Month: March 2020

Weekly Update 3/18/2020

WHAT IS GOING ON AT CHURCH –

Labyrinth Walks are being held as scheduled on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 through Lent. The dates are March 18th, 25th, April 1st, and 8th. There will also be guided labyrinth walks on Good Friday at noon and Easter Sunday at 7:00 a.m. We feel given current information and restrictions that it is safe to hold this activity. It involves less than 10 people, it is outside, and the people can be at least 6 feet apart. Bring your own chair if you wish.

Corona Sabbath Posts

Each Friday, the church will post a devotional with readings, video from Kim, and music from Hilton. You are invited to access these at the website and observe the sabbath according to your schedule over the weekend. There will be a new one posted each week.

Reaching Out

While we are to maintain our physical distance, you are encouraged to reach out to someone from the church family at least once a week – a phone call, an email, a handwritten note – whatever works best for you. Please be in contact with one another.

In addition, please be in contact with people beyond the church family – friends, neighbors, public officials, health care workers – offering a word of gratitude or support or encouragement. These are hard times for many people. And many feel extremely isolated. So, reach out, but don’t touch!

A New Church Directory

To facilitate our efforts to be in contact, an updated church directory is being prepared. It will be mailed to church members. If you would like a copy and do not receive one in the next week or so, please contact the Church Office.

Increased Spiritual Support

The church will be offering regular emails and posts offered as spiritual support for the congregation and beyond in these difficult days. If there is something you would like the church to share, please send it to the Church Office. Thank you!

Also, this would be a good time to subscribe to the church website if you do not already do so. It is very easy to do on the church homepage. You can subscribe to posts and also to comments. As a subscriber, everything that is posted on the website will be sent to your email. If you would like assistance with this, please contact the Church Office.

Sundays. . .

On Sundays, Rev. Wells will be at church from 10:30-11:30. The peace candle will be lit and prayers will be offered. You are welcome to stop by to pray or meditate. The labyrinth is also available. This is a symbolic witness that the church is still here, is still serving, is still active, is still shining light – even in these drastically changed circumstances.

Maximo Elementary

The church has reached out to Maximo Elementary School to see what can be done to help during this hiatus in regular instruction. No school means no food for breakfast or lunch for many students. We are looking into how we can help.

Help Offered

Several people from the congregation have offered to help others as needed. If you need something from the grocery store or help with an errand or some other kind of assistance, please contact the Church Office. There are those who are ready and willing.

Tithes and Offerings

While the nature of the ministry of the church is adapting to these pandemic circumstances, there are still staff to support and facilities and grounds to be maintained. So, please continue your financial support of the church and please increase that support as you are able. It is unlikely that the adult day care will be opening any time soon, so additional resources are needed to maintain the ministry of the church which is so very much needed in these uncertain times.

We will be adding PayPal at the website and establishing a church Venmo account to facilitate giving to the church.

New Cleaning Routines

The church custodian, Tony Rogers, is being sure to thoroughly sanitize the building including door handles, faucets, etc. We are grateful for this increased effort.

WHAT IS NOT GOING ON AT CHURCH –

Regular Sunday Services

Choir Rehearsal

Church School

The March Youth Tie Dye Event

National Refugee Sabbath at Temple Beth-El

The Interfaith Program at USF featuring Rev. Susan Sherwood and Rev. Kim Wells

About Hilton’s music. . . If you would enjoy hearing Hilton play more Irish folk songs, you can listen for free at either https://hiltonjones.bandcamp.com/album/irish-tunes or https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/irish-tunes.

In Memoriam: Former LUCC member Mattie Lesueur died March 5 at her home in St. Petersburg.  She was a member of Traveler’s Rest Baptist Church.

Operation Attack: Operation Attack is very much in need of clothes for men, boys, and girls as well as diapers and peanut butter and canned fruit. Donations may be placed in the shopping cart in the entryway to the sanctuary. Volunteer dates are April 13 and May 11. They also need people to help on the first three Tuesdays of the month from 9:30-noon.

Operation Attack is an ecumenical effort serving families with children located at Lakeview Presbyterian Church, 1310 22nd. Ave. S., St. Petersburg. LUCC was a founding member of Operation Attack in the 1960’s!

