July 2, 2020
Dear Grace Church Community,
It is hard for me to believe that we are in the month of July. It seems like time in quarantine passes just as quickly for me as did the time before. I hope that you are well and that you know that even though we cannot gather in body, you are never far away from my heart and my prayers. I think of you and pray for you every day.
This is a difficult time. Many of us had hoped that this COVID-19 would calm down, leave us in peace, be reduced to a mere handful of cases by the time summer arrived. We had hoped like other viruses that this one too would be affected by the heat. But we are sadly being reminded that this is a virus unlike any we have seen before. It knows how much we love to be together. It knows that we love talking loudly, hugging closely, and coming together with all those we love. I don’t believe that the virus itself is sinister. It is just doing what viruses do. But it is doing it in a virgin space. No one has any immunity to this virus. So this particular coronavirus has an infinite number of ways and hosts to infect.
Here in the Berkshires, we continue to have very few cases and the warm beautiful weather calls us to begin to relax, to begin to rejoin family and friends, to begin to return to what we remembered before this all started. But I ask you to remain careful. This virus does not care that we are tired of quarantine. This virus does not care that we need to be with those we love. This virus does not care that it is beautiful outside. And while this virus infects people of all ages, it is particularly deadly to some of us. So our care, our diligence is how we love each other. We put the needs of others alongside ours and live as we are commanded by Jesus to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Another reality that is dawning is that this virus is going to be with us for a while—perhaps a very long while. So how are to live in this foreign land? How are we to sing the songs of hope in a place that feels so strange and so stifling?
Last Saturday, your Vestry looked at this question and pondered how to live as the Israelites did when their temple was destroyed and they were taken away to the land of their oppressors. They asked God, “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4) We can understand our brothers and sisters who said, “By the rivers of Babylon- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion”---when we remembered what things were like in February. When we remember what we have lost in this frightening and uncertain time.
Each of us are experiencing this pandemic in different ways. Some of us can stay at home and accomplish much of what we did before. Some of us have lost jobs or the chance of the future we had planned. Some of worry about catching this virus and what it could do to our physical bodies. Some of us worry about our families and how best to protect them in these uncertain times. Some of us have lost loved ones and are unable to remember and celebrate their lives with others
And each of us have a resource that we can call on. God never abandons us. God did not forget the exiled Israelites and God has not forgotten us who are afraid, who are anxious, who are weary, who worry about an unknown future. In desperate and tragic moments, God is with us. And God sends angels to help us remember that God is near.
When you start to feel anxious about the unknown of this virus and its impact on us all, which is only natural, I invite you to do what others before us have done, give it to the One who wants to carry us. Recognize that we must do our part, but much of this crisis is out of our control. The Israelites took each day as it came. They cooked their meals, they raised their children, they listened and remembered. They took up new tasks and set aside former ones for later. They worshiped God in a new place with new resources. They no longer had the temple. They no longer could come before the altar. So scripture and stories became their way of connecting, their way of worshiping, their way of turning to God.
And they had each other. They developed new food practices and new rituals that allowed them to sustain their community. They developed new ways, based on prior ways, of being the people of God. They were in a new place and they recognized that what was vital, what was most important was their relationship with God and with each other.
We will not be in our buildings for a while longer. Yet we are blessed that this is happening in a time when we can still be connected with each other across the necessary physical distancing. This might be a time to try something new that may be just what you need to stay in touch with church and with God.
On July 16 at 6:30 PM we will have a conversation about how we as church can be a proactive part of racial justice. We have seen the anguish in our communities. Now we can search our own hearts as faithful people and become people of promise. Join us as Professor Charles Dew, Professor of History at Williams College shares his book
The Making of a Racist and talks about how his innocent appropriation of “whiteness” kept him from noticing the lives of his black neighbors.
Join us here. In August we are beginning a Bible Study with the Rev. Libby Wade on Lamentations and the Psalms.
Join us here. In September, you are invited to join in discussing the wonderful classic novel,
Captain Courageous by Rudyard Kipling.
Join us here. Every third Sunday, join by computer or call in to share a meal with all the people you are missing.
Join us here.
And
every Sunday morning, we have prepared a place for you to join us in worship in community. We may not be able to hug, but we can hear each other’s voices, see each other’s smiles, and join together in placing our hope in Christ knowing that God sees us and cares always. Know that everyone you love and who loves you is only a phone call away. God is in the midst of us and we are God’s children together.
May the peace of Christ be always with you,
Janet
Conversation with Professor Charles Dew:
The Making of a Racist - July 16, 6:30 PM
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