In Person Gatherings

Last night the One Board met and made the decision to allow church groups to begin hosting in-person meetings at the church at their discretion. That applies to Sunday school classes, fellowship groups, committees and teams and the scouts. You are still required to wear masks, and if you are meeting during the day we will still take your temperature and ask the four questions because of state requirements for the preschool.

We are going to leave it up to each individual group to make the decision that is right for them. I know one committee has already said they are going to stay online for a while longer, some of which is for convenience. But, I know that other classes have had people outside of Los Alamos participating, so would you go to a hybrid-model: some in-person some online? That’s for discussion in the group. We did expand and upgrade our wireless in the church and so connecting here should not be a problem. If you need some technical assistance please contact the church, and preferably several days in advance so we can get everything set-up and tested.

Additionally, some of you probably saw that the state has changed their guidelines for in-person worship to allow for 100% capacity in the sanctuary. Our sanctuary capacity is 376, and so we are not coming anywhere close to that. Last week we had 34 in attendance and that was one of the highest we have had for a while. Many people have told me that they are not returning to the sanctuary until they are vaccinated or until the vaccination rate is higher than it is at the moment (We are currently at 31%). I hope that our in-person attendance continues to increase with a plan of returning to two services as we get close to a critical mass for both times, but I leave it to where people feel comfortable and safe.

But, even with the new guidelines, for the moment, we are going to continue to leave the sanctuary as we have had it, which is with the left-hand side, as you look towards the altar, open and the right-hand side with social distancing markers in place. You can then choose to sit where you feel most comfortable.

I know that singing also continues to be a question, especially now that the schools are allowing for singing, with certain guidelines. One of those is to have a minimum of 9 feet distance between singers. The Hymn Society still recommends 12-14 feet. And those are all with masks on.  I am still hesitant to allow singing because it has been shown to be a super-spreader and we are inside for longer periods of time without great ventilation.

And just so you have some reference, if you wanted to sing in the congregation, you would need a minimum of three pews between you and the next closest person in front as each pew is 3 feet apart. Unless you come to the front row, in which case its 9 feet to the altar rail, and I always strongly encourage people to sit in the front row! If you would like to sing we also have opportunities for special music or even to lead hymns occasionally, just speak with Valerie.

As I said when we began plans to return to in-person worship last summer, I want to be as welcoming as we can and be as safe as we can. The last thing I want on my conscience is to have made a decision that leads to someone getting sick or even worse. Linda has gone back to work this week part-time after missing the last five months because of her Covid symptoms, with which she is still struggling. I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.

Our counts this month are continuing to be lower than last month, which were lower than the month before. I know we are getting close to some sense of “normal”, whatever that might look like, but we also don’t want to rush things and have another set-back.

And for those who are not yet ready to return, I hope you have been enjoying the upgrades to our streaming service. Each week we are discovering new things, and getting better, and I hope you have noticed the difference, and I would like to thank our expanding AV team who are doing such a great job!

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Isaiah 61:1-12 and Matthew 6:5-13:

Like many colleges and universities, especially on the East coast, Boston University, where I went to seminary, was originally founded in order to train clergy. They were known as the School of the Prophets, and at some point, the passage we heard from Isaiah this morning, or at least the first 2 verses, became the unofficial scripture passage of the school. And so in one of the stained glass windows, which is in the stairway between the first floor of the theology building and the library on the second floor, it says “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news.” But, at some point, someone edited the window by taping up a piece of paper that added the words, “to the poor.” The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because I have been anointed to preach good news to the poor.

That is the proclamation that Isaiah makes, and then it is also the proclamation that Jesus makes, because when he gives his first sermon in Luke, which happens immediately after the temptation story, when Jesus is offered all the kingdoms of the world if he will worship Satan, which he refuses, this is the passage that Jesus reads when he picks up the scroll from Isaiah. And I should also note this is the only time that Jesus quotes directly from scripture with it in front of him, it is the only time he gives what we would consider a regular sermon, and he doesn’t do it again because he learns his lesson as the people rise up against him because he says “today this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing” and so they attempt to kill him, but he escapes. I don’t think it is just coincidental that this is the message that Jesus reads, and we should pay special attention to what it means, because it is also in Luke that Jesus says just a few verses later, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God… for I was sent for this purpose.”

Director of Faith Development Update

There are lots of serious things happening that I should probably address, like the continued mass shootings or the guilty verdict yesterday in the Derek Chauvin trail, to name just a few. But on some of them I don’t know what to say anymore, and some I’m not sure what to say yet. And so I will talk about them at a later time.

So, today is a little lighter subject, and that is to bring you up-to-date on where we are in the process for hiring a new director of faith development.  We sent advertisements out to most of the United Methodist seminaries, along with some others that have UMC representation, as well as to the general church and the conference, and placed an ad with one national magazine.

So far we have received three applications, two from outside of New Mexico and one local. We hope to receive more and our application deadline is May 2. But, of those we have, all three have a Master of Divinity degree. One is ordained in the UCC, although was involved in the United Methodist Church before, and another is seeking ordination in the UMC. All are imminently qualified for the position.

