I really appreciate hearing from members of our congregation each fall about the ways Plymouth has changed their lives and why they support our congregation. They are poignant, honest, profound, and sometimes even funny. About ten years ago, Bob Sturtevant did a great talk (with apologies to David Letterman) centered around his Top Ten Reasons to Give. Number One was “Because through his son’s teachings, God asked me to.” <Mic Drop>

There are a lot of reasons Jane Anne and I make giving to Plymouth a priority, but for me, giving to the church has been an important part of my spiritual journey. Back when I was in graduate school and we had a newborn, it was hard to pledge, but we managed to give $1,200 a year to First Congregational UCC in Boulder. When we moved to Connecticut, I was the minister responsible for stewardship and mission giving in our conference, and with another young son, we found ways to increase our pledge to First Church in Windsor, UCC. And our move to Fort Collins in 2002 brought new responsibilities and new perspectives. I heard Tom and Paula Dille talk about tithing (that’s 10 percent) their income when they were young adult members of a UCC church in Missouri. I heard Larry McCulloch say that he invested in the church, because it has been the greatest agent of change over centuries. I witnessed Jackie and Kevin Schneider pay their full pledge when the pandemic started to help ensure we didn’t have cashflow problems. I saw one of our members who recently lost a job submit a pledge…that’s an act of deep faith. I have learned so much about God’s abundance from the people who form this congregation. You are an inspiration.

God imbues the universe with “the lyric of abundance,” as Walter Brueggemann puts it. There is enough of everything to go around — that’s God’s intention. The problem lies in distribution. I want to be part of God’s movement, to sing the lyric of abundance not the dirge of scarcity, and I want to do everything I can to support the realm of God. That’s why I support Plymouth financially.

You and I have witnessed incredible injustices in our nation. We are living through a deadly pestilence of biblical proportion. How are we to respond? We can sit back and wring our hands. We can vent on Facebook and feel righteous indignation. But how does that change the world or change lives? Even as I write, our Immigration Ministry Team is using our North Wing to sort donated clothing and supplies for PSD students who arrived in this country not just without documentation, but alone. I want to support that. Carla is developing a lay caregiving program that will have far-reaching impact. I want to support that. When this pandemic is over, we are going to come together to celebrate and sing and offer thanks to God for our deliverance. “O Lord, I want to be in that number,” and I’ll support that!

We have choices about whom we will serve. As for me and my family, we will serve God.

Blessings!

P.S. You won’t want to miss worship on Sunday…jazz, inspiration, blessing, and celebration! And you can pledge online right now at plymouthucc.org/pledge You don’t have to wait!

Six months is a long time to have a church building closed. I was imagining what it would be like if our physical home had been closed because of a fire or flood or some other disaster. I suspect it would be far more difficult for us to have jumped onto the livestream band wagon if none of the other churches in Fort Collins were having to take similar measures. But we find ourselves still feeling as though we are living in exile from the people and the structural home we love.

I keep thinking about Psalm 137, a lament that speaks of an exiled people who long for their homeland:

By the rivers of Babylon --
there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our harps.
For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked
for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How could we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

Lament is a perfectly acceptable form of prayer at this time in our common life. I suspect that many of us are growing tired of livestreamed worship, and I can tell you that I am really weary of trying to connect over the internet with the hundreds of people whom I suspect are out there, but whose reactions and responses I cannot see. I am tired of the hollow feeling of singing hymns with only four people singing in the sanctuary. It seems as if we have “hung up our harps” and God only knows when we will be back together and able to sing robustly “one of the songs of Zion” with a choir and a congregation. And like anger, lament is okay...but it’s a lousy place to get stuck.

