Board Retreat
This Saturday, June 6
Orient new Trustees
The Trustees will elect the Board President and Vice President
And assign “ministries”

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
And say our farewells
We will do some honoring of the outgoing and the new Board
We have three new members to welcome

I woke up this morning feeling hopeful
That was a pleasant feeling
It’s not that I haven’t been hopeful over the last few days
But I’ve been feeling a lot of emotions
Swirling and contradictory
I’ve felt exhausted
Disgusted
Angry

I’ve felt depressed at times
Inspired at times
Proud
Even optimistic

But also worried and anxious
Bored Over-
whelmed Dis
appointed
Confused

I could probably write a longer list
I suspect you could also name your feelings
In a list that long
Or longer

This is an intense, emotional time for all of us
This week of protest and social and personal
Wrestling with racial injustice
And police violence
But also the last several weeks
As the already intense response to the COVID-19 situation
Was then compounded
By the economic crisis
And then further by the horrifying murder of George Floyd
And the days of national rage that have followed

So we have emotions on emotions
We have emotional reactions to the events of the last two months
(Fear, joy, anger, pride, etc.)
And then emotional responses to our emotions
Exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed

A spiritual community is called to two modes of ministry 
Prophetic and Pastoral

Prophetic is the truth-telling mode 
The call to justice
The casting of the vision
And the critique of where the current reality falls short

The Pastoral is the healing mode
The whisper of peace
The ministry of compassion
The ministry of promise and comfort to the anxious and afraid.

We are living in an incredibly rich “prophetic” moment
The old ways that failed so many people
Are being recognized as failures
And that people who had not seen that truth
are able to see it now
And change is demanded
As it has been for so long
But more people seem at last willing
To respond to the demand.

And as I said,
I woke up this morning feeling hopeful
But I’m also feeling all of those other feelings I mentioned earlier
And my feelings on top of feelings

And so as I think about the need for the prophetic and the pastoral
In a spiritual community
I wonder how we can stay committed to the call
Of a prophetic vision
And sustain the work that it will take 
to make a new reality?

The protests this week have been invigorating, and inspiring,
But the truth is
protests are the easy part
Venting rage and anger doesn’t require strategy
Or organization
Or leadership
Or precisely articulated goals
Which is not to say those qualities aren’t present.
But if you have a free afternoon you can join a protest
And then go home again
That’s something,
But it’s not enough

Social change is tough
It requires sustained work
Organization, leadership, precisely articulated goals
And a strategy
To move those goals through institutions of power.

And because that work is hard,
And long
And exhausting
Prophetic work
Must be balanced with pastoral work

If you’re already feeling exhausted (I am)
How are you going to feel
Months and (I’m sorry to say) years from now
When the work we are starting today
Is still asking you for a little more work
To push the reform across the finished line?

So, in the midst of this prophetic time.
I want to offer this pastoral message.

You are my pastor.
I shall not want.
You set me in green pastures.
You lead me beside the still water.
You restore my soul.

You guide me in paths of righteousness for You are righteous.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  I fear no evil, for You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff comfort me.
You spread a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You soothe my head with oil; my cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in Your house forever.

And then these Closing Words, that bring
Prophetic and pastoral together

These are from, Rev. Lauralyn Bellamy
a minister and chaplain in Georgia
now retired

If, here, you have found freedom, take it with you into the world.
If you have found comfort, go and share it with others.
If you have dreamed dreams, help one another, that they may come true!
If you have known love, give some back to a bruised and hurting world.

Go in peace.

See you tomorrow, 1pm.