Maximo Report: LUCC delivered 25 Sack Packs and 25 Activity Packs to Maximo Elementary Tuesday. Olivia and Claudia did their shopping magic in 1 hour and then put all the packs together.  I delivered them to Ms. Jones at Maximo Elementary. Thanks everyone for another awesome ministry to benefit  homeless children at Maximo Elementary.  A total of $978 was donated for this project. Olivia took pictures. -Emily Bell

View the pictures here! https://lakewooducc.org/2020/03/11/maximo-elementary-project-report/

March Birthdays: Claudia Rodriguez 3/3, Grace Lewis 3/13, Yvonne Riesen 3/13, Ron Huff 3/19, Earl Waters 3/25, Charlie Lewis 3/27, Marg Radens 3/31, Someone missing? Contact the church office with birthday information.

Circle of Concern: William Owen, Wilbur Reid, Martha Lamar, Tony Rogers, Dana Cosper, Sherry Santana, Jen Degroot, Carolyn Moore, Ann Quinn, Maggie Brizendine, and Ann Rogers.

New Office Hours: The Church Office will be open Monday – Thursday mornings from 9:30 until noon. The office will no longer be open on Friday mornings. Thank you!

Recent Posts:

Weekly Update: If you are involved with an activity or event that you would like to share with the LUCC family, please send the information to the Church Office by Tuesday since the Update usually is sent out on Wednesday.

O Gott Du Frommer Gott

Another sleepless night, so another bit of music to tide us over while we’re practicing social isolation.

Sometimes I would bring my laptop to church and play into it from two synthesizers as if they were two manuals of a pipe organ. The sounds didn’t come from the synthesizers, however. The sounds came from within the laptop. They were sampled sounds of actual pipe organ pipes from around the world.

This piece, by J. S. Bach, is a piece just for manuals (there’s no pedal part) so I was able to do it on the two synths.

I remember when I was a little kid listening to recordings of Albert Schweitzer playing organ. I wondered: Why does he play so slowly?! I played everything at least two times as fast as he did. Well…now I know why he did! LOL I’m at least 20 years older now than he was back then. My tempi have a lot more lasagna in them than hot peppers.

Same disclaimer as last time: this is mistakes and all. It’s offered only to help you remember what Sunday mornings used to be like at Lakewood UCC.

Sermon 3.15.2020

Scripture Lesson:  1 Samuel 16:1-13             

Sermon: Chosen

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Yes, I am one of those crazy people who love to watch political debates and the more candidates the better!  I saw every one of the primary debates before the 2016 election.  I was fascinated by that wildly long row of candidates lining the debate stage.  Who were all of these people?  What did they have to offer?  How did they interact with each other?  And as time went on, there were fewer and fewer podiums on the debate stage.  It was a very interesting process.

We do not have cable tv, so sometimes I had to get creative to watch the debates but I was determined not to miss a one.  I discovered an app called Periscope.  With Periscope, you send live video from your phone out into the world for whoever wants to watch.  People all over the world are sending live streaming on Periscope all the time.  And people all over the world are watching.  So, I would find someone who had their phone set up in their living room videoing their tv which was showing the debate.  The way Periscope works, you see the tv and can watch the debate.  You also see the person’s living room and you can hear the people talking as they watch the debate.  Commenting on the debate.  Mentioning the doctor’s appointment the next day.  Offering to get a drink for someone.  And while all of that is going on, the people watching this live feed on Periscope can chat with each other and they do.  They comment on the debate.  They ask the people streaming to turn up the volume, etc.  So you have at least three levels of things going on and it is very interesting.  So that is how I watched many of the debates leading up to the 2016 election.

Figuring out how to do this got me a lot of points with my kids who were very impressed that I watched the debates in this way.  So, there you go!

Little did I know that 4 years later there would again be debates to watch that

would start with a long parade of candidates lining the stage that would then get shorter and shorter.  Yes, I have watched most of the debates this season but, to be honest, to me they are not as revelatory or as entertaining as the ones of the last presidential election cycle.  