We have to move forward from that place of feeling crummy about the state of our lives and recenter ourselves. The wisdom of the Psalms again comes to our aid, providing a pivot (ugh...I’m tired of that word!) moving us from imploring God to doing what we can do by being faithful. Psalm 13 is short and to the point:

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my
heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God!
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my
enemy will say, "I have prevailed"; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
[pivot] But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Each of us has something to be grateful for...some bounty that God has entrusted to our care. Even if it something as elemental as waking up this morning, we can give thanks. I find it difficult to be grateful and grumpy at the same time, and since we have a choice about our own outlook, I make an attempt to live in gratitude. I’m trying to pivot into the love and goodness of God, rather than to get stuck in the mire of lament and self-pity. Singing helps...even if it’s alone in the shower.

Isaac Watts, a Congregational minister in London in the 18th century, usedPsalm 90 as the basis for his hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” and for those of us who feel as if we are in exile — who miss our home — it contains these lines about our true home, which never closes down: “Still be our God while troubles last, and our eternal home.” Don’t be afraid to call on God directly in these uncertain, stressful times. We all need to allow ourselves and one another a bit of grace to feel our lament, and we also need to acknowledge that this pandemic is not going to last forever, and there will come a day when we can return to our fellow members and our church building.

Keep the faith!

Sometimes I think that the Commandment we Americans break with the greatest frequency is observing the sabbath. Honestly, do you set aside a day for rest, regeneration, and focus on your relationship with God? I don’t imagine that more than a partial handful of us at Plymouth actually take a sabbath day each week. Sabbath, of course, is Saturday (hence “Sabado” in Spanish and “sabato” in Italian), and our Jewish siblings observe it thus. Most Christians opt for “The Lord’s Day,” the day of Jesus’ resurrection, as our holy day. Going back as far as the Didache in the 2nd century, believers were to "Gather together each Sunday, break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." 

But sabbath is not just about worship; it also concerns a rhythm for the week. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work.” (Exodus 20.8) 

Do you refrain from your professional work, volunteer work, household chores, errands, and so forth on the sabbath, even if you observe it on Sunday? To be sure, that is still the case for schismatic Presbyterians (the “Wee Frees”) in the Hebrides of Scotland, and our Puritan and Pilgrim ancestors in the Congregational tradition also were strict in their observance of sabbath each week. (We still had “blue laws” in Connecticut when I was growing up.) Isn’t it strange that as we developed a strong “Protestant work ethic,” we seem to have let go of sabbath-keeping?

I’ve just returned from a week of retreat at Ring Lake Ranch, an ecumenical study center in Wyoming, which has deep associations with Plymouth its members, especially the Petersen-Myerses, the Hoyers, the Schulzes, the Dilles, and others. I was meant to be doing a course with Diana Butler Bass this summer, but all presentations were cancelled due to the coronavirus, but they kept the Ranch open at 50% guest capacity for retreat time. I am really grateful that Plymouth allows for sabbatical (and for having Jane Anne at Ring Lake for part of hers) as well as continuing education time for its pastors. Ring Lake Ranch’s motto is “Renewal in sacred wilderness,” which is spot-on. Both Jane Anne and I had a time of renewal…as did Mark Lee, who was taking a break from his new congregation in South Dakota! I encourage you to try Ring Lake Ranch next summer for some great seminar presenters. (Go to ringlake.org for more info.)

The past six months of pandemic have been taxing for all of us…learning to adapt to new ways of worship and being church, working and educating kids from home, resisting the urge to hug or even shake hands with our friends. And it has taken a toll on many of us: on our social, psychological, and spiritual lives. (Racial crises and desperate presidential politics don’t help our sense of well-being, either.) 

So, how do we find resilience in the midst of this marathon that we hoped would end with the first sprint? Sabbath may be the part of the answer. If you can find a way to carve out and set apart a time each week or get away for a few nights of camping or a trip to the mountains, I endorse that as a pastoral recommendation. Thomas Keating used to describe prayer time as “a hot date with God,” and I commend to you some time of contemplative restoration of your soul, whether in the wilderness or in your backyard.

May you be blessed by the discovery of inner strength and faith this week.

Shabbat shalom!

