![]() One of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson begins: I dwell in Possibility – A fairer House than Prose – More numerous of Windows – Superior – for Doors – A central message about Easter is that sometimes what we assume to be impossible is not. New beginnings and “newness of life,” in Paul’s words, are possible. Six months ago, we may not have thought that a COVID vaccine was possible, but in January this year, things shifted. Three different vaccines are now approved for use in the US. All Coloradoans 16+ years old are eligible to be vaccinated. That is likely to be a game-changer for us! What are the possibilities for us as individuals, as a church, as a wider community, nation, and world? We are being given a second chance at life…unlike the 2.85 million people who have died from COVID-19 around the world and the 555,000 people in the United States. A few months ago, one of our members in her 20s, who was working for the Larimer County Health Department, was an early vaccine recipient, and at Coffee Hour one Sunday she said that she was aware of the privilege of having been vaccinated. That word struck me: privilege. We who have received the vaccine are privileged by dodging death one more time. We do have privilege…so what shall we do with it? How can we take advantage of the second chance we’ve been given? What new beginnings do you see or envision sprouting in your life and in our common life as a congregation? Or as the late poet, Mary Oliver, wrote, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” You’ll be hearing more in the coming weeks from our awesome Strategic Planning Team about ways, including a Congregational Conversation on Sunday, April 11 at noon via Zoom. Our Pandemic Team meets again this Wednesday, and I anticipate that we will have information for you soon on more occasions to see one another in person. We are keeping your safety and others’ safety first and foremost and using science (rather than wishful thinking) as the basis for our decisions. We did have two wonderful in-person events last weekend: an outdoor Easter egg hunt (and games, including Pitch-the-Peeps-at-the-Pastor) and a drive-in parking lot service on Easter Sunday with clergy held ten feet aloft by construction scaffolding. Truly, engaging our kids, teen, and families on Saturday and seeing a host of you sitting in your cars on Sunday was one of the most energizing and uplifting experiences I’ve had in the last year. May God help us dwell in possibility as we envision and act upon the privilege we’ve been given in this one wild and precious life. Wishing you courage and newness of life! AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. Dear Plymouth Family,
Again, I write to you in the wake of another shooting in Colorado. And as I said in my sermon last Sunday, I will continue to be vocal about the need for sensible gun legislation in our nation. Last night I was in a meeting with our Strategic Planning Team, one of whose members is a Public Defender, providing legal representation for people in a range of cases, including murder. Something she said really struck home: Many of the people who commit horrendous acts like the one at King Soopers in Boulder last night have severe mental illness and they do horrific things…and the availability of guns makes the fallout so much worse. As a moral question, I wonder what it is in our society that causes so much mental distress (especially, it seems, among young White men)? What message is our culture sending to people that says violence and mayhem are the only answer? Where are the faith communities in all of this? Why are we a lone voice among faith communities for sensible gun laws? From a spiritual perspective, I cry out, “How long, O Lord? How long?” What is it in the spiritual lives of Americans (who some claim are a Christian nation) that allows us to tolerate shootings again and again and again? What is NOT being said from the nation’s pulpits? Columbine. Aurora. Colorado Springs. Thornton. Highlands Ranch. Boulder. Friends, we in Colorado are at Ground Zero for public shootings. Let’s do something about it. Here are steps you can take:
This hits close to home for Jane Anne (who served Community UCC as an interim minister) and for me as a former resident of that neighborhood in Boulder. In the coming week, many churches will hear the story of Jesus and the Empire’s myth of redemptive violence…that executing Jesus will make it all go away. You will hear about a triumphal parade that led to desertion, betrayal, sham trial, and crucifixion. That should speak loudly to every person who claims to follow Jesus that violence is not his way, nor should it be ours. And we will also hear the story that violence and death is never God’s final word. Deep peace and more action, ![]() You may have wanted to fill those blanks in with a four-letter word other than “Week,” but resist the temptation! The last year has been filled with more “pivots” and “adaptive challenges” than any in our lifetimes. Our very first livestreamed service was on March 15 (the Ides of March!), 2020, as we started to learn more about the spread of the novel coronavirus that