Please submit your Tuesday Newsletter articles and pictures  before 10:00 a.m. on Mondays, and your Friday Reminders articles and pictures before 12:00 p.m. on Thursdays.

Thank you!

Hopewell $5 Incentive Gift Cards Donation Collection - March 6 & 13

Recently, a few things have come up missing from the Administrative Assistant's office over the weekends. If you have a key to this office (or an "Old Library" key), please turn it in to Mike Kelley. Due to the nature of the information stored in this office, it is important for access to be limited to fundamental personnel. Keys to this office will be checked out on an "as needed" basis. Thank you for your immediate cooperation.

Two new small group discussion classes will be offered in the coming months. These are one-hour classes that meet via zoom on Tuesday mornings from 11:00 a.m. to noon.

If you're interested in participating, or just want more information, please contact Rev. Maxted by email or phone. If there is interest in starting an evening group as well, please let Rev. Maxted know.

• Feb. 8, 15, 22 New Kid by Jerry Craft
• Mar. 8, 15, 22, 29, April 5, 12 How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi 

United Christian Church of Austin invites you to join them in celebrating a service of installation for their new Senior Minister, Rev. Anna Kreisle. The service will take place at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 27 at the church, located at 3500 W. Parmer Lane in Austin. A reception will be held immediately following the service.

Rev. Anna is a fifth-generation native Austinite with an undergraduate degree in music from Washington University in St. Louis and Master of Divinity from Harvard University. She has been ordained in the United Church of Christ for 10 years and is working towards dual ordination in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

February 16 - Miranda Shrader

February 17 - Sherwin Boyd

The Chancel Choir rehearses on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the sanctuary.

[There will be no Sunday School classes in the church building for the foreseeable future. Some classes will be meeting via Zoom during this time of social distancing.]

Early Childhood Class (ages 4-7) -Taught by Lisa Walker

Intermediate Class (3rd-5th grade) - Taught by Jennifer Kienzle

Chi Rho Class - (6th - 8th grade) - (studying the book, "Middle School TalkSheets" for ages 11-14. "These TalkSheets present every aspect of Jesus' life in a way that young teens can connect with as they learn to apply the lessons to their own lives.")

CYF Class (9th - 12th grade) 

Open Circle (primarily adult women) - 9:15 a.m. Sunday mornings in person and via ZOOM, studying Love Without Limits. ALL ARE WELCOME! Link HERE

Explorers (mixed adults) - 9:30 a.m. Sunday mornings via ZOOM, facilitator is Mildred Adair; studying Paul's letter to the church at Corinth. Link HERE

The Wired WORD (adult men) - 11:00 a.m. Thursday mornings. Led by Rev. Maxted, this class looks at what the scriptures have to say about important current events and issues.

Mondays: 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Tuesdays: 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Wednesdays: 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.

Thursdays: 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Fridays: 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength ...

-- Jeremiah 17:5

Jeremiah serves as a prophet during the destruction of Judah as a nation. The heights the Israelites achieved in the reigns of David and Solomon, and even the strength they found after the split into the two nations of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, was rapidly falling apart. While prophets had long warned of the destruction of the nation, now it appeared to be occurring before their eyes. All they had worked for, taken pride in, and saw as a sign of God's favor was rapidly disappearing. It was as if the urbane civilization of human achievement was returning once again to the uncivilized state of the desert. Yet the image of the desert provided for Jeremiah a means by which he also could help them recall their source of hope. It was in the wilderness or desert, where they wandered for forty years, that they were formed into a people of God.

It was during the wilderness experience that they learned the danger of depending on their own ability and the sureness of God to provide for them if they would simply trust in God. "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord," said Jeremiah. He reminded his people who were currently teetering on the brink of chaos that there was one who has already demonstrated that he was not defeated by chaos. Using the image that is also found in Psalm 1, Jeremiah contrasted trust in God with trust in mortals. It was, suggested Jeremiah, "like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream."

The danger for the nation was not the external conditions. They had faced such dangers before. The danger was that they had lost the capacity to place their trust in God. The threat to their nation was a test of God. "I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings." Given all of the dark predictions about the fate of the church in our time, perhaps it is again time to examine how much we trust God and how much we are placing our hope on the strength of mortals.

Prayer: Dear Lord, You have it all, every bit of the power and authority for which many people struggle. Some appear to make a bit of progress in that and set themselves up as being strong. We humans are too often blinded by their claims and see only after the damage has been done that we misplaced our loyalty. Help us, dear God, to not veer from your love and your guidance in order to follow a person who is not truly a follower of you. We ask that you bless each of us to study and know your Word and to strengthen us in following you. In Christ's holy name, Amen