Category: Video

Hi, Friends:

I’m so excited to start Lent with all of you this Sunday. Below I’m reposting my “three ways to get ready” from last week. Before you read that and mark your calendar, here are three other things I want you to know.

I was blessed to be able to get my first dose of COVID vaccine this weekend. I was bringing my elderly mother-in-law for her first shot, at a clinic where my mother works part-time. Because I am an immediate family member of an employee there, they allowed me to be vaccinated as well. Though my shoulder was sore for two days, I am so thankful for the opportunity to participate in our public health fight to protect us all and restore a more normal public life again. While all vaccines are personal medical decisions, of course, I do encourage you to go ahead and get vaccinated whenever you are able and it is your turn, as our collective, timely participation in the vaccine campaign will help us all!

One of our church partners, Asha, has done the most extraordinary public health work throughout the pandemic. Drs. Jean and John Peteet, who have both been to India with me to consult for and partner with Asha, are co-authors on a great paper highlighting what Asha has been doing over the past year. I encourage you to give it a look. As one part of our Beloved Community commitment to radical generosity, Reservoir gives 10% of our church tithes and offerings to partner ministry and organizations. Asha is one of our five leading partnerships, so everytime you give to Reservoir, you give a little bit to Asha as well. 

Yesterday, we told Reservoir parents, caregivers, and children’s and youth teams that our pastor Kim Messenger who oversees our whole kids and youth ministry, will resign from her position at the end of December. Kim has done fabulous work for us over the past decade for which we are so grateful. She has decided, though, to move toward a lifestyle of less public church ministry and fewer weekend leadership commitments. Yesterday, I shared with our parents and kids teams more extensively about my appreciation for Kim, and our process for ensuring we preserve and grow our kids and youth ministry in the months and years to come. As more details come together, I’ll share them with you all in this space as well. Meanwhile, please pray for Kim, our kids and parents, and Reservoir leadership as we appreciate Kim’s years of service and navigate this transition.

And lastly, a reminder of three ways to prepare this week for Lent!

1. Put three dates in your calendar please! 

• Plan on being at our online church service on Zoom on Sunday, February 14th, at 10:00 a.m. During the sermon I’ll introduce the season, which continues each Sunday until Easter. As usual, we upload our service to YouTube and our website after they are over, if another time or platform is preferable for you.
• Also this weekend starting Friday, plan on when you’ll pick up your “Lent in a bag” from us. It will have a paper copy of the season’s Bible guide and several objects which will be part of the spiritual practices we invite you to throughout the season. You can also pick up a bag for a friend or ask someone to pick one up for you. And if you need us to drop one off or mail one to you, please fill out this form.
• If you are able, join us for a very short online Ash Wednesday service, on Zoom on Wednesday, February 17th at 7:00 p.m.

2. Let us know if you’re grieving the loss of a friend or a loved one who has passed away, whether their death was this year or sometime last year. At our Ash Wednesday service 2/17, we will remember in prayer people we love who have died in recent months. When a pastor places ashes on our head at the start of Lent (or this year, when we place them on our own heads), we are remembering our weakness and mortality – that we sin and that we die. And we are asking God for forgiveness for our sin, and also for courage to follow Jesus with hope in these short lives of ours. We find it fitting this year to also remember our grief on this occasion. If you are grieving the loss of a loved one this year, send their name and date of death to Kim Messenger – kim@reservoirchurch.org.
3. Begin to consider what is most important to you this year, as well as any ways you may have forgotten who you are. We’ll be guided  in this theme during Lent by some of the Bible’s prophets, who speak of issues very relevant in our lives and society. Three quotations from Jerome Berryman, founder of Godly Play, have guided me in recent months as I’ve been preparing for this season:

  “Prophets are people who come so close to God, and God comes so close to them, that they know what is most important.”  We hope this Lent to lean toward God and to discover or rediscover what is most important. 

“Prophets are people who know the most important things. They know which way to go. They are the ones who show us the way.” Our church doesn’t try to define what should be most important for all of us; we don’t tell you exactly which way to go. But we believe that as we lean toward God in prayer and listen to the prophets, the Spirit of God will be our teacher and guide and show us each some of what is most important as well as show us the way forward. 