would change so many lives, as well as changing our nation, community, and congregation. And while it may seem slightly premature, I want to express my gratitude to each of you for being patient, keeping yourself and others safe, demonstrating flexibility, and going with the flow as much as you have! Please keep up the great work…we’re getting closer to the end of the pandemic day by day. I just returned from a meeting in Santa Fe with two of my three UCC CREDO colleagues (and am self-quarantining), and even though ours is the largest of the four congregations, ours is the only one of those four UCC churches that has not lost a member to COVID. That has required sacrifice and selflessness and generosity of spirit…way to go, Plymouth! Our Pandemic Team continues to monitor developments and is taking a deliberately slow pace in restarting our in-person activities. This month, our Middle School and High School Youth Groups are having their first gatherings with ten or fewer participants, masks, distancing, and open windows in the Fellowship Hall. If that goes well, we’ll extend that opening to other fellowship and spirituality groups within the congregation. Holy Week is not far off — there are only two more Sundays in Lent! And we are busy planning for an online Maundy Thursday Tenebrae service, a noontime organ concert on Good Friday, and an online ecumenical Good Friday service at 7:00 p.m. Easter Sunday will feature three different services: a drive-in service in our parking lot at 8:00 a.m., a recorded service (with brass!) at 10:00, and an interactive Zoom service at 6:00 p.m. (And for the kids there will be an in-person Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday…sign up by March 28 at plymouthucc.org/kids.) We’ve had to make adjustment this year…lots of them. Thank you for hanging in there and being part of the solution rather than part of the problem. I’m very grateful to you and proud of all of us at Plymouth. Blessings as we walk through these final days of Lent. Peace, ![]() Dear Plymouth Family, It has been some time since I wrote to you with an update on the unfolding dimensions of the pandemic and how they affect us at Plymouth. As you've seen, there is a lot going on with changes afoot in our worship life with prerecorded services on Sundays at 10:00 and the return of our 6:00 p.m. Sunday service, now available by Zoom. The Pandemic Team met two weeks ago, and as our moderator Bruce Ronda reported in the Overview, their counsel is to go slowly. You may also have noticed that the Larimer Country Health Department has moved its Risk Dial Level to Yellow (Concern) this month, but the data as reported in the New York Times (captured above on 2/27/21) don't seem to support that move unless economic vitality, rather than public health data, is considered. The NY Times data suggest that we are in the red zone with "Very High Risk." I can tell you that the Pandemic Team is taking hard data into account in our decision-making. As part of our go-slow approach, our building will remain closed, and starting tomorrow, March 1, we are going to open the building occasionally to our youth groups for gatherings of ten or fewer students in the Fellowship Hall only, with masks, social distancing, and open windows. (There are protocol sheets, cleaning supplies, and plenty of hand gel in the Fellowship Hall.) If that step goes smoothly, and if the numbers of new cases in Larimer County declines, our next step will be to open the Fellowship Hall to Plymouth groups of 10 or fewer people, such as our spirituality and fellowship small groups. Boards, Committees, and Ministry Teams will continue to meet via Zoom for the time being. Staff are still working primarily from home, except when we need to be in the building. And you are welcome to come walk the labyrinth and to add prayers to the Lenten prayer tree outside the North Wing doors! I know that many of our older members are receiving vaccine, which is great! But there are still many of us who are not yet eligible. And unfortunately, faith leaders' eligibility was reclassified by the state government Friday, so we are now in group 1.B.4, which is no longer the next group in line. (Some staff are getting vaccinated by virtue of their age.) I want to acknowledge that it is difficult not to let our newfound enthusiasm lead us to conclude that we should be back together in person soon. When we do come back, please don't expect things to be the same. Until we're all vaccinated, things like singing, coffee hour, children, young families, young adults are all likely to be missing from our remembered Sunday experiences. I'm not trying to be a downer...just trying to manage expectations. I ask for your patience and understanding that our first concern is your safety. As always, your clergy are available for online, telephone, and outdoor pastoral counseling. And please do let us know of any emergencies and hospitalizations! As we continue to exercise patience and good judgment, I give thanks to God for you, and my prayer is for your good health, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Blessings! ![]() Image by Prierlechapelet from Pixabay I love the tongue-in-cheek