It is fascinating to watch how we choose a president here in the United States.  This week my oldest son informed me that only one thing matters.  What is that one thing?  Charisma.  Hm.  I guess he hasn’t read the analyses that cite height as a crucial factor.  You have to be tall.  That’s why Senator Marco Rubio wore shoes with lifts in the last primary contest.  Size matters.  Clearly we have not yet learned the lesson from Star Wars:  “When judging people, size matters not.” But I think we can also agree that charisma and height alone will not a president make. There’s another necessary component  –  money.  No money, no nomination.  Period.  And, evidently, there is another crucial characteristic necessary to be president.  An anatomical feature that defines a person as male.  Sad to say.  But that’s where we seem to be in our leadership selection process in this country.  

Well, the story we heard this morning is a story of another method of leadership selection.  It’s a more autocratic method.  Not really anything democratic about it.  Israel has demanded to have a monarchy and God has capitulated.  God selected Saul to be the first king of Israel and had the prophet Samuel anoint Saul.  Everything seemed to be settled.  Israel got a king and God chose the right man for the job.  Fast forward and we are told that things are falling apart.  Evidently, Saul was not up to the job.  There is a crisis of leadership.  There is the threat of invasion and take over by the Philistines.  It’s all on the verge of going down the tubes.  God decides to change course.  There has to be immediate drastic action.  There must be a new leader creating a new future for the people of Israel.  God must see that they are rescued.  God must insure a new future for Israel.  

As we heard it this morning, God recognizes there is a problem.  Plan A has failed.  A drastic change must be made immediately.  So God changes course.  God abandons what is not working.  God is no longer committed to power arrangements that are bankrupt and that have failed.  The prophet Samuel is still stewing over the debacle with Saul.  Samuel is immobilized by grief.  They had such high hopes for Saul.  But God has moved on.  God is getting on with creating a new future, a viable future, a vibrant future, for Israel.  God exercises enormous freedom and creativity.  God doesn’t just stand back and let things tank and make excuses.  God is intervening to chart a new course for Israel’s future and this involves anointing a new king and the prophet Samuel is going to do God’s bidding, like it or not.  

And that is what we heard about this morning.  Understandably, Samuel is afraid for his life.  Saul is still king.  For Samuel to anoint a new king while there is still a king on the throne is treason.  But God sends Samuel to anoint a new king.  In Bethlehem.  Bethlehem?  An outlying backwater of a town.  To Jesse.  Jesse?  The smallest clan of the smallest tribe of Israel.  Really?  There’s no political cache in that.  No pedigree.  No royal lineage.  Nothing of note.  But Samuel goes under the guise of offering a sacrifice.  When he gets to Bethlehem the people are nervous, skeptical, and worried.  What is this official from the capital doing here?  They only come when they want something.  What will he take from them?  

Samuel is there to anoint a new king.  Jesse struts his sons in front of Samuel.  One by one beginning with the oldest.  All seven strapping young men.  Can we imagine them lined up on a debate stage?  But none of them will do.  Is there another son?  Oh, well, the youngest, a child really, watching the sheep.  Get him.  The smallest, the youngest, the unheralded, the least likely, the outsider, the underdog, the nobody, the marginal one, anoint him, God tells Samuel.  As Jesus will later teach, the first will be last and the last will be first.  God exalts the humble.  Saul was tall and handsome and look how that turned out.  God is ready to try something new.  And with David, God gets a dynasty, an Empire.  The throne is passed to his son, Solomon.  David is remembered as the greatest king of Israel.  The messiah will come from the line of David which is why we are told of Jesus being born in Bethlehem of the house and lineage of David.  We don’t want to overlook that David turns out to be a complex character.  Yes, he is honored as the greatest king in the history of Israel but as one commentator describes it, he is also a “bloodthirsty, oversexed bandit.”  [New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 2, note 113 citing John L. McKenzie, p. 421]  But who could have known that when this ruddy youth was plucked from the pasture and anointed as the future king.  

We see these same kinds of themes in the story of Jesus.  He is a nobody.  Born to nobody parents from a backwater village.  Born in a stable among the animals. Not a person of prestige and money from a political family in the capital.  Jesus is another example of the freedom of God that we see in the Bible.  We are shown how God exercises freedom of choice.  God is not limited by our criteria and imaginations.  God sees with the heart.  And God can use anyone and everyone to create new possibilities for a new future.  God is not restricted by the past.  God is not confined by previous power arrangements.  God is not bound by entrenched assumptions and traditional channels and systems.  The God we encounter in the Bible is free.