“Sometimes people forget who they are. They hide from God and pretend God isn’t there.” 
 

Peace,

Steve

Our season of Lent begins in two weeks. Let me share a few simple ways you can get ready to participate. 

1. Put three dates in your calendar please! 

• Plan on being at our online church service on Zoom on Sunday, February 14th, at 10:00 a.m. when during the sermon, I’ll introduce the season, which continues each Sunday and each week thereafter until Easter. As usual, we always upload our service to YouTube and to our website after they are over, if another time or platform is preferable for you.
• Also that weekend, plan on picking up your Lent in a bag from us (see dates, times, and locations in Lent announcement below). It will have a paper copy of the season’s Bible guide and several objects which will be part of the spiritual practices we invite you to throughout the season. You can also pick up a bag for a friend or ask someone to pick one up for you. And if you need us to drop one off or mail one to you, please fill out this form.
• If you are able, join us for a very short online Ash Wednesday service, on Zoom on Wednesday, February 17th at 7:00 p.m.

2. Let us know if you’re grieving the loss of a friend or a loved one who has passed away, whether their death was this year or sometime last year. Send their name and date of death to Kim Messenger – kim@reservoirchurch.org. At our Ash Wednesday service, we will remember in prayer the people we love who have died in recent months. When a pastor places ashes on our head at the start of Lent (or this year, when we place them on our own heads), we are remembering our weakness and mortality – that we sin and that we die. And we are asking God for forgiveness for our sin, and also for courage to follow Jesus with hope in these short lives of ours. We find it fitting this year to also remember our grief on this occasion.
3. Begin to consider what is most important to you this year, as well as any ways you may have forgotten who you are. We’ll be guided this Lent by some of the Bible’s prophets, who speak of issues very relevant in our lives and society. Three quotations from Jerome Berryman, founder of Godly Play, have guided me in recent months as I’ve been preparing for this season.

 “Prophets are people who come so close to God, and God comes so close to them, that they know what is most important.”
We hope this Lent to lean toward God and to discover or rediscover what is most important. 

“Prophets are people who know the most important things. They know which way to go. They are the ones who show us the way.”
Our church doesn’t try to define what should be most important for all of us; we don’t tell you exactly which way to go. But we believe that as we lean toward God in prayer and listen to the prophets, the Spirit of God will be our teacher and guide and show us each some of what is most important as well as show us the way forward. 

“Sometimes people forget who they are. They hide from God and pretend God isn’t there.”
Lent is an opportunity to explore the intersection of finding ourselves and finding God again. 

One part of Reservoir’s vision for becoming the Beloved Community is empowering wholeness, love, and justice in people and communities, promoting whole life flourishing. Lent is a season where we focus together on our relationship with God and invite God to grow that wholeness, love, and justice within each of us. I look forward to sharing this season together.

Peace,

Steve

Hi, Friends:

Each year, in the weeks before Easter, our church embarks on a season of spiritual formation called Lent. We open some time and attention to look reflectively at our lives, to welcome God’s guidance and teaching, and to see what growth may come of that. For centuries, Jesus followers have marked this period of anticipation for Easter through prayer, fasting, and giving. It’s one of my favorite times of year in our church’s life together. 

This year’s Lent, we will be guided by some of our ancient tradition’s most impassioned and most obscure voices, known as the minor prophets. In the Christian Bible, there are 12 minor prophets. They are called “minor” not because they are unimportant, but because the collections of their writings are shorter. We’ll read bits of several of these prophets together. I’ll share a little more about them over the next couple of weeks. 

The past year of our lives has been overwhelming at times. So much is changing, so much is being revealed, so much has come undone. Some of us have regrounded during this season; we’ve been discovering again what is most important. Others of us are unmoored; we’ve lost touch with what is most important and we’re not sure how to find our way forward. Most of us are hanging on, waiting and hoping for better days to come. This season of Lent will be a time to lean in toward God in faith, listen to the prophets, and let the Spirit of God reground each of us in what we and God consider to be most important.  

Our Sunday services from February 14th through Easter will focus on this material. Many of our community groups will discuss the guide for the season. To help you in your personal engagement, our staff team is preparing materials that will be ready for pickup the weekend of February 14th. These will include a printed copy of a daily guide as well as several other objects and reminders of recommended spiritual practices. We’ll share more details the next two Sundays and in the next two weekly newsletters as well. 