comment from our Sunday Forum Ministry Team: “Haven’t we been doing Lent for a year now? I’m tired of giving stuff up!” Yep…it sure feels that way, but for most of us, we’ve been giving up stuff perhaps without much spiritual benefit. So, maybe don’t give anything up for Lent this year! Maybe this season of spiritual deepening (which starts in only 8 days!) can be an opportunity to offer yourself something more nourishing than further deprivation. If there is one thing none of us need this year, it’s a more-abrasive hair shirt or flagellum! Soon, you will receive a Lenten devotional in the mail from Plymouth. Like our Advent devotional booklet, this comes from a group of young clergywomen called A Sanctified Art. I hope that you enjoy it and engage with it! One of our members, David Petersen, a renowned Old Testament scholar and formerly dean of Candler School of Theology at Emory University, will begin offering a weekly reflection on the reading from the Revised Common Lectionary. You’ll be able to find it online at plymouthucc.org/lent2021 as the season begins. We are amazingly fortunate at Plymouth to have such scholars among us! If you are feeling in a crafty-prayerful frame of mind, I invite you to join me for a two-part Prayer Bead workshop, February 20 & 21. We’ll learn how to create a strand of Anglican Prayer Beads (all tools and materials provided…a $43 materials fee is requested) on a Saturday morning and then pray with them and write our own prayers on Sunday afternoon via Zoom. You can learn more and sign up at plymouthucc.org/adults (I’ll also be doing beads with our Middle School and High School Youth Groups.) And the aforementioned Forum Ministry Team has great plans for you on Sunday mornings in Lent at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom. Their first foray on February 21 is an exploration of the themes of Lent (wilderness, searching for God, grief, repentance) have been a part of our pandemic journey. The following week, Wayne Carpenter will offer “How to Be Sick,” an exploration of chronic illness, its losses and discoveries. As I invite you to engage your spiritual journey fully, I leave you with this offering from the cycle of Celtic prayers I use with Anglican Prayer Beads: You are the love of each living creature, O God. You are the warmth of the rising sun. You are the whiteness of the moon at night. You are the strength of the waves of the sea. You are the life of the growing earth. Speak to me this day, O Lord, speak to me your truth. Dwell with me this day, O Lord, dwell with me in love. Amen. Blessings to you! P.S. Our Ash Wednesday service will be on Zoom at 7:00 p.m. on February 17…look for an email invitation. AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. ![]() Worship is at the heart of our activity as a congregation…“It is our mission to worship God and to make God’s realm visible…” The problem during a pandemic is that worshiping remotely is vexing, even with the best technology available, because we are dependent upon the not-so-tender mercies of the internet and beta software. You’ve probably been part of a service when something technological has gone awry. I’ll spare you the litany of all that we’ve tried, but as recently as last Wednesday, we had craziness with our livestreaming camera immediately before the service. I’m grateful to Dean Wallace 😇 for all of the audio engineering and Jim Medlock 😇 and his videography team who have supported worship through all of these months. And I appreciate your patience as we non-broadcasters have attempted new ways to connect you with God and with one another. And we’re still trying new approaches after consulting with the Board of Deacons! Beginning February 7, we will be launching a recorded video on Vimeo at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Why the shift? The short answer is that recording allows us to regroup if technology fails us, and it provides a more put-together experience. There are some big positives, too:
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 17, and we’ll be hosting a Zoom-based service that evening, allowing you to see other worshipers. That will be the last Wednesday evening service for the time being. Midweek Vespers has had a dedicated, small following, and while the ministers and staff enjoy producing it, the appeal has been limited in our congregation. So, we’re trying something new: returning to our 6:00 p.m. service via Zoom on the first Sunday of Lent, February 21. There are some benefits here, too:
