A Message from Pastor Kaji
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Dear Church:
I don’t quite know what to say.
That’s where I will start. Maybe you, like me, feel tender. Raw. Maybe you feel ebullient. I’d love to know more about why and how, if that’s you.
I want to have the right words. I’ve been scouring everything…the Bible, the internet, social media, the news, to find them. For me, at least, I don’t have them. People say to breathe. To pray. To trust in the Lord at all times. But my breath is shallow…percussive. And my trust is…
Here’s what I can say: you can trust in the Lord and still feel awful. You can have faith and be afraid. I say this because I know this. I love God and I am terrified and no one can tell me differently. Or that I’m unfaithful. Or that my fear signals some kind of break with God. God and I are as close as ever. We just have a lot. A LOT. To talk about.
I switched our reading for this week from the lectionary’s epistle to the lectionary’s Gospel. I’ll have more to say after God and I have talked some more. But what I invite you to do, in your preparations, is to allow Jesus’ words about fears and anxieties to challenge you into…perspective. See your situation, see your self from a different angle. Re-imagine your situation. What if you were a lily of the valley? What if you are a lily and God is the gardener? What might that change, for you? For your people, your fellow lilies?
Today, I don’t have that answer. If I have one by Sunday, we can all thank God for a miracle. Meanwhile, let us all plan to come together for a moment of prayer and communal support with our fellow lilies, in and after worship.
It will be good to be together.
That’s where I will start. Maybe you, like me, feel tender. Raw. Maybe you feel ebullient. I’d love to know more about why and how, if that’s you.
I want to have the right words. I’ve been scouring everything…the Bible, the internet, social media, the news, to find them. For me, at least, I don’t have them. People say to breathe. To pray. To trust in the Lord at all times. But my breath is shallow…percussive. And my trust is…
Here’s what I can say: you can trust in the Lord and still feel awful. You can have faith and be afraid. I say this because I know this. I love God and I am terrified and no one can tell me differently. Or that I’m unfaithful. Or that my fear signals some kind of break with God. God and I are as close as ever. We just have a lot. A LOT. To talk about.
I switched our reading for this week from the lectionary’s epistle to the lectionary’s Gospel. I’ll have more to say after God and I have talked some more. But what I invite you to do, in your preparations, is to allow Jesus’ words about fears and anxieties to challenge you into…perspective. See your situation, see your self from a different angle. Re-imagine your situation. What if you were a lily of the valley? What if you are a lily and God is the gardener? What might that change, for you? For your people, your fellow lilies?
Today, I don’t have that answer. If I have one by Sunday, we can all thank God for a miracle. Meanwhile, let us all plan to come together for a moment of prayer and communal support with our fellow lilies, in and after worship.
It will be good to be together.
Pax Christi,
Pastor Kaji
Pastor Kaji
SCRIPTURE
Matthew 6:28-34: [Jesus asked,] now why do you all worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither labor nor spin. 29 Yet I tell you all, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 Now if the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven God so clothes, will not God do much more for you all of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For all these the Gentiles strive and indeed your heavenly Provider knows that of you need all these. 33 But strive first for the reign of God and God’s righteousness and all these will be given to you all. 34 So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has worries of its own. Sufficient is the trouble of this day.”
Matthew 6:28-34: [Jesus asked,] now why do you all worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither labor nor spin. 29 Yet I tell you all, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 Now if the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven God so clothes, will not God do much more for you all of little faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For all these the Gentiles strive and indeed your heavenly Provider knows that of you need all these. 33 But strive first for the reign of God and God’s righteousness and all these will be given to you all. 34 So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has worries of its own. Sufficient is the trouble of this day.”