I decided to take a different tack for this week’s Staff Reflection. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing summer in full bloom at Plymouth, with a journey through our Memorial Garden, Labyrinth, back yard…and the nearly-completed new apartment building next door. We look forward to the day when we’ll all be back together in person.

See you Wednesday evening at 7:00 for Midweek Vespers from Plymouth.

Thanks and peace,
Hal

P.S. Download your worship bulletin for Vespers here.

In 2015, after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a group of local clergy gathered to be in touch with Chief John Hutto to talk about race, use of force, training, and hiring in Fort Collins Police Services. The group was started by the late Rev. Frank Gibson, whose life we celebrated at Plymouth last November. Frank was a retired Presbyterian minister who had worked extensively on issues of policing, race, and violence during his long and distinguished career. It was Frank’s knowledge of the law that helped our group of clergy frame our ongoing dialogue with former Chief Hutto, Interim Chief Jones, and Chief Swoboda. My own assessment is that Fort Collins Police Services, through its training, policies, practices, and culture, though not perfect, is far ahead of other police departments, as well as the Larimer County Sheriffs Office.

It was Frank who read volumes of legal documents, including President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which provided recommendations and implementation strategies that should have prevented at least some of the killing of African-Americans by police.

But that isn’t where we find ourselves today in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

Again, we cry, “How long, O Lord? How long?” How long will it be before our nation comes to a great reckoning with our history? How long will it be before we dismantle the systemic racism and injustice that dogs our justice system? How long will it be before European-Americans understand and disassemble the wide-ranging privilege that we and our forebears have enjoyed?

My prayer is that our nation is being given a chance to address what the Rev. Jim Wallis calls “America’s Original Sin,” and a big first step is listening to the voices of our sisters and brothers of color and exploring how we can be a part of the solution. We can use our voices to decry the loss of sacred lives at the hands of police and the inherent inequities in the justice system. A bill in the Colorado legislature addressing police accountability is a good first step. (Many of its recommendations have already been implemented by FC Police Services.) And if you have not seen the film, Just Mercy, (telling the story of Brian Stevenson and the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative) it is an important that you watch it and talk about it…and it’s showing free on many streaming services right now.

The lives of our sisters and brothers of color are sacred. And for European-Americans to remain silent at this time would not only be a sin of omission, it would mean that we are complicit in perpetuating a system that deprives God’s beloved not just of opportunity, but of life. For those of us who are white, it is especially incumbent upon us to listen, to talk, and to act to dismantle racism. We cannot do everything…but we can do something.

In a sermon a few weeks ago, my colleague, the Rev. David Williams of Abyssinian Christian Church, said that the best thing for non-black allies to do is to talk about confronting racism with your own circle of contacts, friends, and family. So, I am talking to you. And I am praying with and for you, as we stand up and engage the struggle, which is a marathon and not a sprint. We’ll hear more at Plymouth as we move forward, and in the meantime listen, read, watch as we take further steps toward God’s reign of shalom.

Together with you in faith,

P.S. If you missed it, here is a link to Sunday’s Coloradoan and an Op-Ed piece I wrote (before the death of George Floyd) on keeping houses of worship closed during the pandemic

I was stunned to see that some Roman Catholic parishes in Colorado are opening for in-person worship…though with masks, social distancing, no communion, no one over 65. When I read about the Catholic parishes, I couldn’t help thinking about the Evangelical-Reformed Cathedral in Berlin, where 59 of 78 choir members were stricken with the coronavirus…or the United Church of Canada congregation in Calgary that gathered for a birthday party in March; 24 of 41 people were infected with coronavirus, and two died. Their minister said, “I would do anything for a do-over.”

Later this week, your ministers and program staff will start a discussion about what (not when) it might look like eventually to reopen. And it will be different from what we knew before, and various groups will have different types of gradual re-opening. It will be done with the utmost care…I don’t want to need a do-over. Please continue to be wise and safe!

