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A word for weary parents: God is with us in the pandemic

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This summer we have instituted the Friday Funday breakfast picnic. Typical summers, my daughter and I are both off on Friday and we have Friday Funday — because, let’s be honest, Sunday Funday doesn’t work when mom is the pastor. This year, like most of you, we are finding new ways to have fun. She is a nature lover, so we have been exploring different places while we eat breakfast and I hear all about what happens in her mind. We have baked muffins. We have traveled dirt roads I did not know my car could handle, and now have a hiking bag to take with us full of useful stuff. I sometimes post pictures of our adventures, and recently a friend commented, “You have the most fun adventures!” Pandemic be damned, I will be making memories with this beloved child of mine all summer long. It gives us a sense of normalcy. Yet, what I didn’t post after our latest adventure, was that on the way home we decided to listen to a Christmas CD and had Christmas in July — in pandemic time there … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COVID19

The Spirit at work in the pandemic

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Pentecost is one of my favorite celebrations of the church year. There is just something about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all her marvelous ways that gets me excited. Perhaps it is because I am learning what it means to be led by the Spirit and trust that God works in those holy moments. On Pentecosts past, I have welcomed confirmands or thrown a birthday party for the church complete with cupcakes in worship. It is a time when that Spirit breath blows into my creativity and I run with it. This Pentecost was different. I had hoped to be back to worshipping in person, but instead we were worshipping via livestream. I did not have a confirmation class to welcome, nor a congregation to share cupcakes with. Something new wanted to happen here. It turns out the world in all its brokenness would show me something new. As we celebrated the birthday of the church universal, I pondered: What does it mean to be the church in the world today? This pandemic could have easily … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COVID19

Connecting during coronavirus

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In seminary we often talked about being a “connectional church.” This means that none of us are an island — not pastors, not churches, not individuals. We have a profound theological understanding that we are better together. In fact, we are called to be together. We see this play out in our polity in a variety of ways. It is very apparent in the way we govern. Pastors and elders work together to lead the church. Churches work to form, govern and fellowship together as presbyteries. Then we move on to the synods and the General Assembly where the whole church gathers to worship and to govern. During Holy Week, in the midst of this pandemic, I was given a tremendous gift to partner with other churches for two online worship services. On Maundy Thursday, I teamed up with several other Presbyterian pastors from the area and through the wonders of technology we led worship together. On Good Friday, I worked with my Episcopal and Methodist colleagues in town to lead the brief time of … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COVID19

Incarnation all around us

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Incarnation. My first thought when I hear this word is “the Word made flesh.” God taking on a human body in the form of Jesus. “Westminster Theological Dictionary” defines it like this: “The doctrine that the eternal second Person of the Trinity became a human being and ‘assumed flesh’ in Jesus of Nazareth. … The doctrine holds that Jesus was one divine person with both a divine and a human nature.” We could then define incarnation in one word: Jesus. What does that word – “incarnation” – mean for me?  For you?  It is a big deal in the study of theology, and yet there is only one Jesus. As I think about this word, this theological concept, I can’t help but think about our own relationship to the incarnation. I do not mean this in the way that we profess Jesus as savior but in the way we embody our own faith. People are curious about how we see God among us so much so there are books, songs and movies created about the idea of what it looks like to see God in the here and now. In … [Read more...]

Praying through a pandemic

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Last week I posted a picture of the inside of my refrigerator on the internet for all the world to see. This morning I dove to shut my bedroom door as I was getting dressed and my kiddo almost showed my nearly naked body to her fourth-grade class on a video call. Here in New Jersey we are halfway through week four of distance learning and trying to work from home. We are in week three of a shelter-in-place order from the governor with no end date in site. The list of places we can leave the house and go to is shrinking daily. Some local hiking trails had to be closed because social distancing wasn’t happening. It is, of course, entirely frustrating and entirely necessary because we humans are always trying to find loopholes in the rules just to see each other. We are all missing some forms of human contact. We were made to be in community and relationship! For us churchgoers, the novelty of going to church online has worn off and we are longing to sing together, to hug each … [Read more...]

Tagged With: COVID19

Lenten practices

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As Lent approaches, I often feel torn between ramping up our opportunities at church and embracing the quiet of this season. In the weeks leading up to Lent, I’ve had a stack of books on my desk — any of which could potentially be our Lenten study. Over the years I have approached Lent in different ways, sometimes I gave things up, some times I have taken things on, sometimes I just try to make it through. I did not grow up in the church, but heard my Catholic friends talk about giving something up for Lent. Once I was involved in the life of the church, I learned that Presbyterians could do this too, as it is a season of fasting. Early in my faith life I gave up a series of things, some more outlandish than others — like the time I tried to give up worrying. (Spoiler alert: I failed.) I gave up shopping for things other than food one Lent. (This was not a terrible practice, but you may want to make sure you are stocked up on deodorant before you start.) As my faith grew, I began … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Lent

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