Week of October 27

Dear Friends,

I fondly remember my 3rd grade Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Taylor.  A warm and gracious woman, she had a knack for making each of us feel like the most interesting and valued student in the room.  Now by third grade, we students had more or less figured out that we were rotating through a limited repertoire of Bible stories (oh wait, here’s that Whale story again…) but Mrs. Taylor’s enthusiastic personality made these tired stories jump off the page and crackle with new life. 

We wanted to be part of what she was doing, even if it meant role-playing an Ark-full of animals, so we could bask in the glow of Mrs. Taylor’s exuberant light. 

When, more than thirty years later, I decided to pursue a call to ordained ministry, I thought of Mrs. Taylor.  She had been one of the people to plant the seeds of faith in me, and for that I am deeply grateful. Her ability to plant those seeds had little to do with any recitation of Bible stories, and much more to do with the way she embodied the distilled teachings of those stories in ways I powerfully felt. She didn’t just teach about kindness or empathy or love.  She was kind, empathetic and loving. 

Our young people are a dear and vital part of Talmadge Hill.  In many ways, the active engagement and participation of young folks is one of the most significant markers of a healthy church.  Though Talmadge Hill is physically small and does not have a dedicated Sunday School classroom, we deeply value the presence and participation of our young people.  

As this year’s Sunday School and Youth Group programs take shape and get underway, please prayerfully consider ways you can support and nurture our young people and our teachers.  Always remember that each of us are potential seed-planters and seed-waterers in the lives of children, both in and out of church.  What we say and do, matters. Deeply. 

We don’t know when or where the seeds we plant will take root and grow. Our job is to faithfully and joyfully throw out seeds, water those seeds to the best of our ability, and trust that God will give the growth.  

I thank God for the Mrs. Taylors of the world. I thank God for our young people.  I thank God for you. 

Yours in the Garden,

Jennifer

Meditation

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”

- Meister Eckhart, 13th century mystic

“Before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things…”

- Naomi Shihab Nye, poet

Week of October 13

Dear Friends,

A couple of weeks ago I was called in for jury duty. Though I had been called up in the past, I had always been excused for one logistical reason or another. This time, I found myself down at the New Haven courthouse early on a sunny September morning in a large room with dozens of other folks. If you have served jury duty, you know it usually involves a lot of sitting around and waiting.

I’ll admit: at first, I felt pretty disgruntled about having to spend my day in an hermetically-sealed room. But as I sat there, looking around at all the other good people putting their normal routines on hold in order to fulfill their jury duty, my inner narrative began to shift. Rather than begrudge a “wasted” day, I focused instead on gratitude: how grateful I am to be healthy enough to be there that day, what a privilege it is to live in a country with a legal system that entitles us to a fair trial by a jury of our peers, how amazing it is that our system works as well as it does when so many countries have no due process at all-- and that average citizens play an important role in it.

To be sure, there are broken places within our system and within our country, nowhere more glaringly so than in the ongoing disparity of justice between our white and black citizens. But it is a justice system built on the principle that all people are created equal, and entitled to equal justice in the eyes of the law. The foundations are extraordinary, even if the execution of justice has been and sometimes still is imperfect and inconsistent.

My day of jury duty ended as uneventfully as it began. My perception of the day, however, was transformed as soon as I chose to lean into a posture of gratitude, rather than one of disgruntled attitude. I left the courthouse feeling it had been a day very well spent indeed.
This Sunday I will be preaching on Luke 17:11-19 and exploring more on the topic of gratitude. Come, and bring an open, grateful heart to Sunday morning worship, to be in fellowship together once again.

Gratefully yours,

Jennifer

Meditation

"The whole person, with all of their senses, with both mind and body, needs to be
involved in genuine worship. It is designed to elicit awe, adoration and gratitude. What begins with holy expectancy must pass through the heart, and become a conscious choice."

Jerry Kerns

Week of October 6

Dear Friends,

Faith is not a possession.  It is not to be put on the shelf for safe keeping.  It is not a cross around your neck.  It is not magic. 

Faith is not mental exercise that arrives at right belief.  Faith is not a moral exercise that ends in right behavior. 

I like these three invitations.

First, faith is a dynamic invitation to tell the truth.  Douglas John Hall offers this frame, “The truth is simple: you have a short time between your birth and your death, and important questions need to be answered.” 

Second, faith is a dynamic invitation to set aside fear and be fully alive.  The poet Joy Harjo speaks to this element of faith:

I release you, my beautiful and terrible fear.

I release you, so now

I am not afraid to be angry
I am not afraid to rejoice
I am not afraid to be hungry
I am not afraid to be full
I am not afraid to be black
I am not afraid to be white
I am not afraid to be hated
I am not afraid to be loved
To be loved
To be loved, fear.

Third, faith is a dynamic invitation to be fully responsible and responsive to the presence of Love.  The world is good, and waiting to be loved.  Dorothy Day speaks beautifully, “It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other.  As such, no one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless.  We have too much work to do.” 

I want this faith.  Maybe you do too. 

Carter