Mavis Moon

San Jose Christian Reformed Church, San Jose CA

Kind of tired.

Our church has several members who do not have computers or smartphones, so for that reason we still need a printed email.

I've been doing a lot of re-reading. During this "Coronatide," it felt like too much for my brain to read a new book, even when I thought I'd like it. I've started to read some new ones now, though.

Recently I read, along with the Calvin Book Club and my own local book club, The Other Wes Moore. It was good, written by a man named Wes Moore, who discovered there was another man named Wes Moore who had grown up in a nearby, very similar neighborhood -- in Baltimore, mostly Black & underprivileged -- and he (the author) became a lawyer, successful in the military, a leader and speaker while "the other Wes Moore" ended up in jail because of his participation in a burglary that included a murder. Moore explores their lives and it prompts a lot of thinking about what can truly help people to get through the difficult journey of life.

I re-read Room With a View by E.M. Forster and also re-watched the movie based on it (same name). Just delightful. Beautiful words, beautiful scenery, lighthearted & lovely story. 

I am now re-reading The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope. Old fashioned British novels. Classic.

Our next book club book (my local book club) choice is The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia. I'm looking forward to starting that soon. The back of the book says, "From the day that old Nena Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed." It is "set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918." Sounds intriguing and timely.

I'm interested in hearing what others are reading!

(I write about my reading and other stuff in my blog, www.mavismoon.com.)

"Be Not Afraid" by Nadia Bolz-WeberA Mini-Sermon on Fear, Love, and Kent Brockman

"Well, today I started to think that maybe it’s not safety that keeps us from being afraid. Maybe it’s love."

Love that. God does not keep us safe. He loves us like a mother hen. Like Aslan - is he safe? No, but he is good. He is love! And the song by Anne Murray, "...on the other side of fear is love."

I like imagining Jesus saying, "Go and tell that fox..." :D

So true that hearing "Be not afraid" does not actually make me not afraid. I had never thought before of the perspective Nadia writes about with the story of God as a mother hen:

But neither can I tell you that the Mother Hen thing means that God will protect you from Herod or that God is going to keep bad things from happening to you.
Because honestly, nothing actually keeps danger from being dangerous.
A mother hen cannot actually keep a determined fox from killing her chicks. 

and...

But Faith in God does not bring you safety.  

The fox still exists.  

Danger still exists.  

And by that I mean, danger is not optional, but fear is. 

Because maybe the opposite of fear isn't bravery. Maybe the opposite of fear is love. Paul tells us that perfect love casts out fear. So in the response to our own Herods, in response to the very real dangers of this world we have an invitation as people of faith: which is to respond by loving.

Singing. And sitting in the pew listening to the sermon taking notes. Somehow it's just not the same online.

What a beautiful service you are doing! Our virtual service is much simpler. We have many members for whom logging in to a live service would be difficult so we stick with a pre-recorded service. Our pastor, Trent Elders, makes a video of his sermon. Trent is good at making a seamless video. He includes a short clip from one of our members with their greeting, and also a song or two, usually one at the beginning and one at the end. Our council is calling each member once a week (trying to) and Trent includes their prayer requests in his prayer. Here is one example of a service. Thank you for sharing!

San Jose CRC service

I found a nice devotional from The Presbyterian Outlook. We are putting the 1/2 size version in our bulletins for the 5 Sundays of Lent and full size versions in the lobby so people can have those if they'd like. We are also telling people in our weekly e-newsletter to email the church secretary if they want to have one emailed to them (we have quite a few ex-members who've moved away on the e-newsletter list).

I also posted a link in our social media to the excellent Lent project from Biola University. (They also do one for Christmas.) It has music, art, Scripture, poem, prayer, bio's and information about the artists. Really awesome.

http://ccca.biola.edu/lent/2020/

"Christianity Today" has a good devotional with daily devotions written by many excellent writers and I've ordered some of those to offer to our congregation. (https://ctmagazine.myshopify.com/products/advent-2019-4-week-devotional-guide-10-pack)

Fuller Seminary sent a free program that I am planning to do with whoever will attend in a 4 week series after church. I plan to light an advent wreath in the room and then we will read and pray. Below is information from Fuller about the program. They used readings from the New Living Testament and I wanted to use the NIV so I re-did them myself. If anyone wants that, let me know and I will email it to you.

From Fuller:

This Advent, consider using our free guide and scripture readings to help you and your community engage Advent afresh by simply listening to the Bible together. Gather with your family, an existing group, or start a new group and delight in the mysteries of anticipation and joy. These are simple tools to help you pause, and reflect.

free guide: https://fuller.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=be599b2b6ee32ca2b542d8b0d&id=01f3730c61&e=4085815c56

scripture readings: https://fuller.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=be599b2b6ee32ca2b542d8b0d&id=900bef3d3b&e=4085815c56

Thank you so much for your answers, Eric. I have already shared them with our Council and asked them to think about how we can reflect on what you said as we deal with a conflict we are in the middle of.

I also agree with Keith that the nature of the conflict has a lot to do with the response. I appreciate that your answers, Eric, also addressed this, as when you said, "If there are no biblical principles at stake, then both parties probably need to exercise increased humility and flexibility regarding a decision perhaps on carpet color or the like.  If there are biblical principles at stake, those principles can be identified and parsed together, which often will expose both virtuous and superficial values."

A couple years ago our congregation dealt with a serious situation and there were definite opposing opinions on how we as a Council and church should handle it. One big thing that helped is I had read Brene' Brown's book, Rising Strong, and kept trying to work for UNDERSTANDING rather than agreement. I honestly tried to understand why people thought what they thought, and tried to make that mutual - so they could understand why I/we thought and did what we did. One big thing that happened in that process is we all realized that we on Council made the decisions we made because we loved the Pastor AND those who disagreed also disagreed because *they* loved the Pastor. Even though we continued to disagree, we did know we both loved him. Understanding that helped.

I also learned PATIENCE. We never made a decision at a meeting when a new issue came up. We discussed the issue and then prayed about it and made a decision at a later meeting. 

HONESTY and the freedom to disagree with each other openly during our Council meetings was also immensely important. We felt free to disagree without fear. And once we made a decision, we were a united front, even if we had disagreed.

Those are some of my thoughts.