The Leadership Council is in the process of forming a strategic planning team, something we had on the docket for 2020 anyway, but our planning this fall will be in a very different context for a church than it would have been without the pandemic. We will be consulting with John Wimberly of Congregational Consulting Group (alumni of the late Alban Institute), and we will really consider the future of the church in a new reality. It may seem crazy, but I am really excited about the possibilities of who Plymouth can become! One learning for most of us is that the church is the gathered body of members, not our building at 916 Prospect Road. We are still the church! We are still people at worship, in service, doing ministry together.

We won’t waste the opportunity of a crisis to make something beautiful happen with God and with each other!

Shalom,

P.S. If you haven’t seen this pandemic-related story, please watch it and wonder…

It is great to have your Congressman visit your church, and it is even better when he comments, “You are the most active church in the area, if not in the state of Colorado.” That is what Rep. Joe Neguse told an overflow crowd in Plymouth’s Forum Room last Sunday morning. Neguse was with us as part of the Adult Ed. Forum series on Ending Gun Violence, and he is sponsoring several bills in the House of Representatives aimed as sensible gun legislation, including national background checks. (Special thanks to Anne Thompson and Mark Lee for arranging this extraordinary visit!)

Carla's sermon on putting John 3.16 into context was a winner, and the choir’s a cappella rendition of Ola Gjeilo’s setting of “Ubi Caritas” was deeply moving.

And then a crowd of Plymouth folks gathered along Prospect Road to show signs of support for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in every aspect of the life of the church and society. Again, kudos to Mark Lee for helping organize the event across several congregations…I designed the signs. : )

The event was planned by a group of progressive clergy in Fort Collins as a positive response to several local evangelical congregations that sponsored workshops on what to me seems like a “kinder, gentler” form of homophobia. Rather than dwell of condemning others or arguing with them, we chose the path of trying to present a response that affirms who we are as Christians and sends a message of inclusion and welcome to all LGBTQ+ folks.

I was heartened to see so many of you literally out in front! We had members in their teens through their 80s waving colorful placards and rainbow flags I counted three flag variations!) to passing motorists, many of whom honked or waved in support. (We know what Plymouth stands for — the same thing Jesus stood for — love.) It was a beautiful and affirming time for Plymouth last Sunday!

I also want to acknowledge that for many of us news about the coronavirus is getting overwhelming and maybe even scary. Please be assured that we are keeping abreast of the news and CDC recommendations and will do everything we can to keep you safe while you’re at Plymouth. (And we are working on a live stream of one of our services, which is likely to come out via Facebook, so if you haven’t “liked” Plymouth's Facebook Page, it’s a good time to do so!) I’ve just heard that we have the first coronavirus diagnosis in Larimer County, so stay tuned for further information about how we will continue to respond.

In the meantime, here is a prayer:

God of all things, we ask for your presence
with all those affected by the corona virus.
We ask for your strength
to be with all those who are working for treatment and prevention.
As we continue our pilgrimage this Lent,
help us to trust in you and your desire for our wholeness.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage. Amen.

The season of Lent has two faces: one that is a lead-in to Holy Week, the crucifixion, and Easter; and another that reflects the 40-day journey of Jesus in the wilderness. There are conflicting theories about the origins of Lent, but a 40-day period of daytime fasting (as our Muslim sisters and brothers do during Ramadan) was discussed at the Council of Nicea in 325. In the Reformed Christian traditions (of which we are a part), Lent was abandoned as non-biblical…but we have been trying to reclaim some of the baby that was tossed out with the Reformation bathwater.

This year we are working with a Wilderness theme. Wilderness for Jesus was a place of testing and clarifying and preparation for his ministry. Wilderness for us may be a metaphor for wild-ness and the glories (and the threats) of Creation. Wilderness can also be a metaphor for chaos and the unknown.
Come and join us this Lent as we worship using Wilderness themes now through April 5 (Palm Sunday).…I guarantee that you’ll hear some new perspectives that will cause some new growth on the branches of your faith.

