June 25, 2020
Dear Grace Church Community,
Last week, I was blessed to be able to go away and pray for awhile. I traveled to Wisdom House, a former monastery just an hour south of Great Barrington. I was the only guest and so when the office workers left at 4:00 PM, Emma and I had full run of the place. We could walk the labyrinth, sit in the beautiful peace garden, watch the sky turn pink as the sun dipped below the horizon, and at my own pace, rest and read and pray. It was a blessed time to begin to ponder my time with you that remains and what I hope to share with you in the 5 weeks before I retire from my ministry with Grace Church.
Three things came to my heart. First, I want to spend time loving you. I want to remind you how much you have meant to me in our journey together. I want to share with you any thoughts on how you can care for yourselves and for each other in these times of physical distancing. I want to thank you for all you have shown me and all you have shared as we together have lived this life of faith in God who is love.
Second, I want to help prepare for whatever is next for Grace Church. I want you to think about what you are learning in this time—what is becoming apparent as to what is most important as a part of the body of Christ, and what is starting to become apparent as to what is getting in the way. I hope that each of you will listen carefully to your heart and will step forward to take a part of the work of being church into your lives. Are you feeling that you are ready to be a part of planning worship, of caring for each other by calling people to check in or write notes regularly to remind someone they are loved and remembered, of becoming active in small group learning—Bible Study, Books and Bread, or Centering Prayer? What are you missing? What do you need in your life? What can you share with others? Being church is not a spectator sport. Everyone’s involvement is what makes church the living body of Christ. What part can you play in this next steps of Grace Church?
Third, I want to be a part of reminding you of your powerful ministry. Transitions in any time are hard work. There is much that is unknown. There is the moving out from what has become familiar and comfortable and predictable. But in these times, where the “normal” is unpredictable, transition becomes even more daunting. But if I have not told you enough before, let me remind you that you are God’s force in this world. When I first arrived I was immediately aware that you were mighty! And in our time together, your willingness to step out with God has become even more awe inspiring. As two active and loving churches you served your communities in Lee and Great Barrington. Then when you became Grace Church, you learned to live through and into the pain of loss, not succumbing to what was, but embracing and even rising to meet, what could be. Courageously you have taken the next step over and over to becoming a church that is known as one that is brave, self-giving, and alert to where God is calling the church in this day and in this time.
This pandemic is teaching us many important lessons—lessons that you are so well prepared to hear and respond to in love. You already know that church is not the building. You already know that being church means in addition to worship,
what happens after you leave the building on Sunday morning. You already know that God has great plans for God’s Church, but what is required is to take risks to meet God beyond the walls. You already know this and have lived this with extraordinary courage and faithfulness. The Rev. Jen Bloesch is with us teaching 6 young interns about caring for creation, directing a two acre farm that provides food for our neighbors, obtaining grants to grow this ministry in the community, and extending God’s love into a world that longs for God’s love, but may not long to enter a church building, because you have risked following God. The Berkshire Immigrant Center is able to train new immigrant counselors and serve the needs of our brothers and sisters because you have risked following God. The Lee Food Pantry and the People’s Food Pantry, are leading resources for helping our neighbors find the food they need in this time of disease and job loss because you have risked following God. Who knows where God is calling us as a community? But I am confident that you will listen carefully, respond with love, and provide a way forward for others, because you risk following God.
Here we are. The pandemic is still in our midst. Like Jesus’ disciples of old, we do not know the future. We walk by faith, not by sight. But as people filled with the Holy Spirit, we can be confident that with God’s help, the unknown will not overwhelm us, but empower us to continue to love and take risks as we follow God.
This Sunday, June 28, we will celebrate an Agape Service. This is an opportunity for our community to be reminded that even when the storm seems to be closest, the goodness of God is always in our midst. It is an opportunity for us to share and remember together, Jesus’ life, death, and rising to new life. Communion is an act of relationship with Jesus that goes beyond time and space. I recognize that we are continuing to learn what it means to be God’s church in these uncertain times. But I trust that God, who is always making something new, provides us nourishment, remembering, and community even when we are apart for each other’s safety. I believe this invitation to receive communion together in our own homes, speaks to our recognition that God is everywhere, and in sharing and remembering, despite the physical distance, we can with joy be church.
I hope to see you at Worship, at Bible Study, at Centering Prayer, and at Third Sunday Supper. If you need assistance joining us, please let me know. If you need support in this time, I am here for you as are other members of our community. I am so grateful for the presence of each of you in my life and in the life of this wonderful church. This time of COVID-19 means that we must stay apart physically, but it does not mean that we cannot share the goodness of God with each other. Thanks be to God we have each other.
May the peace of God that passes all understanding hold you close.
Janet
