Dear Friends,

Okay, I confess. I enjoyed the first week that the church was closed! I will not bore you with the stages of my separation anxiety which developed as the weeks grew. At the heart of my spirituality is my belief in God and community. I am a blue blood Trinitarian - The Doctrine of the Trinity which is expressed in the Creed.  Simply put, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit which resides within and outside the church – are in relationship with one another. The ancients depict them dancing together.    No doubt, you have seen the “dance” depicted in classic art. To me, the Trinity is best explained as being in community and relationship with each other!  Finally, God is with us. And we are with God.

The plague of Covid 19 keeps us not only physically separated, but spiritually separated. Worldwide religious leaders have organized a gathering of musicians to teach and sing in an effort to remind us that, though we are separated, we are not alone. Starting at 8 p.m. “The Call to Unite” begins Friday, April 24^th. Go to: thecall.org I’m looking forward to the first presenter who wrote the children’s book “Does God have a Big Toe? by Rabbi Marc Gellman. It is a midrash for children about the belief that we are partners with God in this world and in this life. A midrash is about a story in the Bible. The midrash he wrote and written below is about the story of creation told in Genesis.

Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels, and huge swirling glob of rocks and water with no place to go. The angels asked God, “Why don’t you clean up this mess?” So God collected rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in clumps and said, “Some of these clumps of rocks will be planets, and some will be stars, and some of these rocks will be…just rocks.” Then God collected water and put it together in pools of water and said, “Some of these pools of water will be oceans, and some will be clouds, and some of this water will be…just water.” Then the angels said, “Well God it’s neater now, but is it finished?” And God answered, “NOPE!”

God made a man and a woman from some of the water and dust and said to them, “I’m tired now. Please, finish up the world for me, really it’s almost done.”  But the man and the woman said, “We can’t finish the world alone!  You have the plans and we are too little.” “You are big enough,” God answered them. “But I agree to this. If you keep trying to finish the world, I will be your partner.” The man and woman asked, “What’s a partner?” and God answered, “A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone. If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because the partner is depending on you. On the days you think I am not doing enough, and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days we are still partners and we must not stop trying to finish the world..that’s the deal.” And they all agreed to that deal.
Then the angels asked God, “is the world finished yet?” and God answered, “I don’t know.  Go ask my partners.”

It has been weeks and we do not know specifically when we can gather together in God’s house. I am reminded of the words of the old spiritual, “I got shoes, you got shoes, all God’s chilin got shoes. When I get to heaven I’m goin put on my shoes and dance all over God’s heaven.” It will feel like heaven when in the future we gather for worship and fellowship. We will celebrate and possibly have a dance floor to dance. In the meantime, we live knowing that God is with us. And, we are with God. We will get through this crisis together. All of us!

Easter blessings,
Connie ✝