Good Morning UMA Members and Friends,
First I need to make a correction to the prayers. Dixie asks for prayers for her two nieces, Cindy and Carol. Carol is having a biopsy this week, and her sister Cindy is moving to NY with her two dogs, she is leaving today. It is a blessing that Dixie is there to care for Carol but also stressful. Many prayers for all.
And prayers of fun and safe travels for Sandy and John who are in Washington for the week and travelling back to day. Continued prayers for Willis.
Prayers of fun and safe travels for Kathy and Jim Chase as they prepare for a trip to Florida!. And prayers for Kathy’s father, Dan who is in a nursing home and dealing with some health issues as well as dementia
Prayers for Scott and Lori.
The sharing of our prayers, our concerns and our joys is an important aspect of being church together, Knowing that people care about what is happening in our lives, and miss us when we travel is a comfort for many. It has been so lovely sharing them in the Social Room in person these past couple of months, the support, compassion and love that is shared is palpable! Our visitors last week remarked on the wonderful energy in the congregation and how welcoming it was to be worshipping with us. They attend another church but perhaps they will join us more often.
And now for the Musing 
This past Sunday’s Gospel reading was from John. It is a story found in all four Gospels, Jesus gets incredibly angry with the money changers in the temple. The original temple built by Moses as per God’s direction was destroyed. This second temple was built with Caesar’s blessing but it did not have the Ark of the Covenant, the most important part of the temple in the Jewish tradition as that is where God is. Instead people were exchanging Roman money for sacrificial animals. He turns tables and throws all the animals out. This is not our sweet baby Jesus, this is a very angry man. He then declares that he is the final sacrifice and will be raised up as the new Temple. Jesus was so furious because Caesar’s laws had become the most important thing in the Temple, not God’s laws.
We all come to church seeking different ways to connect with God, some of us love to sing in the choir, some love to listen to the organ, the familiar hymns, the beautiful anthems, others feel connected by the rituals, the sharing of Christ’s body and blood, some come hoping to hear a good sermon that speaks to them and sometimes they do, and some just enjoy the fellowship of people seeking to love one another as we were commanded by God. There is no right or wrong reason. But hopefully for that hour on Sunday we find something that helps us to better connect to God, and God’s law to accept and love one another as shown and taught to us by Jesus our Christ.
But being a Follower of the Way of Jesus, a Christian, isn’t something that magically happens to us in church for that one hour. Church is the place where we are refreshed, where we come to be reminded to be Christ’s ears, eyes, hands and feet, as I said on Sunday, it’s one of the places where we can be open to the Spirit and experience, what the Celts call, the “thin places” where the material world meets the spiritual world. But there are other places where we experience the thin places…..
If you haven’t been to one of our Book Discussions, Arthur’s seminars, opportunities to learn about other faith traditions, or any of the numerous events we have that can deepen our faith, our understanding, our own articulation of what the Bible, God, Jesus say to us as individuals, I would invite you to join us! It helps us to discover more of those thin places in our daily lives.
Some of us may also experience the thin places by hugging a tree, painting a picture, taking a hike in the woods, nurturing a plant and seeing it blossom – there are many places in our lives where the line between is blurred and we experience God, or as theologian Paul Tillich says, Ultimate Reality or Ultimate Mystery..
As you have probably heard we had another wonderful event for young people in partnership with Create Kindness and the Library at the church. We had s’mores, arts and crafts, as well as Rik and G-Quan whom you likely read about in the prayers or heard about on Sunday, and some of you attended and witnessed it for yourselves! There was such great joy and love in the church, much like our Sunday mornings but with words, music and movement that young people can relate to that helps them discover the thin places, that help them discover the Way of Jesus – the Way of kindness, love, acceptance and joy.
There is a whole new world developing with AI and all that goes with it, some good and some bad, but people will still need to experience the thin places, the connections with others, the words of wisdom that transcend time and space; may UMA continue to be that place even if it looks different as the new generations grow and seek wholeness.
May we continue to learn from Jesus that the money changers are not the Ark, it is the people and the message of love and acceptance, the thin places that are of God.
May the Peace and Wisdom of the Risen Christ be with you all,
Barb