I know the plans I have for you, says our God, plans for welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.
— Jeremiah 29:11

A future and a hope. What an amazing gift to receive from God’s creating Spirit as we move together into the month of September. We still have a lot of work ahead of us—to keep one another safe and healthy, to lean into becoming a church that is more and more both in-person and online, to give generously wherever people are in need, especially now through our partnership with the church in Haiti.

We have a lot of work to do, and it’s going to take our best thinking, extravagant generosity, and compassion towards one another, especially when we differ. It’s going to require of us flexibility and resilience. This work of creating a new church together and of repairing the brokenness of the world will ask of us creativity and perseverance.

The good news is that God “has our back,” as the expression goes. God is the ground under our feet and the expanse of the heavens. God is the bread of our bodies and spirits. God is the breath of life and the wind of change.

God has plans for us—plans for welfare and not for harm, giving us a future and a hope. In this season let’s inhabit those holy plans, giving thanks always to God, caring always for one another, staying open always to God’s vision, power and peace.

From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised!
– Psalm 113:3 CSB

Enjoy this breezy Summer Sentinel as you delight in the beauty and
promise of summer. Explore opportunities for worship, prayer, fellowship
and mission.
Take in the glory of God’s creation in your own yard, garden or neighborhood, or farther afield if you’re traveling. Savor earlier mornings and lingering twilight.
Breathe deep and rest in the anticipation of new days ahead. Give thanks for all who have nurtured, cared for us, and led us through this past year+.
Dream of what can be, letting all we have learned, experienced, and seen—as if for the first time—spark new visions of fuller life for all and for God’s creation.
From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised!

We’re gradually emerging from a year+ with COVID, step by step, with as much wisdom as we can glean from developments around us. We’re all on different timelines and in different comfort zones in this process. We’ll no doubt need a full measure of patience with ourselves and with one another as we make our way into a new chapter of life together.

And in addition to life beyond the pandemic, we’re facing into serious and divisive social and political issues as a nation, as well as increasingly urgent imperatives to address climate change, now called by many “the climate crisis.”

A social commentator recently reminded me of the work of the American Philosopher William James from the early 1900’s, work that might help and guide us. James wrote of the necessity of people choosing to participate in a world “not certain to be saved,” yet nevertheless a world dependent for its salvation on the condition that each person “does their level best” to help heal and redeem. James envisioned people in a cooperative, co-creative relationship with God, in James’ philosophical parlance described as “the unseen order,” whose initial act of creation was left incomplete, inviting humanity to join the project.
I like the invitation to each and all of us to “do our level best” to create harmony and mutuality, adding our part to the kind of world we seek. I think faith and God’s Creating Spirit undergird this choice and this commitment and that a life of prayer and praise helps form and sustain us in living this Way of Love.

Come, Holy Spirit—come heal, restore and renew.

Our newsletter name, “Sentinel,” harkens back to the role of a lookout or person charged with keeping watch, patiently scanning the horizon to see what lies ahead. Aren’t we all “sentinels” these days, scanning the horizon, peering into the future to see what lies ahead? Is it more of the same-old, same-old in this pandemic time, or are we really seeing the dawn of a new future? Can we see a time when life in public is safer and healthier for all? Can we see a strong determination to overcome all obstacles to racial justice and equity? Can we see a commitment to the health and future of Planet Earth? Can we see a future with hope, as promised by God through the prophet Jeremiah? “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

At First UMC, as we peer into the future that God is creating, our core values continue to be to keep people healthy, to protect the vulnerable, to support vital community, to offer impactful worship online and later in-person, to embrace a blended ecology of congregational participation in-person and online, and to continue to adapt and innovate ministries. As we continue to move forward together, we will transition from the pandemic months in such a way that the health and safety of everyone is safeguarded, that all may experience the presence of God, that we continue as a renewed vital faith community, and witness and serve outside the walls of the church in the community and around God’s whole world.

In us and through us in this time, God is indeed “doing a new thing.” The work of a sentinel can be confounding, exhausting, and exciting all at once. We have to frequently take off our glasses and wash the lenses. As my Grandfather Ted, used to say: “Clean your glasses. You’ll see things you’ve never seen before.”

Stay tuned for exciting announcements of summer activities and outdoor worship opportunities. We will be working hard to be ready for new developments and new opportunities, becoming a “New Church” as God’s future comes into view.

March brought us an extra hour of daylight and the first day of Spring! What might April bring? Well, let’s see…how about some flickering light at the end of the long pandemic tunnel? How about the Confirmation of eight of our amazing youth? How about the first ever First UMC Easter “Hop By?” How about praying with our feet in this year’s virtual Home Run for Kids? How about a stone rolled away and an empty tomb? How about a Risen Savior?!

Wow! These are just some of the many things that will mark our Eastertide season this year as together we are “Living the Way of Love!” Our theme is based on Bishop Michael Curry’s book “Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times.” Bishop Curry is the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, the first African-American to lead the denomination. As he writes, you can almost hear him speaking and preaching. In one chapter, he quotes the preacher at his Aunt Callie’s funeral. The sermon was based on Ezekiel and the Valley of the Dry Bones. He kept calling out to Callie, Bishop Curry remembers, calling her to hear the Word of the Lord and rise up. He writes about that day: “We couldn’t see heaven, we couldn’t see resurrection, but we could feel its possibility. God had been factored into the equation of our experience and something in reality changed. That’s where and when hope happens—when reality is altered by a new possibility.”

So, church—let’s hear the Word of the Lord in these Eastertide days and rise up! Let’s live with joy into all the possibilities and potentialities that God’s resurrecting power is opening to us. Let’s Live the Way of Love!