During Lent, in addition to our community groups, we’ll offer an Introduction to Spiritual Direction class. Spiritual direction is a way of listening to God, yourself, and others that opens up greater interior freedom and space for the movement of God.

If you’ve wondered how to deepen your relationship with God and also be impactful in the world around you, this class might be for you. Guided by Jesus and a myriad of contemporary voices, you’ll explore how generous listening can usher in healing and a greater sense of belonging to yourself, one another, and God. This class will require a commitment of attendance, reading, contemplative spiritual practices, and practicums of one-on-one and group spiritual direction. All 8 sessions will be held on Sundays from 1:00-3:00 p.m., from February 14th through May 23. RSVP via Eventbrite, by February 11th. One of our pastors Ivy Anthony will lead this class, along with a great team of spiritual directors and directors-in-training in our church: Naomi Boase, Stephanie Choo, Josh Davis, Vernee Wilkinson and Cate Nelson.

Peace,

Steve

Members and friends of the Reservoir Church community,

For many reasons, we don’t put out statements about most contemporary events. But given the level of shock, fear, and outrage many have experienced this week, as our senior pastor, I wanted to share a part of my own reaction. There are three ways I see this week’s events in our capital, as they connect to our faith and our community.

Last Gasps of a Failed Presidency
In November, President Trump was lawfully, democratically voted out of office. Though he and his supporters have fought those results and defied all democratic norms of peaceful transition of power, their time is up. Wednesday’s failed violent coup attempt is the expression of anti-democratic, white nationalist terrorism, aided and abetted by a failed presidency and the Christians who have continued to support it, even in its resentment-stoked, narcissistic dying gasps. Most of us as children were taught what it means to not be a sore loser. Many of us learned that when we fail, we should take a long, hard look in the mirror and see how we need to change. Some very powerful people and forces in this country have never learned these lessons. Regardless, one way or another, this presidency is over in the next two weeks.

A Tragic and Dramatic Failure of Christianity in White America
As a Christian, and as an ordained minister of the good news of Jesus, it has been important for me to publicly rebuke the words and actions of Donald Trump over these last five years. One reason that is so is that so many Christians and so many white Christians in particular have continued to back this man. In 2016, the majority of white Christians of all the major American Christian traditions voted for Trump. In 2020, 80% of white American evangelicals voted for his reelection. Prominent Christian leaders have “prophesied” and prayed in support of Trump’s power, policies, and presence. While it’s easy to focus on and point the finger at Donald Trump, many of us have some complicity in the brokenness and troubles of this nation we should reflect on. While our church has moved forward and beyond this world, the white-dominated evangelical renewalist cultures that our church was founded within in the 1990s have supported a form of faith in public life that is utterly unprophetic: that ignores racial and economic injustice, that denies science, that loves power and privilege, that is cruel to opponents of their ideology, and that stokes the resentments that fueled Wednesday’s sedition. I believe that Christians, and particularly white Christians in America, have a responsibility to bear a different public witness to the true good news of Jesus. For so many of you – people of color as well those whose religious and cultural background isn’t Christian, this form of faith hasn’t grown in your gardens. And it has in some cases only marginalized you and done you harm. I am so sorry.

One of the best ways I know to live faithfully in response to the troubles of Christianity in America is to week after week, both personally and as one member of the Reservoir community, do our best to prayerfully live and teach a gospel of faith, hope, and love, of justice, healing, and renewal, as we will continue to do.

Further Revelation of Old, Deep Needs for Repentance and Healing
Wednesday’s violence in our Capitol took place on January 6th. In some parts of the Christian world, that is Christmas. In others, it is Three Kings Day. And in many, it is called Epiphany, the day of God’s appearing. All of this Christmas season celebration that traditionally culminates on this day is about revelation. God reveals the depth of God’s love and solidarity with humanity by becoming one of us. The Magi reveal the deep significance of Jesus by worshipping him as a king. Among the other things that happened on Wednesday is that more of the troubled and violent fabric of our nation and ourselves has been revealed. We are a violent nation. We are a racist nation. We are a troubled nation. We aren’t only these things, of course. We are more than that. Yet we are still these things. The worst aspects of this country’s founding sins of racism and violence still trouble us deeply.