Tomorrow evening, you are invited to a simple soup supper (generously provided by a ministry team under the Deacons) and to a service at 7:00 p.m. If you have never been to an Ash Wednesday service, I’d encourage you to come and give it a try! You might be surprised at how meaningful it is.

Also, there are Lenten devotional booklets using the Wilderness theme available in the Fellowship Hall at Plymouth, containing poetry, visual art, reading suggestions from your Bible, and space for your own reflections.

May our journey together through the Wilderness bear the fruit of faith.
Shalom!

One of the things you may have noticed on the front page of each Placard issue is the emergency contact numbers for your clergy. Carla, Jane Anne, and I all care deeply for you and want to be available when you need us for spiritual support.

Sometimes we learn that a congregant has had surgery or a hospital stay that we weren’t aware of. (It is perfectly okay if you don’t wish to share that information, but in order for us to provide spiritual care, we need to know if you’ve been hospitalized.) In the old days, Poudre Valley Hospital kept a binder on the visitors’ desk with all patients listed by religion and denomination, and there were times when I dropped in for a visit with a UCC patient from outside Fort Collins, because I saw them listed that way. But with full implementation of HIPAA regulations, hospitals are no longer allowed to share that information. And the upshot is that you need to tell us if you plan to be hospitalized or when you are there unexpectedly…otherwise we have no way of knowing. With all of the option in northern Colorado, we also need to know where: PVH and Med Center of the Rockies, Banner and McKee, the Orthopedic Center and other surgery centers provide lots of options, so please help us know how to find you.

What is it like to receive a hospital visit? Before surgery, with your consent, ministers are allowed to come into pre-op with you to have a prayer. We often pray not just for a positive outcome of your procedure, but also for the people who care for you. Recently, Carla got the enviable task of visiting Ruby Louise Cronk, the newborn daughter of Cara and Owen, who are new to Plymouth…but not as new as Ruby Louise!

There are times, too, when we are present with members when they breathe their last. We don’t have “last rites” like Roman Catholics do, but it can be a comfort to have one of us there to offer a prayer and a blessing after the moment of death. The transition from this life into the next is a sacred time, just as a birth is, and we it is a privilege to accompany you in this journey.

You can also schedule a pastoral counseling appointment with your pastors. We are happy to listen and try to help you through the rocky times that all of us encounter. If you are experiencing depression or anxiety or another serious concern, we can also help refer you to a counselor or psychologist here in town. You don’t need to go it alone!

If you are home-bound, even temporarily, we also can arrange visits. Unlike most other professionals, we still make house calls. Carla is handling most home-bound visits, along with lay caregivers from our Calling/Caring Ministry. (Several of our deacons are also trained to bring communion, as well.)
Please be in touch and let us know how we can be of help. Again, you can find those numbers on the front page of the Placard. Read this month's Placard here.

Thank you for trusting us to care for you!
Deep peace,

“We are pilgrims on a journey;
we are travelers on the road.
We are here to help each other
share the mile and bear the load.”

I love that line from the hymn, “Won’t you let me be your servant.” It speaks to a dominant metaphor in our age: that our spiritual lives are a journey. 2020 is an important year in Congregational and U.S. history as it is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Great book recommendation: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.)

Pilgrimage is an important metaphor and action in our faith tradition. For most of us, it does not involve doing penance for past wrongs, but rather a way of deepening our faith. When Muslims make a pilgrimage — the Hajj — to Mecca, or when Jews travel to Jerusalem, or when Buddhists walk from temple to temple in Japan, they are engaging a deepening of their spiritual journey. Like the journey of Abram, the forebear of three of the world’s great religions, left Haran and set out, he set a pattern for one-way pilgrimage that doesn’t include a return trip. Likewise, the early Irish saints called themselves peregrini, and they went out on a one-way pilgrimage as well.

In this coming year, I invite you to imagine a new pilgrimage for this congregation, whose name itself bears the indelible mark of pilgrim journey. As we engage a new strategic plan this year, we will imagine new vistas for our congregation. We will dream new dreams for our congregation: who we are, how we serve our neighbors, and where God is calling us to go.

