Dear UMA Members and Friends!
First a couple of things before my musing. Hocus Pocus with a Focus is this Sunday 2-4! Fun for children of all ages!!! It is also a fundraiser for the SCC Boosters Club. They need funds this year as they change the name of their mascot.
And, at 5pm, there will be a Peace Gathering in Auburn at the Equal Rights Heritage Center. There will be speakers, including Father Vasile Colopelnik from the Ukrainian Church, Pastor Marcello Soch from the Hispanic Church in Genoa, Doug George Kannentiio from the Indigenous Community, Mahmoud Burton from the Muslim community, Eli Hernandez, NAACP President. and more. Prayers and music for the violence to end and the Peace of God to prevail.
Hope you join us at both events!
And now for the Musing!!
Last week I took Zaki’s adorable nieces and their mother to get their first official hair cut. We were the only ones in the place and the girls got a little bored so I started spinning them in the chairs and having some fun with them. The hair stylist, who knows me, said, “you know you’re kind of like a kid yourself!” I take that as quite a compliment as I head toward my 65th birthday! I also had the honor of attending a wedding of a young man who lived with us his senior year at Wells. He and his friends were so excited to see me and included me in their fun!l Another honor for an almost 65 year old woman!
As I told my friends at Council yesterday, it should come as no surprise that I am not a linear thinker, my thoughts often bounce around, as does my life. For those of you who are linear thinkers it might seem a bit chaotic, but for me it gives me the opportunity to experience God’s love in our world.
Last week, I once again visited with the homeless as we offered them food, respect and conversation. I had coffee with the Guatemalan Pastor Marcello Soch, from the Inglesia de Cristo Ebenenzer Church in Genoa, his wife and daughter. I spoke at the Rotary Club about homelessness and met some truly caring people. I also talked with Eli Hernandez who is the NAACP President in Auburn as we worked on Sunday’s Peace Gathering at the Equal Rights Heritage Center. .
I think making connections with the “other” is part of what it means to be a Follower of the Way of Jesus of Nazareth, a Christian, a Disciple of Jesus. It is what the dissertation for my doctorate was all about. It was what we did at the Interfaith Center for Action and Healing and it is a part of what we do at UMA. And most importantly, it is what Jesus did, he went out into the community and met people where they were and heard their stories.
At our congregational gathering after church last Sunday, we talked about the future of, not just UMA, but Christianity as so many of the younger generations are no longer being raised in church. One thing that came up often was having programming that embraces the Way of Jesus even if the language and stories are different. Maybe conversations with young people about what they need and want, how we can maybe help them discover something deeper, something we call God.
As I interact with people of all ages, experiences, traditions and invite them to UMA to speak with us or talk about them in a musing or from the pulpit, we are experiencing God’s love as witnessed in Jesus’ going out into the community of “others.” Building a larger community of God that is based on seeing all people as children of God, even those we may not understand or disagree with. To treat everyone with love, forgiveness, compassion, peace and joy that will overcome all the violence that humankind seems so prone to is the Kingdom (as we say in the UCC, Kindom) of God.
The seasons are a changing! The times are a changing!
Change is difficult, decisions about the future can be difficult, but let us continue at UMA to always travel through the difficulties of church, politics, life, or whatever it is that challenges us and maybe angers us, with the love of Christ always at the center so that we can work through things, come to a better understanding while always seeing the “other” as a beloved child of God the same as us.
As I pass into the Medicare era, I hope that I continue to be able to play like a kid or young adult, meet all kinds of people with all kinds of experiences so very different than my own, and serve and work with a congregation, council, committees and community with a love that sends us out into the world as Christ’s eyes, ears, hands and feet as best we can!
Peace and blessings to all!
Barb