All of these troubles are of course so large, much bigger than any one person or any one church. If you need to take a break from the news or just rest or hydrate or take a walk or call a friend, do all those things. Additionally, let’s join together in praying for a peaceful transition of power this month in our nation. Let’s also pray for this country, whether we are citizens or residents or just passing through. America still needs deep movements of repentance, reconciliation, and healing. And let’s redouble our efforts locally to form a community of love and justice and renewal, a church that bears witness to good news of the love of Jesus, the gift of community, and the joy of living for all people. Let us be and grow the Beloved Community among us, in hopes and prayers that God will empower much larger efforts to do the same across this nation and world.

Much Love,

Steve.

Hi, Friends,

Happy New Year! One of my kids showed me a meme that said we are now living in a year whose name tells us 2020-won. Get it?!? I’m going to go old time religion here, though, and curse that gloomy outlook of despair. This year, as with all years and all times, God is with us to together walk into a year of possibility for love, life, joy, and justice. 

As Ivy shared in Sunday’s spiritual practice – which featured this beautiful rendition of and visual response to Auld Lang Syne – may what sustained us last year carry us in this one. And may we see the many new opportunities God gives us for faith, hope, love, and freedom in the year to come!

Additionally, let me celebrate your generosity as a congregation one more time.  In the final week of 2020, you made additional year end gifts to the ministry of Reservoir Church, so that we will end last year above budget. Given the rocky year we had, that feels like its own miracle and puts us in a good position to continue online ministry in 2021 and also prepare for more in-person ministry, worship, and community together. 

You also gave $20,000 last month to our Neighboring and Justice fund, which enables us to launch our Beloved Community Fund with sufficient resources to bless many individuals and families this year. 

Last week, Reservoir Church also received thanks and praise from several partners in public life. The American Red Cross thanked us for surpassing 30 blood drives and nearly 1000 donations of blood in 2020. That included a visit from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and First Lady Lauren Baker, who both donated at Reservoir this past weekend. The City of Cambridge election commission also thanks and appreciates our church for serving as a polling location for two election days this year as well. And Greater Boston Interfaith has extended appreciation for Reservoir’s engagement in legislative accomplishments on public safety reform and health care equity and access. 

This Sunday, I look forward to speaking with you all as we start a winter Sunday mini-series in the parables, called “Stories Jesus Tells Us.” I hope to see you there at 10:00 on Zoom or anytime later over YouTube. 

Let me know if there are ways I can be praying for you, friends. It’s a joy to do so. 

Peace,

Steve

Part 6 and the last in my series this year which asks, “Why Did Jesus Die?”

Why was God so invested in humanity that God became one of us, born a child in Bethlehem? Why was God so committed to life on this little planet of ours that God entered into the story as a poor, Jewish child in a backwater town, on the Eastern edge of the ancient Roman empire? The shortest and oldest answer to this question is God became like us, so we could become like God.

During Lent this past winter, I began a series of six reflections on the question: Why did Jesus die? Shockingly, as the coronavirus shut down set in, I never finished! While that feels like 9 years, not 9 months ago, Christmas seemed a great time to finish the series, as the last entry is all about the incarnation: God taking on a body, becoming a human being like you and me. 

To sum up where we were during Lent, way back last winter:

• I began this six part series saying that many of us aren’t sure how to explain why Jesus died to ourselves, let alone anyone else. I suggested that whether we have our own children or not, if we are to practice a faith we’d hope we could transmit to a future generation, it would help if we could explain why Jesus died to a child of any age, and to do so clearly, confidently, and gladly. 
• Next we were encouraged to practice some perspective and humility when we think about who God is to us in Jesus. After all, the New Testament has dozens of metaphors and images to help us think about sin, grace, salvation, and the meaning of the life and death of Jesus.
• Our third entry looked at the intersection of the cross on which Jesus died and the great pains of our lives and history, especially America’s closest equivalent to the Roman cross, which is the lynching tree on which so many African American innocents were killed. A God who died on the cross suffers with us, in solidarity with injustice and pain.
• Next we looked at the emerging field of scapegoat theory, and how that helps us reinterpret the sacrificial language for Jesus’ death. People, from ancient times through today, have been so addicted to scapegoating, looking for other people and groups to blame for our problems. In dying as a scapegoat, God upends that whole story, commanding respect and sympathy for innocent victims and encouraging a more just, peaceful, and whole humanity.
• And before I lost track of it, our second to last entry discussed how God looks like Jesus. Jesus died to cut through the pile of rumor and report of all we have thought about God, and to show us what God is like: self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love. 