T.S. Eliot in Four Quartets wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” May God help us this year help us to journey together, explore and expand our view, and to see Plymouth again for the first time.

Shalom!

Lately in our staff meetings and at last night’s Leadership Council I’ve heard a common refrain: Let’s do less at Plymouth…and do it better.

Does it seem to you that we sometime confuse being effective as a congregation with just being busy? Do we sometimes form Ministry Teams or launch events that may not align with our mission? We need to get better at saying, “No, thank you” to good things that just don’t fit in with our mission priorities and direction.

All of that sounds very hard-and-fast, but it also has deep resonances with Advent. We must be willing to say, “no” in order to keep ourselves focused on what is really important in this season. If you are a parent, it may seem supremely important to buy the right toy or technology for your child. There may be family traditions (making cinnamon bread at our house) that may sometimes seem like more of a burden than a joy. Decorating your Christmas tree and the inside of your home, not to mention illuminating the exterior, make take up more of your time than seems reasonable to you. Left unchecked, the shopping, cooking, traffic, dreaded holiday parties, and general busyness all can, ironically, keep us from our Advent task as Christians.

I’ve been preaching about newness and transformation the past two Sundays, and it occurs to me that these are part of my task (and perhaps yours) in this season. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes,
 
Imagine a whole company of believers rethinking their lives, redeploying their energy, reassessing their purposes. The path is to love God, not party, not ideology, not pet project, but God’s will for steadfast love that is not deterred by fear and anxiety. The path is to love neighbor, to love neighbor face-to-face, to love neighbor in community action, to love neighbor in systemic arrangements, in imaginative policies.
The decrees of Caesar Augustus continue to go out for taxes and for draft and for frantic attempts to keep the world under our control. But the truth is found in the vulnerable village of Bethlehem outside the capital city, the village that disregarded the imperial decree. It will take a village to exhibit this alternative, and we are citizens of that village.   (from Celebrating Abundance)
 
What newness may be breaking into your life this Advent? What unexpected direction might God be luring your toward? What may be gestating within you that God may be calling you to deliver?
 
In anticipation of transformation,

This Saturday, you have the opportunity to meet a wonderful woman; The Rev. Carla Cain is the person we’ve been waiting for as Plymouth’s Designated-Term Pastor. It has seemed like a very long stretch between Jake’s departure on August 1, but it’s only been four months! My staff colleagues and I have been trying to keep all the plates spinning in the meantime, and I offer my thanks to them!

The Search Committee I’ve been privileged to chair includes Denise Morrison, Sara Myers, Curtis Wray, and Harmony Tucker. We have done an incredible amount of soul-searching discernment and flat-out work that included reviewing 15 applicant profiles and conducting eight interviews by Zoom teleconference. We brought two finalists to Fort Collins on two weekends that began with dinner on Friday evening, and a Saturday packed with breakfast meetings, interviews with the committee, drinks with available staff members, and dinner with the committee on Saturday. Both finalists were also able to be a “fly on the wall” and observe our 9:00 service. Kudos to our searchers!

Now, it is your turn, fellow members of Plymouth! You’ve read about Carla in a special email from the search committee and now you have the opportunity to meet Carla in a less-formal setting this Saturday, November 16, from noon to 2:00 p.m. at Plymouth. And then attend our single service on Sunday at 11:00 and our Congregational Meeting immediately following. Please make every effort to be with us this Sunday: It will be great to ALL of our members worshiping in one place at one time!

A colleague once remarked, “You’ve never really been welcomed into a church until you’ve been welcomed as a pastor,” and I remember how warm Plymouth’s welcome was to me in 2002. This is when we “kill the fatted calf” and help someone transition into ministry among us: getting to know her gifts and graces, offering a hand with settling in, helping her get acquainted with Fort Collins, inviting her to a meal. Pending a favorable vote on Sunday, Carla will start at Plymouth on December 15!

