On the Commons

If you live in Ithaca, you've been to The Commons. And, many of us go there pretty regularly - for something to eat, to shop or even browse in the stores, to see a film or hear some music.... or just to sit outside and soak up the wide assortment of people who gather in this place. All kinds of people gather there for all kinds of reasons. It is a common space for the community.

Even though our Commons is a far cry from the Commons of medieval Europe - where there was common grazing land in the center of the village - the concept is the same. It is a common space for the community and it was where everyone gathered.

In our Gospel text, John speaks of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and says that all of the sheep will be gathered into one fold - one common ground - one community. This means all kinds of sheep. The ones on the skate boards and the ones with the walkers - the ones just strolling and the ones 'in a mission' - the ones we know and the ones who are strange to us.... ALL of the sheep.....

So, the next time you are on the Commons, look around more carefully, look at ALL of the sheep in this common space, for we are all one community - just like in the Gospel!

Hoping to see all of you on Sunday, Laura Lee

Texts for This Week:

+Psalm 23

+John 10:11-18

Who's Blind?

Bartimaeus was blind. I cannot imagine a life without reading or seeing a child's smile or the tulips in my back yard. He was desperate to see and called out to Jesus for help. The crowd saw Bartimaeus as an annoyance and urged Jesus not to pay any attention to him, just as they didn't. But, Jesus saw him, called him over and healed him.

Do you think the crowd was healed of their blindness? They were blind to this man's suffering and so, he had become part of the urban landscape. They were annoyed by his presence and his 'acting out'. We all probably have times when the pandhandler on the exit ramp or the forgetful elderly person or the rambunctious kid annoys us. Then, we become blind to the weird kids on the Commons or to the ranting woman in the public hearing or to the students puking on the street - like Bartimaeus, they become part of our social landscape. And, maybe this social blindness is even more debilitating than Bartimaeus' physical blindness.

I cannot imagine a life without hearing the stories of people who are truly suffering, or learning from the people who serve me every day, or without being able to see the ways that I might make a difference in someone's life. At least Bartimaeus knew he was blind! Maybe this story really is about the crowd, about us. Maybe it's an invitation for us to ask Jesus to give us new sight.

I am hoping to see all of you on Sunday when Dr. David Mellott, one of our Foote lecturers, preaches on this story, joins us for an AfterWord time and invites us to see the importance of being an Open & Affirming Congregation is today's world.

Blessings - Laura Lee

Texts for This Week:

Texts for This Week:

+ Psalm 34:1-8,19-22

*Mark 10:46-52

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

Go Ahead.......Share! It's a Blessed Thing

The office received an email on Monday: "Dear FCC, We are out-of town this week. Please call the Thonneys and offer them our home. The key is in the flower pot by the back door." No restrictions or rules of conditions. Just sharing.

The week before that someone who had visited our church a few times called a member and said: "I need a driving lesson, can someone help me?" and within hours, our parking lot was hosting a new driver and a member who shared his car and his time. Just did it.

Our sharing FCC is everywhere!  Stephen Ministers, Prayer Shawls, Prayer Care Tree, Healing Prayer Group, Caring Notes, Student "Coffee Cards", receptions for funerals, and then there are all of the people who mobilize to offer practical support through Lotsa Helping Hands, supplying meals and rides and more......

Our texts describe a Christian Community based in sharing and a Psalm on the blessings of unity (com-unity). Hmmm.... perhaps the impulse to share leads to acts of caring that create the blessed community. Perhaps, it's a holy thing to offer the house or the soup or the ice cream cone... Perhaps that's the way God brings us all together. Perhaps that impulse to share will change someone's life.... even yours!

I am looking forward to seeing many of you throughout this weekend of sharing and caring and community.

Blessings - Laura Lee

Texts for This Week:

+ Acts 4:32-35

*Psalm 133

I John 1:1-2:2

John 20:19-31

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.

Now the Green Blade Rises

On this Good Friday, I invite you to  read the moving reflection by Quinn Caldwell, one of our UCC Pastors (below), read the text from Mark for Sunday. And then, plant Jesus.  Plant him in your heart, think of ways to plant him in our church and in our community and in the world. Then we will all be the Easter people we were meant to be! Blessings for today and for all the days ahead, Laura Lee

Beaten.

Mocked.

Imprisoned.

Underestimated.

A savior to millions.

Also a mother, also a scientist, also the first East African woman to earn a Ph.D., also the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.  Also a Christian.

When Wangari Maathai, of blessed memory, looked around her native Kenya in the 1970s, she saw two things: she saw millions of women with almost no way to support themselves or their families in a patriarchal culture.  And she saw arid death taking over her homeland; decades of poor land management had allowed the desert to advance further and further, swallowing thousands of acres of formerly arable land.  She began paying women to raise and plant tree seedlings.  Many (mostly men) laughed at her at first, saying that what those women put into that dead, arid place would be swallowed by it forever.

But the trees slowly took the dead places and made them green and full of life again.  They grew, the programs grew, the women grew and became the Green Belt Movement.  Now the trees aren't holding the desert back any more; these days, they're driving it back.

They thought they were burying Jesus when they put him in that desert tomb.  They thought he would stay in there forever.  But here's what they learned, what they taught Wangari Maathai, what she taught the ladies of the Green Belt Movement: they weren't burying Jesus that day; they were planting him.  And when he sprang up green and fresh, he took that dead, arid place and filled it with life.

He's been driving the desert back ever since.

Texts for This Week:

+ Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 118:1-2,14-24

I Corinthians 15:1-11

*Mark 16:1-8

Note: The texts in bold type will be read in the worship service and the one with an asterisk will be used as the focus for the proclamation of the word.