This Christmas, we finish with the final thought in this series. God became like us, so that we could become like God.

This was first written by the second century pastor Iranaeus, born in Turkey, but later bishop of Lyons, in modern day France. He wrote, “The Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, through his transcendent love, became what we are, that he might bring us to be even what he is himself.” Other founding fathers and mothers of the faith echoed this sentiment in the centuries to come. They were responding to scriptures in the New Testament that speak to the transformative significance of God becoming a human being in the person of Nazareth, as well as scriptures that speak of the exalted future of humankind: becoming heirs of all God has with Christ, being transformed from glory to glory, and the like.

In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, this teaching has become central doctrine. It is often labelled the doctrine of deification or divinization: the divine destiny of human beings in Christ Jesus. Just as we were all created in God’s image – people who would in particular ways have the character, authority, and beauty of the living God – God will fully restore that image through this life and beyond the grave in the life to come. With God’s help, we will again be like God. 

For modern people who find this language of deification or divinization foreign or off-putting, another way of stating the same concept is to call this the doctrine of our new humanity. With God’s help, we will again become fully human, our own unique selves fully infused with the love and wisdom of God. With the help of God, we will be the full measure of who we were meant to be. 

How does this work, though? How does one human who lived so very long ago have anything to do with the exalted destiny of you and me and the whole human race? 

Well, it is more of a mystery than a formula. But the life and teaching of Jesus indicates at least two ways we can ponder how this can be so.

First, there is the cosmic, historical dimension. Jesus was every bit the real person that we are. He had the same complex, glorious, and sometimes embarrassing digestive system we do. He bled when he fell, cried when sad, laughed when amused. He had favorite foods and people. All the things. But Jesus’ best friends and his biographers, and the many followers and scholars of his life that followed insisted that he was more than just this, that in his life, they saw the love and kindness and power and wisdom of God. Christian theologians have a formula to describe this complexity; they say Jesus was fully human and also fully divine. 

As a result, we say things like God took on a body, was made incarnate. We say God spoke through Jesus. We say that when Jesus was executed, God died on that cross. For those of us that believe Jesus expressed a unique human-divine union, what this means is that God has brought all the limits and sins and mortality of humanity into God’s nature. And God has brought the boundless love and life and immortality that is God’s into our nature. 

I call this a cosmic, historical dimension because it is cosmic: it is a big, sweeping spiritual mystery you cannot prove or disprove, but can believe if you’re so inclined. And it is historic: it is something God has done in human history that has opened up new possibilities for our current connection with God and our post-mortem union with God. 

So that’s all pretty high level mystery. But there is a persuasive dimension to this as well. Jesus told his disciples: you are my friends, not my servants, because I have shared everything with you. And then he also told them: you are my friends, if you do what I have commanded, which is to love one another as I have loved you. It’s a particular friendship into which that Jesus invited his 1st century best friends, as well as all friends of Jesus to come. Listen to what I have to say, learn what God is like through me, and love as I love. That will make you friends of God. It will change you. It will make you, in your own unique way, like me. 

This is a more down to earth picture of divinization, or walking into our full humanity: learning to be a friend of God, by following the ways of Jesus, and seeing over time what we become. 

In the same place we read Jesus speaking about love and friendship (John 13-17), Jesus says that this is not work we have to do alone. Jesus says we will not be alone because the One-who-comes-alongside will be with us. This word in Greek is “paraclete.” It often means an advocate – one who represents or defends. It can also mean a consoler or counsel – one who comes alongside to aid and comfort. Jesus says God in invisible form, what we call Holy Spirit, will be there for us in these ways to continue to woo us, to encourage us, and to give us strength and help to listen to Jesus, to follow his ways, and to become the God-infused, fully human version of ourselves. 

This is why Jesus lived and this is why Jesus died, God becoming like us, so that we can become like God.

This Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, I hope we all can remember and welcome this intention of God for us. To show us what God is like, to join us in our story, and to invite us to join God in God’s story in and for and through us too. 

The Beloved Community Fund is a resource that will support individuals within Reservoir’s community by

• Connecting them to short-term financial assistance
• Connecting them to longer-term resources and networks within, and beyond Reservoir Church.

At Reservoir we seek to provide avenues of joy, hope, wholeness, and vitality through human relationship in community, and the beloved community fund will be no exception to this.

Therefore, the Beloved Community Fund’s scope will go beyond just financial need, and offer access to human connection and empowerment via all that our beloved community has to offer.  Over the next few months, the beloved fund committee will focus on building a human network of financial, mental, spiritual and physical health resources.  As we seek to live out the words of I John 3:11, “for this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”

To fill out a form to start a conversation about your need or someone you’d like us to know about, click HERE.  All information provided in this google form will be held in confidence. The BCF budget is $150/week for immediate financial needs, and current distribution turnaround time is 2 weeks. (Effective Date of this form is 11/25/2020.)

Hi, Friends. This month, in our “Salt of the Earth” Sunday series, we are exploring different aspects of what it means to practice healthy and useful faith in community in a post-Christian world. I talked specifically about church this past weekend. While we wait to return to in person worship together at some point in 2021, this year represents both a crisis and an opportunity for us. Most of us don’t like how homebound and physically separate we are in many areas of our lives. Many of us dearly miss the physicality of shared public life, including that around Reservoir. This is certainly true for me. But with some of that stripped away, there is an opportunity to remember that who we are called to be has not changed. Reservoir Church gathers people who want to be inspired to discover more of the love of Jesus, the joy of living, and the gift of community. We are inclusive of everyone, just as we are, without exception because we believe God is.  And humbly, joyfully, we are looking to walk with God and one another into lives that promote flourishing, for one another and for the world at large.   As we move toward the end of the year in church life, here are a few things we encourage you to keep in mind or to respond to. For those of you who have made or want to make Reservoir your church, we strongly encourage you to become members this month. Part of membership at Reservoir involves giving time and resources to support the life and work of the church. If you would like to start giving financially at Reservoir or to make an additional year-end gift beyond your normal contributions, you can do so here at any time. Because are a vibrant, active church in a transient city, every year we need to replace $5,000 to $10,000 per month in giving. Late last year, thanks to folks’ generosity, we were successful in doing so. We are praying for the same this year.  And one more thing on membership. We usually hold potluck members’ meetings 3-4 times per year. It’s been a while. We can’t have a potluck yet, but we will hold a year-end Members Meeting on Sunday, December 6 from 1:00 – 2:30 pm.  Please hold the date if you’re able – we’’ll share details very soon!  I mentioned the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in my sermon this past Sunday. Sacks strongly advocates for people of faith to practice the deep particulars of their faith (in our case, to love and respond to Jesus in many ways), while also joyfully engaging in the common good of the whole pluralistic society. Sacks’ writing and speaking is accessible in many places if you’re curious. A great introduction to his wise voice, if you are curious, can be found in a recent “On Being” rebroadcast of an interview with him. I found his comments on faith, on love of the stranger, on sabbath, and on religious reform in our times really helpful. His bracing line he quotes, “We must love one another or die,” and his hopeful response to that were also just what I needed to hear today. We’ll spend two more Sundays looking at healthy and useful faith in the world before we transition to what I’m praying will be the joyful, hopeful Advent and Christmas season that we all need.  Peace, Love, Courage be yours today,Steve

Hi, Friends,

This week I’m writing the church letter before This is Us airs, so you won’t have to, or get to, read me quoting it. 😉

I want to first catch the attention of anyone who is newer at Reservoir, and then share an update about how our church is thinking about this season of fewer in-person gatherings. 

If you are new to Reservoir in 2019 or 2020, or perhaps still feeling new regardless of your first Sunday with us, join us immediately after Virch this Sunday, November 15th at 11:00am for our New to Reservoir gathering! We’ll meet on Zoom; get the meeting link by emailing info@reservoirchurch.org and joining our church newsletter. Two or our pastors (Ivy and me), as well as one of our Board members and one of our community group leaders, will share our stories of how we came to this church and what we love about it. I’ll also share a bit more about what membership looks like here. And then I’ll stick around as long as you like for questions about anything to do with Reservoir. (If you’re a member who’s been around for a while, this isn’t for you! We’re finally working on scheduling our next members meeting online – perhaps I’ll have a date for you next week on that.)