This God is so invested in our future, in the joy and wellbeing of humanity, in the flourishing of Creation, that God willingly goes in new directions and chooses unlikely people from unlikely places to lead the way. 

Like the story of the anointing of David, we, too, are living in a time of crisis.  Well, maybe we should say, crises.  Pick one.  Global warming.  The Corona virus.  The immigration/refugee crisis.  The global inequality crisis.  The opioid and addiction crisis.   The erosion of democracy crisis.  The morality crisis.  The technology crisis.  There are plenty of indicators that we are in a time of drastic change.  We barely have to open our eyes to see that the power arrangements that govern our lives are bankrupt and are failing.  This story from Samuel, even though it is couched in monarchy and patriarchy (there is no woman present for this leadership selection process that we are told of),  still this story shows us that we are free to abandon what is no longer working and exercise our enormous freedom to create a new future for ourselves and for those who will come after us.  

In the story we heard, we are told of a God that sees with the heart, sees what is in the heart.  What will people of the future say about what was in our hearts?  What will they see of our intent, our will, our pattern of loyalty, our character, our inclinations?  When they look back at us, what will they see of our hearts?  Do we really care only about the economy?  

This story invites us see ourselves as the unlikely people, in the unlikely places, that foment the revolution disrupting current power arrangements to secure a new future for humanity and for the planet.  God sees with the heart.

And, yes, I will be watching the debate tonight.  And I hope we will all be voting on Tuesday.  Amen.  

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Corona Virus Congregational Conversation 3.15.2020

There was an open congregational conversation after the service on Sunday March 15 to discuss the corona virus situation.  

Those who were in attendance:  Patti Cooksey, Kay Rencken, Bill Parsons, Don Ritchie, Claire Stiles, Ed Kaspar, Christy Martin, Malcolm Wells, Claudia Rodriguez, Jeff Wells, Kim Wells.

The gathering began with each person making a comment about how they felt about the current situation.  These were some of the responses:

Uncertain

Vulnerable

Concerned, not worried

Mixed – skeptical, worried

Let it flow

Worried about older people and self

Concerned – in light of theme park shut downs, this must be serious

Uneasy

Plans – especially economic

Kim shared a devotion from a book that had been donated to the church by Martha Lamar.

We talked about the corona challenge from several perspectives:  how are we needed to serve the spiritual, social, and perhaps physical needs of the community, of governmental leaders, of the world, of health care workers, and of our congregation.  

These are the ideas that we will pursue:

We are in contact with Maximo Elementary School, with whom we already have a relationship, to see how we can be helpful to their students and staff, particularly the most vulnerable. No school can mean no food for some students.

Increase our contact with each other as a congregation in the following ways:  

The congregation is encouraged to write letters, to each other, to those who are homebound, to whomever using old fashioned US mail to mitigate the isolation.  This is especially important for those who do not have access to email or the internet or social media. 

The congregation is also encouraged to send emails to each other, including pictures, just to brighten someone’s day or share something of interest.  

Maybe at the end of the crisis we will create a compilation from the letters and emails that are sent as an inspirational historical record for the congregation.  

Use face time or other media chat programs to chat with people who are homebound.  

Call people from the congregation to check on them, let them know you are thinking of them, etc.  Just use the phone and reach out.  

Generally increase contacts with others in the congregation and those you know who are isolated including family, neighbors, friends, etc.  

The Care Team will be sure to be reaching out to those who are on the Circle of Concern and those who are on “lock down” in their senior communities.  

To facilitate being in contact with the congregation, an update of the church directory is being completed and will be available soon.  

Worship and other planned programs such as the guided labyrinth walks will continue as planned based on current information.  That may change, but for now, we are planning on weekly worship, etc. 

Increased communication from the church.  The church will send out and post things intended to be of spiritual support to the congregation.  These posts will involve devotions and music as well as other things.  

The congregation will be requested to pause every day at 9:00 a.m. light a candle if you can (or put on the light on your phone. . .) and offer a common prayer that will be provided.  Through this action, we will feel our unity as a congregation even though we are not physically together.  And we will be in solidarity in our concern for each other and the world. 

We will continue to be in conversation as this pandemic unfolds so that we can respond as needed.  

Kay Rencken shared an adaptation of a line from one of the Irish tunes that Hilton played in worship today:

Let hope be like a falling leaf at the dawning of the day.