Finding Hope in Chaos

Regardless of one’s ideological stripe, the events of the past ten days have been unprecedented, chaotic and dangerous.  And we share a common apprehension, if not outright fear, that the worst is not necessarily behind us.  White supremacists and bad actors have put our nation, and by extension, a good part of the world, on edge.  If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend Marilyn Pagán-Banks’ Daily Devotional for Thursday January 14.  She writes, in part, “If we are to truly bring about the kin-dom of God, we can’t keep the evil ideologies we know to be causing harm and death all around us out of our conversations, our analyses, our strategies, or our rituals.”  The entire piece can be found here: https://www.ucc.org/daily-devotional/dont-mince-words. 
 
And yet… (it is often the task of the church to offer the “And yet…”) you and I also enter a weekend tinged with great hope.  It is the weekend we remember the words and the work of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  His was a voice in the wilderness, an articulation of hope in the midst of the chaos that was the struggle for civil rights, a struggle that the events of the past year have demonstrated is far from over.  It is also the final weekend before a new President is inaugurated, with all the hopefulness and promise of change the ceremony brings.  Of course, once the calendar changes from January 20 to the 21^st, you and I must go back to the hard work of making that hope reality.  But if any one can do this, I am confident it is the church of Jesus Christ.
 
This weekend I hope to touch the legacy of Dr. King via a rather unusual gospel text, but I won’t have to do it alone – I will be in good company, as we will see on Sunday.
 
A reminder that we will have a hymn sing on Wednesday, January 20 at 4 p.m., accessible through our UCC FB page.

 
Sunday January 17, 2021 Bulletin
Link to Service