Board Retreat
This Saturday, June 6
You elected trustees at the congregation meeting
Now the trustees will elect their President and Vice President
Michael Sallwasser and Jennifer Filipowicz are the outgoing
President and Vice President
And you should all appreciate their service during this difficult year
The Board President will be an especially important position
During July when the congregation will not have a minister
And throughout the next church year as you begin your new settled ministry with Rev. Lissa
And continue to respond to the unusual demands of virtual church
We will do some honoring of the outgoing and the new Board
During worship on June 21
This Sunday is our Music Sunday
Francisco Ruiz, our Director of Music is putting together a great program
The following Sunday, June 14, is our RE Sunday
Our Religious Education Director, Naomi Yoshida
And the RE Committee
Are putting that together.
June 21, is my last day preaching to you
We will put a formal close on this interim ministry
Before my last actual work day, June 30
As I drove into church today
I was able to hear on the radio
a portion of the Memorial service
For George Floyd
Taking place this afternoon
In Minneapolis
I heard George’s brother
And I heard a cousin
And a nephew
I was moved to hear how hearing directly from his family
Humanized this person
That has become a symbol of racial injustice
And police brutality
It helped me to begin to imagine George Floyd as a person
His brother talked about he and and his brothers
Washing their clothes together in a bathroom sink
On the night before school
Or eating together
His cousin talked about George’s own family
His children
And apparently a young grandchild.
His nephew talked about George as a father-figure for him.
Our hearts have been so broken by this story
By a brutal murder
By the manifest injustice
By the cumulative anger of so many stories
Like George Floyd’s
Each adding to the other over the years
And years, and years
But I felt my heart-breaking again this afternoon
By the death of a man
That George Floyd is not just the name on a sign
Or a rallying cry
But he was a person
A brother
A cousin
A father
An uncle.
Jesus said, that whatever you do to the least of these
Is as though you did it directly to him
Which you might understand as whatever you do to one person
Any person
Is as though you had done it to the spirit of humanity itself
In Judaism the similar principle is expressed in the Mishnah, as
One who saves a single life, is a though you saved all of humanity.
Each person is the image of God
From one person, such as a symbolic Adam, all humanity descends
All of humanity, in every single life
All of the spirit of humanity, in each individual.
All lives, one life
I think part of what we are seeing happen in our streets this last week
Is a response to this incredible need we have to come together
I mean partly, our need to be together physically
After being forced to be physically distant from each other for so many weeks
But more than that I mean our need to be united
As a community
After so many years of national partisanship
And especially after three years
Of a president who feeds divisiveness
Who plays upon our differences
Who magnifies our conflicts
Who delights in the breakdown of our community
We are so tired of seeing each other as enemies
I long to be united
I felt my heart coming together with others during the memorial service
And that felt so good
And then the portion of the memorial service that I heard
Closed with the pastor
Speaking about the dream of America
The promise of our Declaration of Independence
And our constitution
He recited name after name of black victims of police violence
For whom the American dream was denied
And his plea that we must let America
Be America
For all Americans
We must come together
We are called to come together
Open your heart
An opportunity to heal the divided soul of our country
Is being offered to us
In the name of George Floyd.
See you tomorrow, 1pm.