God, as we gather, once again, outside the sanctuary, the wind is blowing colder and we are gathering what seem to be feeble surveys to figure out what to do.
We miss you God, we miss the radiance of a full flung organ, piping praises to the heavens
We miss the quiet stillness of the sanctuary just before worship, we miss the table & the font, means of your love passed down to us in full view of the sanctuary
But you remind David, as he wonders whether or not to build God a beautiful cedar house, that you are present in your people
And you remind me God, that when I miss you, I am really missing your community
For Jesus has made us the amazing promise that we can demand a miracle; that whenever two or three people gather in the name of Jesus, God will be particularly prsent
I miss you God, because I miss your people
I miss seeing how your grace weaves together us fumbling, silly community; I miss how you make worship in the sanctuary so beautiful in spite of, or perhaps because of, our imperfections
So when I miss gathering “like usual” God remind me of all the ways I have seen church: in Prayer over Zoom, in waves and window conversations in the parking lot, in the daily ministry of cards and phone calls.
Turns out you were here all along, as usual, remind me again and again I pray.
Amen.
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Author: katyandtheword
Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ.
She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible.
"Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal.
Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.
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