See you on Sunday!

P.S. And on Monday, November 18 please join us at 7:00 p.m. for a screening of a new documentary, American Heretics, in our sanctuary. The film deals with Progressive Christianity in the Bible Belt and features Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City. You can see a preview by clicking here!
 
P.P.S. If you still need to pledge, you can do so online.

A wonderful hymn, “God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale” (NCH 32) poses couplets of questions for us: “How does the creature say awe…praise, grace…thanks, care…life, joy…home.” Think about those pairings and how they play out in your own life: Do you respond to an awe-inspiring sunrise by praising God? Do you answer God’s grace by saying thanks? Is your response to being cared for by God to regard the sanctity of all lives? Do you respond to joy by acknowledging that you are at home with God? I wonder if a prevalent sin many of us commit is taking it all for granted…as if we deserve it and that it will always “just be there for us.”

Our church home is at a crossroads, and we need your help. Because we don’t want to burn out volunteers, this year we hired a great business manager to do Plymouth’s accounting. And because technology is moving faster than any of us can imagine, we hired a great IT/Communications professional to manage our database, ensure our computers and networks are working, lay out the Placard and send you this Staff Reflection. The rub is that we, the members and friends of Plymouth, have to pay for the services of gifted staff members, and that is going to mean that all of us need to Go Deeper and ask how we can respond to God’s grace and say thanks in a tangible way: through our giving to Plymouth.

Stewardship means different things to different members of Plymouth. To some, it implies giving a tithe – one-tenth of one’s income – to support the mission and ministry of the church. To others, it is one financial obligation among many others. For some of us, considering our financial pledge to Plymouth provides an opportunity to reflect on God’s abundance and grace, and as God’s creatures, we say, “Thanks!”

This week you will receive in the mail a letter and brochure from our Stewardship Board with all kinds of inspiring and useful information. I invite you to read it, to look closely at the Graduated Giving chart on the back and calculate what your pledge for 2020 might be, relative to your household income. (Jane Anne and I did this, and we’re increasing our own pledge to Plymouth in 2020.) And I invite you to pray about how you, as a creature of God, will say thanks.

Gratefully,

P.S. At a special meeting of board chairs a few weeks ago, there was a suggestion that we emulate Heifer Project with sample giving opportunities…knowing that we aren’t actually giving a flock of geese or a water buffalo. So, I’m including some samples of what your pledge can help fund.

Dear Plymouth Friends,
 
I’m writing to you at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, and I’ll soon be getting ready to drive down to the UC Health Cancer Center for my last radiation treatment! YAY! I’m just a little excited to be finished with this chapter of my cancer journey (though I’ll keep reading the “hormone-therapy chapter” through November). But there is a part of me that is also a little sad, because I’ll no longer be cared for by a phenomenal team of folks at the Cancer Center — people who remember my name each day, greet me with a smile, ask about my sons or my weekend or how the fishing was. (What a different world it would be if we all did that for others!)

For the last two months, I have spent a half hour, five days a week, with these lovely people whose primary goal was to irradiate the cancerous cells in my body, but whose more visible aim was to see me as a whole human being and to treat me lovingly. I hope that I and the members of Plymouth’s staff can do that for you! And I so appreciate the cards and prayers you all have sent!

There have been moments when the fatigue and hot flashes and thoughts of my own mortality were pretty overwhelming…and there is a lot going on at Plymouth, too! One of my learnings in this part of my cancer journey is that there is a way to cut through the miasma of fear and side effects. It’s not terribly complicated, and I know some of you are well-acquainted with it already.

One morning as I walked out of the Cancer Center after an acupuncture treatment (which really helps with fatigue!) I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I had been blessed: held up by an acupuncture therapist with a great sense of humor and a broad smile and a positive attitude that won’t quit; held up by a radiation therapist who shared Chris’s WWOOFing experience in Japan with her parents; held up by an oncology counselor who really understood me and all I’m going through.