And now on the COVID-19 front: Perhaps you’ve noticed that cases are going up throughout the country, including in New England. Needless to say, this is heartbreaking for many reasons, one of which is how this impacts church life. We long to be able to gather together in person for Sunday worship, for our community groups, for meals and kids’ gatherings, and all the other many ways we love to be together. But we can’t yet, not in person. I’m trying to think of this as a small taste of the Bible’s accounts of exile. Frankly, having your homeland destroyed and settling as a persecuted minority in a foreign land is far worse than this pandemic. But in both cases, there is freedom to lament our losses and also an invitation to stay close to God and one another: physically distant but spiritually together.  And in both cases, the community is encouraged to wonder: what new investments can we make in ourselves, our faith, and our community life? What new discoveries can we find during this time? In what ways can we move toward greater flourishing?

Our Board has extended our timeline for in person worship to no sooner than April, 2021. We do not perceive a safe and appropriate way to gather for Sunday worship in our sanctuary this winter. Instead, we will be using that time to prepare ourselves for the time in 2021 when we will be able to resume worship in person. While I don’t know when that date will be, I know that we will need to make some investments in air circulation and other changes. Board member Dr. Peter Choo and our Director of Operations and Communications Trecia Reavis will be examining our needs and options for preparing our sanctuary for in person worship. Additionally, Peter and Trecia are examining whether or not we will be able to make our sanctuary available for community groups’ indoor use this winter. We will keep you posted, as we do our research. 

Peace, Love, Courage be yours today,

Steve

Hi, Friends,

There’s an election next week, have you heard? I’m kidding. It would be hard to miss the collective anxiety and tension so many of us are experiencing. If you’re able to vote and haven’t, please do so. A doctor I know told me about physicians that have prescribed voting to their patients because using our own agency and voice are good for us. There are real stakes in the election too, as you know. I’ve voted already, and I am praying for outcomes that move us toward healthier, more just futures. I am also praying for you, Reservoir community, that you will know God’s peace and strength for you as we move together through all this year brings. 

As we wait, I am trying to pray into the faith the writer of Psalm 146 has, remembering that none of our political leaders merit too much of our trust. So many of their plans – for good or for harm – perish. The psalm remembers that God can be our hope in all circumstances. People have lived and loved and persevered – even when they have suffered – through all manner of political times. And regardless of the will or power of our government, God will remain determined to “set the prisoners free,” “open the eyes of the blind,” “lift up those who are bowed down,” “watch over the foreigners,” and uphold the most vulnerable. May it be, God. May it be. 

If you’d like places to gather together next week, in addition to our Sunday services and your community group, we have two offerings available. Our pastor Ivy will be hosting online a time of listening and prayer on Wednesday evening, November 4th. (Details emailed out that day.) And I’m part of a team with Greater Boston Interfaith Organization that is planning a citywide interfaith gathering online on Thursday, November 5th, to remember our shared commitments to human dignity and fair democratic process. (Register for the citywide gathering HERE.) We’d love to have you at either or both gatherings if that would serve you.

This month, we also pivot on Sundays into a short four-week series called Salt of the Earth, in which we’ll look at some ways our faith can be healthy and useful in the times we live in. We’ll be inviting you to remember what it means to belong to Reservoir Church during this time and if you’re not already, to consider becoming a member. 

A  short warning that in my sermon about God this week, I’ll say a few words about Holocaust theology, including how there were children burned alive by the Nazis during the Holocaust. I won’t linger over the details for long, but I will mention the reality of horrendous human evil in our world – this example being just one of many – and what it means to have faith in God in the face of such evil. 

Friends, I wish I could look you in the eye today and shake your hand or give you a hug and whatnot. I’m missing you all in this season of physical distance, even as I am so grateful that we are still spiritually together. As Beth from the TV Show “This is US” pastored us all who were listening last night: “This pain is not forever.” 

Peace, Love, Courage be yours today,

Steve