As we look toward warmer temperatures (not in February!) and the rates of Covid cases in the community, the Deacons, ministers, and staff will continue to consider additional possibilities like parking-lot services, brief outdoor communion, and outdoor worship. Balancing physical safety and intimate connection is a tough act, especially when some of us are receiving vaccine and some of us aren’t yet eligible, and young folks may not be until summer. I know you want to come back and see friends and worship in person…I do, too! But we won’t do that until it’s safe. Even then, it will be different. Coffee hour with large clusters of people, singing, communion in the sanctuary, kids and young families…we’re still likely to miss all these aspects of our communal life. I am grateful for your prayers for us in this tricky time and for your patience with the process. Deep peace, AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. “The time immediately before and during an election must always be considered a period of national crisis. The more difficult the country’s domestic situation and the greater perils it has to face abroad, the more dangerous that time of crisis is…. The election of a president is a cause of agitation, not ruin.” [1] – Alexis de Tocqueville ![]() As I write this reflection, members of the House of Representatives have introduced articles of impeachment against Donald Trump for the second time in his presidency, asserting that he “gravely endangered the security of the United State and its institutions of Government…. interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government.” (Tocqueville apparently overlooked the time after an election as a time of national crisis.) And God knows our pandemic and reflections on racial justice in 2020 are the kind of crisis setting that Tocqueville describes. Let us pray that we are in a time of “agitation, not ruin.” What you and I have witnessed over the past week has been the greatest challenge to the republic in our lifetimes, if not since the Civil War. Mob rule is not how we have gotten things accomplished as a nation, though violence rumbles a steady drumbeat in America history. Whether it is the institution of slavery, genocide of American Indians, “frontier justice” in the Old West, lynching that persisted in the South into my lifetime, or the American obsession with guns (not designed for hunting)…all echo that drumbeat. As Paul asked, “What then are we to say about these things?” I’m certain that you’ve been wondering what to think and say about the storming of the Capitol last week, just as I have. What can we say about those in the mob who in the same breath claimed to be followers of Jesus, yet were willing to storm our legislature with the intent to interrupt our democracy? What kind of Jesus do they follow? American Christianity has a range of relationships with government and nation. Some churches (e.g., some White evangelical, conservative mainline and Catholic churches) seem more concerned with “patriotism” than discipleship and see little if any distinction between country and religion. This can lead to Christian Nationalism, a dangerous trend that distorts the message of Jesus. Others take a dramatically different tack, separating themselves entirely from the culture (e.g., the Amish), and still others find themselves in a kind of dialectic between church and state, often challenging the latter (e.g., many progressive churches, Black churches, and some Catholic parishes). Toxic Christian Nationalism played a part in what we witnessed last week at the Capitol. It played a part in Nazi Germany in the 1930s with the formation of the German Christian movement that considered Adolf Hitler a prophet. It sounds dangerously close to what some Christians say about our current president being chosen by God. I’ve signed a statement condemning Christian Nationalism and invite you to do the same. [2] We at Plymouth will continue to be part of the solution to violence and racism. And I invite you to pray for justice and peace to reign in our nation. Working together as people of faith, people who bring their gifts and graces together for the blessed community, we will make a difference together. Shalom! [1] Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. (NY: Library of America, 2004, translated by Arthur Goldhammer) pp. 147-8. [2] www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/sign AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. Advent is the season of waiting, something I’ve never been particularly fond of or adept at doing. This Advent, however, occurs in the midst of a global season of waiting. So, it is like waiting squared. Are we Christians really waiting for Jesus to return to earth in any corporeal way? Some do, some don’t. It isn’t really a big part of my theology…I figure that the historical Jesus (who lived and taught in the 1st century) gave us fairly clear instructions to be co-creators of the kingdom of God, we humans just haven’t been compliant, so far. Is that what we’re waiting for, or is it something perhaps less dramatic, but every bit as profound? (I’ll be preaching on that this Sunday, so tune in at 10:00 or the next day on our website!) We are waiting for a lot of other things to fall into place right now: waiting for vaccine approval…for vaccine production…for vaccine distribution… to see our friends…waiting to see our families… to be back in our church home… to sing (outside the shower and in the company of others)… to give big hugs… to venture into the store… to have a beer together at the brewpub…to go back to the gym and the pool…to start a new job after being laid off…to have some relief in making rent payments…to have a sense of normalcy in our everyday routine…to have friends over for dinner…to travel..to have the occupant of the