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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
...This Is Our Church
Well my "Few Words..." this week are really just about taking a moment to soak in all that our church community has experienced in the past few weeks. It's been an intense and full time together to say the least, and we've experienced pretty much the full range of human feelings together.
There was Holy Week and all of the extra midweek services including the new "Alabaster Wednesday" service we've created. There was Maundy Thursday with both Communion and Foot Washing. Then Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday with the extra food and egg hunt and programs for the kids. And then the tragic loss of our beloved Calvin Swenson and the huge numbers of people who came for the visitations and Celebration of Life service. And in the midst of this we began our new Befrienders class of over 20 people. And then the first Healing Prayer and Contemplation service that our own Cameron Macdonald has brought to us that will take place the second Wednesday of each month from now on.
Whew. That's a lot. But what I'm feeling so aware of and grateful for are all of the ways that the people of our congregation showed up to do the extra work and service required to pull all of these meaningful and soulful things off. And the loving, kind, soulful, and compassionate ways in which everything unfolded.
There's no way to thank everyone involved. I do need to thank Jean Duchrow and whoever helped her for coming up with such beautiful liturgical art for our worship services--5 completely different settings in one week. I need to thank Sheryl Rowe for personally filling 300 plastic Easter eggs with candy and treats for the kids. I need to thank all those who helped out in the services, and for the hospitality extended through the kitchen crew under Joan Jacobsen's amazing leadership. And then all the volunteers who helped set up and take down tables and chairs, and those who stuck around to help clean up.
I'm so grateful for our beautiful building and grounds, but as we've noted many times together, what makes a church the Church is the people, and the Spirit of Christ within and among the peoplle. All of you. All the ways you came together and reached out to each other with love and support. More than a few people who attended the Celebration of Life for Calvin said to me, "There's something really special about this place." Yes there is. And that "something special" is you. Us.
We're not a perfect church. There is no such thing. But what a gift and a blessing it is to be a part of a church community that is truly taking the Path of Jesus to heart, and that understands that what that's really about is simply taking LOVE seriously (and playfully!). It's about reminding ourselves again and again that God IS LOVE, and then sharing and extending and standing for that Love in as many tangible ways as we possibly can.
I wrote a song years ago called "This Is My Church." The story alluded to in the first verse was taken from Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies. I shared it this week with our zoom Morning Devotion group. I've never recorded it, but the lyrics are below. I hope you find them meaningful. Thank you for making them more meaningful than ever to me and thank you for the privilege and joy it is to be the pastor of this amazing church.
I hope to see you in person or on zoom for worship this Sunday.
Pastor Bryan
This is My Church
Lyrics By Bryan Sirchio
I read a story about a little girl
Who got lost not far from home
She lived in the inner city
Where the streets could be so cold
A neighborhood policeman found her
And picked her up in his arms
And said, “let’s walk around, and you tell me
If you think you know where you are.”
So they walked the neighborhood
And as they rounded a certain block
A smile broke out on the girl’s face
And she said, “okay we can stop.”
And as the policeman put her down
They could overhear the sound
Of an organist playing through the Sunday hymns
(and the little girl said)
I know where I am now
This is my church
And I can always find my way home from here
Well churches are far from perfect
Sometimes we let each other down
And yet when everything's uncertain
And it all gets turned around
There’s no other place I know of
Where I can count on finding clues
That will point my heart toward home again
And the Love that's always True
Sometimes I find clues in the songs
That generations have handed down
In the symbols and Bible stories
That the people gather around
I love that one where God’s a Shepherd
Who’s got a thing for wandering sheep
And who throws parties when the lost find home again
I know where I am now
This is my church
And I can always find my way home from here
There was a woman I know from my home church
She lived life with a cheerful heart
And when her cancer marathon ended
The end of that race was hard
On her last day at the hospice
A bunch of church friends gathered ‘round
Someone came with a box full of hymnals
And we passed those hymnals out
And we sang “Amazing Grace”
And “Spirit Blow through the Wilderness”
“I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry”
And other hymns that she loved best
And though she could no longer speak
I watched a tear run down her cheek
And I couldn’t help but think, somehow she knows
She knows where she is now, this is her church
And she can always find her way home from here
We know where we are now, this is our church
And we can always find our way home from here
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