Easter Season – Friday, May 22

Reopening Too Early is Not Freedom, It’s Selfish

We wear masks out of our freedom to care for one another. We stay home because in our freedom we don’t want to get others sick. We don’t reopen our church buildings just yet because our freedom calls us to take care of not just ourselves, but instead turn toward the greater good of all. We continue to slow down and make wise choices out of our love for freedom.

– Jes Kast

(From Verse and Voice, Sojourners)

Easter Reminders in a Pandemic Time
Rev. Nathan Day Wilson

In a poignant scene in Albert Camus’ “The Plague” – which reads like it was published weeks ago, instead of in 1947 – the doctor works tirelessly to lessen the suffering of those around him. But he is no hero.

“This whole thing is not about heroism,” he says. “It may seem a ridiculous idea, but the only way to fight the plague is with decency.”

As we live in this Easter Season, I find myself wondering more than most years what new life might emerge from the tomb of much death. Whatever it is, I hope it is characterized by more decency. I hope it embraces our interdependence over our independence. I hope it embodies Bill Withers’ gospel: “Lean on me when you’re not strong” because we all know, “it won’t be long ’til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on.”

I hope it is life with leaders, equal parts compassion and courage, who realize that the world must be managed, not its parts. No longer is the survival unit a single nation or a single anything. It is now the unity of the whole world – humans, other animals, and the environment – that is an urgent, pragmatic necessity. That unity is not ours to create, but rather to claim.

(From Reflection in a Time of Crisis, Rick Mixon)

From The Reverend Dr. Joe Kutter’s Final Sermon (Written to colleagues on May 2, 2020. Joe died on May 7, 2020.)

“God took a trusting Abram’s hand and led him to a new home. God has taken my hand throughout my life and is holding it tight now. I invite you to that kind of trust – a trust in a God that will hold your hand into that Beloved Community that is the City of God.

LABC Zoom Gatherings – A Time To Reflect, today at noon; A Time For Prayer, tomorrow at 10:00