So, here is the “secret sauce” that I will try to carry with me from this part of my cancer journey: Gratitude is the key to being joyful, even in the midst of a crisis. If we are able to stop and notice the love around us, the glory of God’s creation, the miracle of being alive, we are likely to experience not superficial happiness, but deep joy.

Some of us walk around focusing on what we don’t have or what isn’t perfect. (Eeyore is a wonderful character in “Winnie the Pooh,” but a really poor model for life!) Others of us see the blessings of our lives every day. It’s up to us how we perceive the world.

So, what is today going to bring for you? Blessings or woes? Even in the thick of it, you can turn to see the face of God in what you experience…and give thanks!

Gratefully,

As you may know, my younger son, Chris,* has started his gap year WWOOFing (working on organic farms) in Japan. He is having an amazing cross-cultural experience, and interestingly is staying on a farm for another week with a Christian family with whom he is attending church. At 18, Chris is getting to have his first independent conversations about religion not only with his hosts, but with his fellow workers, who include a Muslim student from Malaysia. In a message this morning, Chris wrote that he was having longer, interesting talks with his hosts, who identified as evangelical Christians who “do not support abortion and I think not gay marriage and people.”

I am thankful that Chris was raised at Plymouth in an environment where he was encouraged by the whole community to think through his faith and to ask questions not only of other people, but of himself. I’m grateful that he counts as friends LGBTQ folks in our congregation: people who have loved him and nurtured his faith. I appreciate that we have raised Chris in a congregation where he has learned the value of intergenerational community, where he has learned that he is not the center of the universe. And I’m grateful for his experiences in Sunday school, youth group, confirmation, and at camp at La Foret, and on mission trips. Thank you all for helping to shape Chris and who he is becoming! Truly, it does take a village, and you have given Chris and our family a tremendous gift!
 
This coming Sunday is Friends & Family Sunday, when you are encouraged to invite a friend or family member to worship: someone who needs the gift of Plymouth. I know that many of us are uncomfortable speaking with friends and colleagues about our faith — even some of us who have advanced degrees in theology — but it’s time to work to get over it, because the stakes are too high. This community, our nation, and God’s world need progressive congregations like Plymouth, and they will die without your participation.

I can hear you asking now, “Why in God’s name would I invite someone to Plymouth?” So, here are some answers:

1. Many families in Fort Collins need an amazing faith-formation program for their kids. Don’t they deserve what Chris had?
2. We need to be a visible, vocal presence for progressive faith in Fort Collins. Of 43 people demonstrating for sane gun laws at Sen. Cory Gardner’s office in August, half were from Plymouth!
3. People have no idea that a church can offer a safe welcome to LGBTQ folks…not a church where we will simply be tolerated or tokened, but truly welcomed!
4. Many Christians, particularly of the evangelical or Roman Catholic variety, are ready to give up on the church and God…because they don’t know a church like Plymouth exists.
5. Each of us has received the gift of Plymouth — relationship to God, community, love, making a difference in the world, giving and receiving care during crises, the list goes on — we cannot horde our gifts or hide our lamp under a bushel.
6. We all want to make a positive impact in the world, and Plymouth is one of the most effective ways of creating change in our community.
7. We are deeply rooted in the Christian faith and tradition, but we have the flexibility to listen to the still-speaking God and to adapt. Our tradition is 2,000 years old; our thinking is not.
8. In our culture, it is hard to find a place to ask meaningful questions about the deepest parts of life: why we are here, who we are called to be in the world, what God is drawing us toward. Plymouth encourages that!
9. There are amazing people in our community who know something is missing in their lives. What if it’s something as important as a relationship with God? You can help.
10. You know that you want one of those nifty Plymouth pint glasses…you and your guest next Sunday will receive one!

 
So, invite a neighbor, a colleague, a family member to experience the gift of Plymouth. You can do it! I’ll see you (and your guests!) at all three services on Sunday!
Peace,

* Chris approved my sharing this…I know better than to use family stories without permission!