Check out the Church Calendar (uuclb.org)
Many activities are now posted on our church calendar
Contact me if you need help setting up an existing group
Or if you’d like to create a new group
Zoom Bombing
New security controls will help solve the problem
I’m suggesting to some of our tech folks that we organize a training for folks who are being asked to lead meetings. I’ll let you know when that gets arranged.
Connections survey
I checked in with the callers yesterday
It looks like it’s mostly going well. (133 responses so far)
A good number of people who haven’t responded to the callers voice mails or emails.
The folks they are talking to are reporting they appreciate the contact
Low levels of need – but worthwhile
Buddies, transportation volunteers, and the Geek Squad
Looking to finish the survey by Sunday
Ministerial Search Committee
I’m letting the MSC manage the communication about their process
Still doing background checks on the identified candidate.
Maybe an announcement this Sunday
Working on a candidating “week” schedule that will likely be “two weeks” starting April 21.
Preaching on April 26 and May 3
Congregational meeting for the vote to call on May 3.
Working out a voting process for Zoom and phone.
Please support the church financially, if you can.
Information about Text to Give is available on the church website
2) Message
Good Friday
Good in this case meaning “holy” as in morally good.
Obviously not “good” as in happy
Same as the Bible is called the “Good Book”
It’s a holy book
Not necessarily a good book in the sense that The Great Gatsby is a good book
Good Friday is the day that Jesus was crucified.
It’s also the day he was tried
It all happens very fast.
Arrested after the Last Supper
Which was yesterday
Tried very early on Friday
Crucified at nine in the morning.
“At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.” (Mark 15:33)
34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
and then
37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
For Christians, obviously, this is not a “good” day
But it’s a holy day
It’s a solemn day
Celebrated with meditation and prayer,
The story of Jesus’ death asks us to contemplate
The truth and the mystery of life and death
Justice and injustice
Love and hate
It shows the cruelty present in human nature
As Unitarian Universalists we see Jesus’ death
As a human death
And not a redemptive death of a God.
But, remember that on the day of Jesus death, Good Friday
Jesus’s followers also saw his death as just a death
Because they didn’t yet know about the resurrection
And so we can be with them in their shock
And despair
Confusion, fear.
And that’s where I feel I am today
Feeling the sorrow of this day of plague.
When so much of what I depended on a month ago
Has been taken away
And when, already, friends I know are experiencing sickness and death
And like Jesus’ followers today, I don’t know what will come
I don’t know where this story will end
We’re in the midst of this story
A story that eventually will have an ending
And that ending might very well change the meaning of what we’re feeling today.
I don’t know.
Maybe this story is just the story of human tragedy it feels like today
Or maybe, this turns out to be a Holy time.
And when this story finally has it’s ending, maybe
it turns out to be mix of sadness and hope
Human folly and human courage
Cruelty and compassion
Some selfishness we have already seen
and some great gift of love
we have yet to see
See you tomorrow. 1pm