White House admit defeat. Some time we are going to get the good news that we’ve turned the corner in dealing with Covid-19. The pandemic has caused us to wait, but not everything has been delayed. We still have a relationship with God. We continue to worship. We continue to be in touch with family and friends, even if it’s through a phone call or a Zoom connection. We have ongoing work to do, personally and vocationally. One of the things you may have thought you had to postpone (but that I encourage you not to delay) is the experience of joy. This is different than being happy or satisfied or contented or jovial. Joy is a deeper emotion that plays more in the heart than it does in the mind. Most of us aren’t exactly joyful that we got a new iPhone for Christmas…but we are joyful in seeing a sister or brother or child or grandchild on FaceTime or Zoom. Most of us don’t experience joy when we get a positive report card in school, but we do experience joy when we see a stunning sunrise. Where do you experience joy that wraps together wonder and love and a sense of the numinous, a glow that opens up beyond your own, individual experience? I invite you to open your heart to the possibility of encountering joy in this season, to look for the footprints of the divine in your everyday life. And when you have that experience, to see it as a glimmer of the Christlight in your midst. And to see this as joyful good news – Joyeux Noël! AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. Earlier this month, I had the wonderful opportunity for several days of retreat at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Sedalia, just south of Highlands Ranch. An important component of the retreat was meeting daily with a spiritual director, a guide who helped me reflect on where God is calling me in my life and in my ministry. It’s a practice I recommend for anyone! Some of what came up with was feeling God’s call to lean more into teaching and retreat leadership at Plymouth…even a virtual pilgrimage!…to keep a Sabbath day each week.…to make time for working on my physical health and stress and for family. And I’ve stepped back into the whirlwind of life at Plymouth, which hasn’t slowed down a bit…though I hope my approach has shifted. It’s about listening to where God is leading, rather than just what seems urgent. One of the ways I hope you will join me in trying to listen to God — in dreams, in whispers, in hints from other people, in creation — is in discerning our common path in the coming years. Where is God calling us? Who is our neighbor? How can we be part of addressing systemic social justice issues and in healing our nation? As I said Sunday morning, we are uniquely positioned as a congregation to do things others cannot. We have a great Strategic Planning Team, created and called by our Leadership Council. Heather Siegel (chair), Judy Barth, Larry McCulloch, Nic Redavid, Marilyn Votaw, Jackie Wray, and I comprise the team. We’re working with John Wimberly as our consultant, and we are going to start by listening…and we’re going to do that by asking you to listen for where God is calling us. This week you will receive a three-question survey (well, four, actually…but one of them is your name). That is the first way we’ll listen to you. And we’ll keep listening through online focus groups and a retreat with our Leadership Council. Please fill out the survey before November 25, so we can hear your dreams and visions for our congregation! I also want to invite you to a retreat this coming Saturday with Eric Elnes, a UCC minister who will guide us through an interactive exploration to discover what we can learn from the difficult time (the “dark wood” is Dante’s phrase) we are in. Eric is our visiting scholar this year, and I hope you join me on Saturday. You can sign up now at plymouthucc.org/visitingscholar. Even in the midst of a pandemic, great things continue to happen here at Plymouth. Thanks for your support and for being a part of this congregation! Deep peace, AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. ![]() I really appreciate hearing from members of our congregation each fall about the ways Plymouth has changed their lives and why they support our congregation. They are poignant, honest, profound, and sometimes even funny. About ten years ago, Bob Sturtevant did a great talk (with apologies to David Letterman) centered around his Top Ten Reasons to Give. Number One was “Because through his son’s teachings, God asked me to.” <Mic Drop> There are a lot of reasons Jane Anne and I make giving to Plymouth a priority, but for me, giving to the church has been an important part of my spiritual journey. Back when I was in graduate school and we had a newborn, it was hard to pledge, but we managed to give $1,200 a year to First Congregational UCC in Boulder. When we moved to Connecticut, I was the minister responsible for stewardship and mission giving in our conference, and with another young son, we found ways to increase our pledge to First Church in Windsor, UCC. And our move to Fort Collins in 2002 brought new responsibilities and new perspectives. I heard Tom and Paula Dille talk about tithing (that’s 10 percent) their income when they were young adult members of a UCC church in Missouri. I heard Larry McCulloch say that he invested in the church, because it has been the greatest agent of change over centuries. I witnessed Jackie and Kevin Schneider pay their full pledge when the pandemic started to help ensure we didn’t have cashflow problems. I saw one of our members who recently lost a job submit a pledge…that’s an act of deep faith. I have learned so much about God’s abundance from the people who form this congregation. You are an inspiration. God imbues the universe with “the lyric of abundance,” as Walter Brueggemann puts it. There is enough of everything to go around — that’s God’s intention. The problem lies in distribution. I want to be part of God’s movement, to sing the lyric of abundance not the dirge of scarcity, and I want to do everything I can to support the realm of God. That’s why I support Plymouth financially. You and I have witnessed incredible injustices in our nation. We are living through a deadly pestilence of biblical proportion. How are we to respond? We can sit back and wring our hands. We can vent on Facebook and feel righteous indignation. But how does that change the world or change lives? Even as I write, our Immigration Ministry Team is using our North Wing to sort donated clothing and supplies for PSD students who arrived in this country not just without documentation, but alone. I want to support that. Carla is developing a lay caregiving program that will have far-reaching impact. I want to support that. When this pandemic is over, we are going to come together to celebrate and sing and offer thanks to God for our deliverance. “O Lord, I want to be in that number,” and I’ll support that! We have choices about whom we will serve. As for me and my family, we will serve God. Blessings! P.S. You won’t want to miss worship on Sunday…jazz, inspiration, blessing, and celebration! And you can pledge online right now at plymouthucc.org/pledge You don’t have to wait! AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. ![]() Six months is a long time to have a church building closed. I was imagining what it would be like if our physical home had been closed because of a fire or flood or some other disaster. I suspect it would be far more difficult for us to have jumped onto the livestream band wagon if none of the other churches in Fort Collins were having to take similar measures. But we find ourselves still feeling as though we are living in exile from the people and the structural home we love. I keep thinking about Psalm 137, a lament that speaks of an exiled people who long for their homeland: By the rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How could we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Lament is a perfectly acceptable form of prayer at this time in our common life. I suspect that many of us are growing tired of livestreamed worship, and I can tell you that I am really weary of trying to connect over the internet with the hundreds of people whom I suspect are out there, but whose reactions and responses I cannot see. I am tired of the hollow feeling of singing hymns with only four people singing in the sanctuary. It seems as if we have “hung up our harps” and God only knows when we will be back together and able to sing robustly “one of the songs of Zion” with a choir and a congregation. And like anger, lament is okay...but it’s a lousy place to get stuck. We have to move forward from that place of feeling crummy about the state of our lives and recenter ourselves. The wisdom of the Psalms again comes to our aid, providing a pivot (ugh...I’m tired of that word!) moving us from imploring God to doing what we can do by being faithful. Psalm 13 is short and to the point: How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, "I have prevailed"; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. [pivot] But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. Each of us has something to be grateful for...some bounty that God has entrusted to our care. Even if it something as elemental as waking up this morning, we can give thanks. I find it difficult to be grateful and grumpy at the same time, and since we have a choice about our own outlook, I make an attempt to live in gratitude. I’m trying to pivot into the love and goodness of God, rather than to get stuck in the mire of lament and self-pity. Singing helps...even if it’s alone in the shower. Isaac Watts, a Congregational minister in London in the 18th century, usedPsalm 90 as the basis for his hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” and for those of us who feel as if we are in exile — who miss our home — it contains these lines about our true home, which never closes down: “Still be our God while troubles last, and our eternal home.” Don’t be afraid to call on God directly in these uncertain, stressful times. We all need to allow ourselves and one another a bit of grace to feel our lament, and we also need to acknowledge that this pandemic is not going to last forever, and there will come a day when we can return to our fellow members and our church building. Keep