I will be talking with all of them this week to get a sense of who they are, to talk about the position and the church and to see if they are someone we should move to the next step. That would be to have them interview with a larger group of members of the church that is being assembled by the Staff Parish Relations Committee. That group will then narrow the pool down to one, and we will invite them to come out to visit Los Alamos and the church hopefully around the middle of May.

During their visit we will set-up times for them to meet with different groups of people. Some of that will be in persona and some online, and then we will ask for more feedback if we think this person is a good fit for what we want them to do as well as whether they are a good fit for the church.

If they are a good fit, we would make them an offer with a potential start in June or July, depending on where they are coming from and their timeline in moving, if they need to. If, for someone reason, either side decides it’s not right, then we would reopen the position and advertise again. We hope that doesn’t have to happen.

If you know of someone who may be interested, please let them know that there is still time to apply. They can find a full job description on ourwebsite, and they should send a cover letter and resume to the office by May 2.

Our next update will be after interviews have been conducted. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please speak with me or with Geniece Courtright, the chair of SPRC.

Our Father Who Art in Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name

Here is my message from Sunday. The texts were Exodus 3:1-15 and Matthew 6:5-13:

Most of you know by now the importance that I place on prayer, including our expectation that everyone will engage in prayer at least once a day, although doing it even more than that is even better. That expectation is based not just on our membership vows that we will pray, but also that we have said that prayer is one of our core values as a congregation. Richard Rohr, who is a Franciscan priest and author, takes it a bit farther and has said that “The church that does not teach its people to pray has virtually lost its reason for existence.” And so when I recently asked for ideas that I might preach about, it wasn’t surprising that I had some people ask me to talk about prayer. Indeed, that is a perennial request from people, because although it appears to be easy to do, the fact is that praying can be hard. Now some of that, I think, is because we sometimes make prayer harder than it needs to be, or, worse, we compare our prayer lives or what we say against others and we find ourselves lacking. But, that’s nothing new, because the disciples have the same problem. And so in the gospel of Luke, we have an account in the 11th chapter that Jesus has gone off to pray, and when he is done, the disciples say to him “Lord, teach us to pray.” Apparently what they are doing in prayer doesn’t look like what Jesus is doing, and the result of that question is Jesus giving what has become known as the Lord’s prayer. And so we are going to be spending the next six weeks looking at the Lord’s prayer and what it teaches us not just about prayer, but also about God and what we are called to as disciples.

The Lord’s Prayer appears only in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and we are going to be primarily using Matthew’s version because it is closer to the prayer that we say at least once a week. In Matthew’s version, as we just heard, it is part of the Sermon on the Mount which is sort of a summation of Jesus’ teachings as well as instruction about the Kingdom of God, which, of course, plays a role in what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. And because it’s only found in Matthew and Luke, and not included in Mark and John, scholars believe that this prayer was originally recorded in a source known as Q, from the first letter of the German word for source, which is a document that we no longer have but which Matthew and Luke had access to. And because Matthew and Luke give different settings for where the Lord’s Prayer was taught, we don’t know how and where Jesus originally taught the prayer, and perhaps he even taught it multiple times in multiple places.

Returning to Singing

It seems like we are so close to many Covid restrictions being a thing of the past, and yet there are still so many unknowns including when some of them can be removed. While cases have remained low here, and more New Mexico counties are moving to green and then turquoise, we are seeing a fourth wave in other states, some of which had been bellwethers for increases around the country.

But, the good news is that vaccination numbers continue to increase, which, based on guidance we are receiving, impacts what we are able to do in worship. The Hymn Society still recommends against singing inside during worship because singing has been a super-spreader. What they have recently announced is that singing shouldn’t return until we are approaching or have reached “herd-immunity” by vaccination. According to the CDC, as of this morning, 21% of people in Los Alamos County are vaccinated, which includes nearly 50% of those over 65. Those numbers are slightly ahead of national figures. According to the Hymn Society we should be near, or above, 80% to return to singing.

I know that’s not what some of you want to hear, and believe me I understand. It’s nice to see people in worship, but I really missed booming voices singing out on Easter Sunday. But, I would rather err on the side of caution than make a mistake that can’t be undone. Linda is still dealing with the after effects of her Covid case. So we can perhaps see the light, but it’s still a ways off.

That also emphasizes the importance of getting vaccinated. Linda and I had our second shot the Friday before Palm Sunday, and I had my first meeting yesterday with others who were also vaccinated and so could do it without masks on, which was nice. I know there are concerns for some people, but if you have not yet registered to be vaccinated and plan to be, don’t delay. And if you need assistance in navigating the state’s site, or even access to a computer, please contact us and we will help. I can report that all of the church staff and most of the Ark staff have been vaccinated.

Which leads to one more issue that has been raised and that is returning to in-person meetings, including Sunday school. At the last One Board meeting we did discuss that as a possibility, but we made the decision to go at least one more month because we didn’t know what would happen with cases after spring break and Easter. So far, they have stayed down and we have had only five cases in April. (And I so “only” against the reality that we had 165 cases in January) The One Board will be discussing this again at our April meeting.

