of the worship team, and I will probably recommend that we pre-record our services in advance for the next few weeks. I think all of the churches probably crashed Facebook Live yesterday!!! If you haven’t checked out the picture show, please take a look at our Facebook page (simply click on the Facebook button on our website), it is only six minutes long and very nice; you’ll see lots of familiar faces. Or check out the entire service, which is posted on the website and on Facebook (I also sent a Vimeo link yesterday).
For these upcoming weeks, we are asked to be patient, which you know and I know it can be the most difficult virtue to acquire. I don’t think people have ever been confused enough to call me a patient person! And yet, this is the virtue we are asked to embrace throughout the next month. I am reminded of several Old Testament stories. Did you know that patience is a major, recurring theme in the stories of Genesis and Exodus, the first two books of the Bible? How long did Abraham have to wait for offspring? For a long, long time, until he had almost stopped believing in the possibility of having children. How long did the Israelites wander through the wilderness? Forty years, we are told, for a journey that could have been completed in months under ideal circumstances. And finally, the famous story of Noah and the ark, which I think is something for us to revisit at this time. As the number of new infections start to drop, as the spread of the Coronavirus slows and the graphs of the death tolls begin to “flatten,” it will be more and more tempting for us to just return to “normal”. And yet, there will be a period when that is not the safe thing to do. Which brings me to Noah in the ark, his family’s personal lifeboat. The most difficult time for them must have been when the waters started to recede and the kids were asking and nagging him, “Can we go out yet? Are we there yet? How much longer???” And the full truth probably is that Noah himself heard those voices in his brain, “When can I finally leave this place?” Those last weeks and days after the rain had already stopped were the most difficult part of that journey! Noah sent out a dove to check whether the bird could find try land. He did that, I believe, three times according to the story, until the dove finally came back with a branch, indicating dry ground somewhere. It will be like that for us in the next few weeks, and as a naturally impatient person, I am perfectly qualified to preach PATIENCE to you, with a mirror right in front of me as I write these words! “Be patient, Andreas!”
Some of us have had to learn over a long period of time to be patient and not all of us have necessarily acquired the virtue… This morning, my thoughts and prayers turn to a person in our congregation that few of you know, but she is certainly a most interesting and resilient individual. Terry R. (her deacon) and I know Gail P. pretty well. She was born with cerebral palsy some seventy years ago and grew up adjusting to her disability and making the most of it. Her condition is caused by damage that occurs to the immature brain as it develops, most often before birth. In general, cerebral palsy causes impaired movement associated with abnormal reflexes, abnormal posture, involuntary movements, unsteady walking, or some combination of these. Nevertheless, Gail managed to finish high school and college and taught English for twenty years at Wissahickon Middle School, using crutches in the classroom. My friend Scott who grew up in Ambler remembers having her as a teacher. In recent years, Gail has had several surgeries on her battered shoulders, which have been taxed by the use of the crutches over so many years. She is right now recovering at home. Her only family member is her brother who lives in Nevada with his family. But Gail has a local support system of friends. I visited her one year before Christmas and she had a whole stack of Christmas presents for all her friends and loved ones, which she had carefully and lovingly put together, slowly and methodically. She is a cheerful person who has learned to accept her condition and deal with it. I would like to encourage you to send her a card and pray on her behalf. Despite her amazing coping skills, it has to be tough sometimes to live by yourself with that kind of condition. Speak of being quarantined! Her address is: contact the church. She is the kind of person who would appreciate a card!
I have eleven willing souls to help me with the St. Peter’s Devotional Book Project. I am still looking for a few more…
For this week, we will be busy with various video conference meetings. Tonight the Finance Team is zooming. Tomorrow, we will have our noon staff meeting via zoom, and the Stephen Ministry class will chat at night. On Wednesday, council convenes via Zoom. On Thursday we will have our noon Bible study.
And while I would much rather have in-person church worship services and meetings, I have to be PATIENT. We all have to be patient over the next number of weeks.
Be blessed and be safe!
Pastor Andreas Wagner