The View from Bolton Street
E-Church 10:30am, 10/4
To join us, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!
Two tips for Zoom worship:
1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance.
2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together.
Join Zoom Meeting
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Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg
by Karen Mercer
(Photo Illustration by the Daily Beast)
“In the path of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” (Proverbs 12:28)
Eric Zellinski,D.C., a public health researcher and a pioneer in the Biblical public health arena, stated that “death is a five letter one syllable word that is the summation of all our fears. Regardless of age, race, gender, religion or status, death is inevitable. The thought of dying and not knowing what comes next has been one of life’s most profound mysteries. “
A few months ago when John Lewis died, Rachel, our E-Seminarian, was impacted as many of us were by his death. She talked about how much she was learning about his life and legacy even though she was not a witness to his significant parts of his life’s journey, she took the time to learn more about him. What a wonderful way to honor this civil rights icon.
On September 18, 61 days after the death of Congressman Lewis, here we are again; mourning the death of a person who has had such a phenomenal impact on our lives and history. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer, a woman-rights icon, a woman who continues to provide hope for young women everywhere in their quests to venture into corners of life that are sometimes unavailable to them.
The country’s response to our current loss is quite different than it was two months ago. Justice Ginsburg hadn’t been dead two hours before politicians and the media pivoted from her death to how it would impact our country in terms of the election and cases before the Supreme Court. This isn’t an unusual position for us; to be concerned about how someone’s death impacts “us;” it is natural. But shouldn’t we take a moment to remember and honor the life of this amazing woman?
It’s hard not go to the places of fear and anxiety in a time of uncertainty and grief. The disciples experienced the same at the death of Jesus. And Jesus attempted to prepare them when he said in John 16:20, “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. “ The disciples were grief-stricken and at the same time fearful of the future for themselves and Christianity. Our reactions are not new or abnormal, they are in fact human reactions.
Today, I encourage you to reach out to a young person who may not really know the accomplishments of Justice Ginsburg and share the stories of her life with them. Or reach out to a friend or colleague who may have forgotten the major impact that she has had on our lives as citizens and on the lives of women in particular. Read the stories about her life; not just as a public servant, but as a young woman who lost her mother before graduating from high school. Learn about her academic achievements; one of nine women in her class of 552 men at Columbia Law School and tying for first in that class. Learn about her role as wife and mother. What a way to give honor to this woman; learn who she was. Allow yourself to grieve the loss of another beautiful life that we were blessed to witness.
The future will take care of itself; for just a little while, let us honor the life of RBG. And never forget that just as God was with the disciples, God is and will be with us.
Amen.
E-Faith@8, 9/27
The Faith@8 group is continuing to meet during this time of social distancing. Join us for an informal, community led service with more questions than answers and an open spot for whoever appears. Just follow the Zoom link below!
Memorial Faith@8
Time: Sundays at 8:00AM Eastern
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E-Church 10:30am, 9/27
To join us, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!
Two tips for Zoom worship:
1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance.
2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together.
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 849 9200 1341
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Meeting ID: 876 9436 6639
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E-Faith@8, 9/20
The Faith@8 group is continuing to meet during this time of social distancing. Join us for an informal, community led service with more questions than answers and an open spot for whoever appears. Just follow the Zoom link below!
Memorial Faith@8
Time: Sundays at 8:00AM Eastern
Join Zoom Meeting here: https://zoom.us/j/6394994372
Meeting ID: 639 499 4372
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E-Church 10:30am, 9/20
To join us, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!
Two tips for Zoom worship:
1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance.
2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together.
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 849 9200 1341
Password: 563025
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Meeting ID: 876 9436 6639
Password: 729226
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdoU8Ii34Q
E-Faith@8, 9/13
The Faith@8 group is continuing to meet during this time of social distancing. Join us for an informal, community led service with more questions than answers and an open spot for whoever appears. Just follow the Zoom link below!
Memorial Faith@8
Time: Sundays at 8:00AM Eastern
Join Zoom Meeting here: https://zoom.us/j/6394994372
Meeting ID: 639 499 4372
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The View From Robert St.
Peter came and said to Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
There are times in our lives where our devotion to Christ is put to the test. And this passage from Matthew is certainly one for me. I am tired. I am tired of the lying. I am tired of the half truths. I am tired of putting profit over people. I am tired of the only measure of success being the % increase of the Dow Jones.