But, for those leading, or involved, in some of these groups, you should also begin to think about and talk about what this would mean for your group as there will still be some people who will not feel comfortable meeting in person, as well as for those that I know of who don’t live in Los Alamos but have been participating in some of these groups. Are you going to only stay online even if you can come back? Are you going to do a hybrid and how would that work? Will you only do in-person, and what does that mean? And there are probably some other special considerations for your group.

Walter Brueggemann, who is a theologian and Hebrew scripture scholar, sought to try and explain the life cycle of the Israelites, which is really about all of our lives, and so he postulated the idea of orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Orientation is really what we consider “normal”, whatever that might be. But, that doesn’t last forever. Something happens and we have disorientation, but that too won’t last forever, leading into reorientation which is us coming back to orientation and the new normal. There is no question that we have been disoriented in the past year, and so now the question is where we sit on this scale and what our new normal will look like.

I know it’s hard to keep doing some of the same things when the light at the end of the tunnel seems so close, but we also don’t want to ruin the progress we have made and slip backwards. So, to paraphrase Paul, we wait for the new normal with patience, and I thank you for your patience and understanding as we have sought to make the right decisions that will not only help us find a new normal but also to keep one another safe.

Easter: Celebration

Here is my message for Easter Sunday. The text was Mark 16:1-8:

On the day that Pope John Paul II died, he was greeted at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter, and is told that he has complete access to heaven and can go anywhere anytime that he likes, but first that God would like to meet him.  John Paul said he would love to do that, but wanted to know if heaven had a library.  Peter said, “Well of course,” and John Paul said “well there is something that I have been puzzling over for a long time and could never find a satisfactory answer in the Vatican’s archives, and so I wonder, before I go a meet God, could I go to the library first?” “Of course,” St. Peter replies, and so they head off to the library and the pope sits down to study. The and the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, and the months turn into years, as he continues to study, never coming out, never interacting with anyone else, and then one day, people hear a cry of anguish coming from one of the study tables.  When people rush over they find the Pope there, with a large book in front of him pointing to one line and crying out “there’s an r! There’s an r!  Look, there’s an r.  It says is celebrate not celibate!”

And so today we come to celebrate. As today is the foundational event of the church, and we are an Easter people. And it’s not just today, but traditionally every Sunday is seen as a little Sunday, a day of celebration on the first day of the week to celebrate God’s victory over death. To celebrate the freedom we find and have received in Christ. And once we understand what God has done for us through Christ. Once we understand what God’s love looks like and feels like and acts like and once we understand that there is nothing all in of creation that can separate us from that love and that God’s grace is freely given to us, then we shouldn’t have any response but celebration. And yet somehow we don’t. The church is not exactly known for having a celebratory nature or atmosphere, and we should probably ask why?

Gallows Humor

Here is my message from Maundy Thursday. The text was Romans 8:18-25, 31-39:

In the remarkable documentary Capturing the Friedmans, director Andrew Jarecki tells the story of the Friedman family of New York who get caught up in the preschool child molestation prosecutions, or we might say persecutions, of the 1980s. The father, Arnold, and later his son, Jesse, are both arrested and plead guilty to the charges that are made against them. But, the film does a great job in exploring the idea of justice and truth, and how the criminal justice system doesn’t always seek those things, and more importantly about the stories we make up and tell ourselves to justify the positions we have taken, even if the evidence doesn’t actually match what we say. But, there is one scene in the documentary, which consists of home movies the family took about their lives during this time, that hits home for today. Just before entering the courthouse for sentencing, the brothers are all standing outside the courtroom joking around with each other. The prosecutors witnessed this activity happening from a distance and said that it just proved their guilt, because if they were innocent they would not have laughing before this serious event taking place. In other words, their view of the issue impacted how they saw and interpreted what was happening. But in response to that accusation, one of the brothers said obviously the prosecutor had never heard of gallows humor, the humor we have when things appear desperate or even hopeless. The humor we have at times when we have to laugh otherwise we would have to cry.

Since today is also April fool’s day, it got me thinking about that film and the idea of humor in dark situations, and it made me wonder if there was any gallows humor on this night in Jesus’ life. On the surface it doesn’t appear to be so, it’s all pretty serious, at least according to our accounts.  And yet, I have to imagine that there had to have been something happening, not only because we tell jokes in situations like this just to cut the tension, but also because of the traditions of Judaism, after all it’s not like Jewish comedians are a rare thing. I think some of this comes about, and the plethora of Jewish comics, comes about because there is something about suffering that leads to humor. I think that’s why there is such a strong comedic tradition in black culture in our country as well. Suffering leads to humor. If you look at the background of many comedians, not all, but many, you’ll find some tragic events that have occurred in their history that have led them to tell jokes, because the alternative was to break down. Stephen Colbert’s father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash and he said it became his job to make his mother laugh. Indeed, the whole reason Jarecki came upon the story of the Friedmans was because he was doing a documentary on children’s party clowns in New York City, and David Friedman was one of the best. Suffering leads to humor.