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Messages from the Pastor

Where the Sidewalk Ends

7/28/2022

 
Pastor Paul
My four plus years living in Plantsville afforded me the luxury of the Farmington Linear Trail (the old Farmington Valley railroad) where I could do my daily six-mile rapid walk.  From my house I would walk in two minutes to the trail then go in either direction on paved and mostly flat surface.  Other than the cyclists who rode way too fast and would come up from behind, and pass with no warning, it was a great place to get in my walking workout.  My new locale, Branford, is not quite as accommodating.

When I leave my “sandwiched between I-95 and U.S. 1” Condo the path of least resistance is to turn left and head up the rolling terrain of Brushy Hill Road northward toward North Branford.  After I initially go beyond the Cedar Street exit and entrance to I-95 the sidewalk is lots of uphill.  It leads to past a school and a park (where I do four loops around the soccer/baseball fields), and then continue north hazarding one crosswalk where the sidewalk moves from west side to east.  Once on the east side I continue north until – the sidewalk ends.

At that point a decision must be made: stop and turn around for the return trip or continue north at a point where the road has very little shoulder, gets curvy and hilly and is frequented by vehicles travelling a bit faster than the 30-mile speed limit.  Turning around is safe, known and provides sure footing.  Continuing on involves risk and challenge.  Today I needed to get in slightly more than 1/10 of a mile to hit my three-mile mark.  So, I decided to forge ahead.  I discovered a side street, a beautiful bed of the largest marigolds, and was greeted by a friendly elderly woman sitting in the shade of her porch (recalling my earlier meditation about air conditioning!)

I also discovered that most of the walk is treacherous and perilous for walking.  So, every day I will have to choose – safety and familiarity or plunging ahead into the risky, less familiar.  Ah, choices!

As my short time here at North Guilford concludes and I set sight on the place where my sidewalk of fulltime ministry ended I wrestle with the challenge -- stay put or push onward. 

Who knows what I will do but pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, my attentiveness to it, and the courage to take the correct steps.

Shalom

Holding On

7/21/2022

 
Pastor Paul
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew,[c] “Rabbouni!” (Which means Teacher.) 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not touch me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ 
(John 20:16-17)
 
On Easter morning according to the Gospel of John, Mary is at the tomb and sees Jesus but doesn’t recognize him. Thinking he’s the gardener she asks what he may have done with Jesus’ body. When Jesus says her name, she immediately recognizes him and reaches out to grab hold. But Jesus has to get on with his mission in his new reality. Mary wants to preserve the way it was. She is not ready to move on.
 
Being a child of the “Greatest Generation” I grew up with early television. You know – the kind dependent upon weather, the proper position of the rabbit ears, the proper direction of the roof aerial, where you lived in the country, etc. In those early days most of us were lucky to receive five major networks clearly enough to view them through the snow, fog and crackles of T.V. in the 50’s. The offerings were limited but there are some I remember well. One - Your Show of Shows – introduced me to Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Howie Morris, Mel Brooks, Nanette Fabray and Carl Reiner (and behind the scenes Steve Allen, Woody Allen, Neil Simon). I have loved them all ever since and their zany antics still make me smile (and often LOL!)
 
I have read much material about and by most of these pioneers and comic geniuses. In Carl Reiner’s I Remember Me he shares this story about the birth of his son Lucas Joseph.
 
I shall never forget that day and the heart-stopping remark Estelle and I heard the obstetrician make as he examined our newborn for the first time. He said, “This boy will never walk.”  Fortunately, the doctor noticed how his remark sobered the infant’s exultant parents, and he quickly added, “I meant that he’ll never walk, because he’ll always be running!” This guy’s an athlete!  Look at him kick those little legs!”
 
As you will see, that doctor proved to be prophetic.
 
At the same hospital, three days earlier, Barbara Bain Landau gave birth to Susie, a beautiful baby girl. Martin Landau and I had the experience of standing together outside the hospital nursery window and staring proudly at the newest addition to our families. Lying side by side in two plastic containers were one-day-old Lucas and four-day-old Susie.
 
Seven and a half months after their first meeting, the two diaper-clad pals were crawling about on the carpeted living-room floor of our house in North Alta Drive. Marty, Barbara, Estelle and I stood by and watched as the tots crawled from the center of our sunken living room toward the two steps that led up to the foyer. Just as they reached the steps, something unexpected took place – Lucas stood up! All of us saw him standing up, and all were properly amazed.  He just stood there and behaved as if it were natural for him to be upright. Susie, who was sitting just below him, reached up, grabbed a handful of his diaper, and pulled him down to where he belonged, sitting on the floor with her.  Undaunted, Lucas stood up again and took two unsteady steps before Susie pulled him back down. Neither tot seemed to be upset. They were playing a new game they had invented: “I stand up, walk a step, and you pull me down!”
 
How many times like Mary, or Susie are we grabbing hold of someone or something in our lives that we are afraid of losing?  People around us change and move in new directions and we are challenged to decide if our need to hold on is about them – or us. Both Susie and Mary were not ready for the new reality Jesus and Lucas were presenting. Lucas was willing to wait around until Susie could accompany him. Jesus had to leave but with the promise that Mary would be fine.
 
Lucas and Susie are friends to this day. And we, like Mary discover that newness blooms around us like the lilies at Easter because Jesus beckons us onward.

Prayer Tactics

7/14/2022

 
Pastor Paul
(I had neglected to write something for this week and the deadline came crashing down.  I am grateful for Joan Bel Geddes and together this is what we concocted.)
 
Surely it isn’t the most sensible tactic, when you want favors from a male, to keep telling him you doubt that he’s smart enough or nice enough to give you what you’re asking for!  Instead of arguing with and acting suspicious of God, I should probably try to flatter God and get on God’s good side. . .on the other hand, that wouldn’t do any good, actually, because they say God can read our hearts and knows all of our hidden secrets.  So, if I pretended to have more faith and love and hope than I actually do have, God would know perfectly well that I was faking.

That kind of phony prayer would be useless.  That really would be self-delusion, as distinguished from real prayer.  (Hmmm? Have I reached the conclusion that real prayer is not self-delusion?  Maybe I’m beginning to understand something important!)

The nation that claims loyalty to God is chastised in Amos, Chapter 5 for the ways that they have ignored the needs of the poor, the marginalized, the vulnerable and how the powerful have abused their status for their own benefit.  God will have none of it:

I hate, I despise your festivals,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
    I will not look upon.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like water
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

If it’s true that God hates hypocrisy more than God hates almost anything, then it’s good that I am being honest with God and not giving “false worship.”  You can’t honor Truth with lies.

Oft Asked Question ~ Part Two

7/7/2022

 
Pastor Paul
Perhaps God is more interested in having us learn how to use, intelligently and creatively, the freedom and knowledge we are given than God is in protecting us from our errors.  (When a parent or teacher is unwilling to let children risk failure she/he prevents them from ever doing anything important on their own and in fact, stifles learning.)
 
Freedom and power and knowledge are glorious things, but dangerous too.  They can (and are often) misused.  They entail risks.  Are they worth the risks involved?  God seems to think so!  Certainly, people who have been deprived of them think so.  Anyway, everything worth doing involves the willingness to take risks and the real possibility of failure.  Even babies, as they take their first steps, have to be brave enough to accept the possibility that they may fall down and hurt themselves, or they would never learn to walk or to standing up and try again.
 
Please give me the courage I need, God.  And stamina.  And perseverance.  And faith.

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North Guilford Congregational Church   ~~~~~   159 Ledge Hill Road, Guilford, Connecticut 06437
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