I am tired of the petty grievances and playing politics with people's health and well being. I'm tired of being told to stay above the fray. I am tired of forgiving and forgiving and forgiving and seeing things get worse and worse and worse.
I am tired of seeing everyone else do well and we continue to mess it up.
I feel like I'm long past forgiving 77 times. When does the clock run out on this?
And then I think about my own sins. The arrogance and hatred which infects my heart. The stress and worry I have let overtake me. My intolerance and frustration for people I love dearly. For the relationships I have let lie fallow. For the voices I haven't listened to. For my own stubbornness and pridefulness in the wake of a pandemic none of us really understand.
The Gospel this week is a tough one. Tough talk about forgiveness and about subservience. A lot of words we don't really want to hear. About slaves and masters. about debts and forgiveness. About anger and torture. About sin and us.
But at the root of this story is Grace, and not the prayer you say around the dinner table before you eat. Grace is a tough concept to explain but an image I like is the open loving arms of the Divine waiting for us to return the embrace. No matter what you have done or how far you've fallen or how angry and upset you are. Those arms are there. This is the Grace Christ offers to us no matter the debts we owe.
Over the next few days, weeks and months - there will be a lot of people looking for grace. some deserved, some undeserved. When they come to you -- how will you respond?
E-Church 10:30am, 9/13
To join us, all you need to do is click on the link below. We will have the order of service up on the screen to follow along. We recognize that all of us have different levels of comfort with technology - we will do our best to help everyone do what they need to feel comfortable and participate!
Two tips for Zoom worship:
1) Let us see your face! If at all possible, please start a video feed so we can see each other face to face, even across distance.
2) Please mute yourself unless you have a speaking role in the service. And if you find you are muted, please don’t unmute yourself unless asked. However - even when you are muted, please do respond to the prayers and readings, as we are all worshipping together.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84992001341?pwd=QUMvMFYzZU9HQkRLVmxISkVPRGlIQT09
Meeting ID: 849 9200 1341
Password: 563025
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Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 876 9436 6639
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The View From Robert St.
“What I Did On My Summer Vacation”
While the idea is popular, I’m not sure I actually ever had to answer the ultimate ‘back-to-school’ question while a student. And certainly I’ve had more productive and more adventurous summer breaks than August 2020. There was no international travel, no visits to exotic or interesting churches, no big parties, or summer concerts, no mission trips to Honduras or Colombia or Uganda. Instead I spent most of August entertaining a 4 year old and an 8 year old, struggling with keeping them engaged and not too upset about not seeing their friends or doing the things they wanted to do this summer, fixing things around the house and praying about what Jesus might have in store for us at Memorial and for my family. In the end, I continued to be amazed at how blessed we continue to be. We are both employed, we were able to spend a lot of time outside hiking and playing in the Chesapeake Bay, we were fortunate enough to to take a quick trip to the Mountains of North Carolina so the kids could see their cousins and grandparents.
I can’t say I came back rested, or ready, or sure about what the future holds. I won’t pretend to have it all ‘together’, or even being particularly stable! I, like all of you, have my moments of doubt, anxiety, worry and stress. Throughout the month I have kept this scripture close to my heart: “We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day…” As Americans we often feel immense pressure to solve problems, make a difference in the world, to ‘be the change we want to see in the world.’
But as Christians that is not what we are called to. We are called to do God’s work while it is light. Nothing more, nothing less. In a time when problems seem insurmountable, when solutions seem impossible, impractical or just too far off, this can be very liberating! It is not on me, or you, or anyone else to ‘fix it’ — all we have to do is do a little bit of God’s work.
While I was gone, it was heartening to see that so many of you were continuing to do the work of Jesus while it was light. In conjunction with St. Katherine’s you all worked on a back to school supply drive; you took significant steps in removing the plaques from the rear of the church and charting a path forward to replacing them; we submitted two significant racial reconciliation grants including one to develop an entirely new community counseling program for young black women impacted by COVID; you’ve developed new ministries to provide video visits to some of our members quarantined; and worked on a plan to make communion safe and accessible for all of us this fall.
This of course does not take into account all of the regular things you all continue to do in your personal lives in these most extraordinary times. I want to thank you for your continued service in doing God’s work and I look forward to joining back with you in that work this fall!