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Week of Compassion Offering
Feb.21 and Feb.28
Every February, we lift up the Disciples of Christ ministry that we share with all Disciples churches through the Week of Compassion offering. Our congregations together help those in need around the world. These places include providing water in Kenya, providing food in war-torn Nicaragua, and helping with storm recovery in North and South Carolina.
You may give to the Week of Compassion two ways:
~ Send your offering to our church with Week of Compassion in the memo,
~Give online at www.weekofcompassion.org
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To Spur Your Thought, Your Prayer, Your Action
“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”
--- Helen Keller
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Tom’s Turn - Lent After a Year of Lent
Actually that title’s not true - Lent after a year of Lent. It does capture the seriousness of the various crises that have been our lot since last Easter. Pandemic as we in the United States have never experienced the term; nearly half a million deaths from a virus we had hardly heard of last February; race raised in our minds in a way and to a degree that some think we might finally actually do something about it; economy thrown into recession and jobs and businesses gone away; election – well, we all know how that went; and an attack on the Capitol by those desiring to keep the incumbent in power; and another impeachment; and now the beautiful snow, oh, accompanied by record low temperatures and power blackouts wrought by unprepared… well, all of us are pretty unprepared.
We have done plenty of soul-searching this year. Have we not? How do we balance jobs and social distancing? What’s the trade-off between open schools and closed ones? Are we ever going to pay attention to what the globe itself is telling us? Can I really stand my family when we’re together this much? And what of all the self-examination and judgment that just goes along with terms like white privilege, black lives matter, social responsibility, to mask or not to mask, Antifa, Proud Boys, and carbon footprint. We have friends that have gone to God without us being able to say goodbye. There are memorial services still to be had and the consequent families left hanging in grief unassuaged by the normal deep hugs of friends, family, church. Church itself has worked and hasn’t worked all at the same time.
Yes, it has been twelve months of soul-searching, assessment and consciousness of our sin, brokenness and pain. Lent is a season of all those things. So it has been a year of Lent to that extent. But Lent is more than those things. Lent is also penitence. The soul-searching and consciousness, or as they say in AA, that “fearless and thorough moral inventory,” – that’s supposed to lead to change, to decisions to be different and make a difference. That’s the penitence part of Lent.
Have we done that?
With all the kvetching of this last year, with all the need for change staring us so squarely in the face, have we really taken the penitential step? In the tent meetings of the old days we called it conviction and turning one’s life to the model of Jesus. Have we been convicted?
For some, I sure hope the answer is yes. But my fear is that for us as a people the answer is no, maybe capital NO. That’s why I’m not sure this has truly been a year of Lent.
Maybe during this season of Lent we can change that.
I’ll see you online next Sunday morning. Please remember to share any of our worship, devotionals, Bible studies, and so forth on your social media pages. Share the Good News with your smile – and your mask! To prepare for worship Sunday read Mk. 1.9-15.
Peace, Tom
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