the faith! AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. Petroglyphs from the Sheep Eater people and view of the Absaroka Mountains from horseback. Sometimes I think that the Commandment we Americans break with the greatest frequency is observing the sabbath. Honestly, do you set aside a day for rest, regeneration, and focus on your relationship with God? I don’t imagine that more than a partial handful of us at Plymouth actually take a sabbath day each week. Sabbath, of course, is Saturday (hence “Sabado” in Spanish and “sabato” in Italian), and our Jewish siblings observe it thus. Most Christians opt for “The Lord’s Day,” the day of Jesus’ resurrection, as our holy day. Going back as far as the Didache in the 2nd century, believers were to "Gather together each Sunday, break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins, that your sacrifice may be pure." But sabbath is not just about worship; it also concerns a rhythm for the week. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work.” (Exodus 20.8) Do you refrain from your professional work, volunteer work, household chores, errands, and so forth on the sabbath, even if you observe it on Sunday? To be sure, that is still the case for schismatic Presbyterians (the “Wee Frees”) in the Hebrides of Scotland, and our Puritan and Pilgrim ancestors in the Congregational tradition also were strict in their observance of sabbath each week. (We still had “blue laws” in Connecticut when I was growing up.) Isn’t it strange that as we developed a strong “Protestant work ethic,” we seem to have let go of sabbath-keeping? I’ve just returned from a week of retreat at Ring Lake Ranch, an ecumenical study center in Wyoming, which has deep associations with Plymouth its members, especially the Petersen-Myerses, the Hoyers, the Schulzes, the Dilles, and others. I was meant to be doing a course with Diana Butler Bass this summer, but all presentations were cancelled due to the coronavirus, but they kept the Ranch open at 50% guest capacity for retreat time. I am really grateful that Plymouth allows for sabbatical (and for having Jane Anne at Ring Lake for part of hers) as well as continuing education time for its pastors. Ring Lake Ranch’s motto is “Renewal in sacred wilderness,” which is spot-on. Both Jane Anne and I had a time of renewal…as did Mark Lee, who was taking a break from his new congregation in South Dakota! I encourage you to try Ring Lake Ranch next summer for some great seminar presenters. (Go to ringlake.org for more info.) The past six months of pandemic have been taxing for all of us…learning to adapt to new ways of worship and being church, working and educating kids from home, resisting the urge to hug or even shake hands with our friends. And it has taken a toll on many of us: on our social, psychological, and spiritual lives. (Racial crises and desperate presidential politics don’t help our sense of well-being, either.) So, how do we find resilience in the midst of this marathon that we hoped would end with the first sprint? Sabbath may be the part of the answer. If you can find a way to carve out and set apart a time each week or get away for a few nights of camping or a trip to the mountains, I endorse that as a pastoral recommendation. Thomas Keating used to describe prayer time as “a hot date with God,” and I commend to you some time of contemplative restoration of your soul, whether in the wilderness or in your backyard. May you be blessed by the discovery of inner strength and faith this week. Shabbat shalom! AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. I decided to take a different tack for this week’s Staff Reflection. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing summer in full bloom at Plymouth, with a journey through our Memorial Garden, Labyrinth, back yard…and the nearly-completed new apartment building next door. We look forward to the day when we’ll all be back together in person. See you Wednesday evening at 7:00 for Midweek Vespers from Plymouth. Thanks and peace, Hal P.S. Download your worship bulletin for Vespers here. AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. In 2015, after the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a group of local clergy gathered to be in touch with Chief John Hutto to talk about race, use of force, training, and hiring in Fort Collins Police Services. The group was started by the late Rev. Frank Gibson, whose life we celebrated at Plymouth last November. Frank was a retired Presbyterian minister who had worked extensively on issues of policing, race, and violence during his long and distinguished career. It was Frank’s knowledge of the law that helped our group of clergy frame our ongoing dialogue with former Chief Hutto, Interim Chief Jones, and Chief Swoboda. My own assessment is that Fort Collins Police Services, through its training, policies, practices, and culture, though not perfect, is far ahead of other police departments, as well as the Larimer County Sheriffs Office. It was Frank who read volumes of legal documents, including President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which provided recommendations and implementation strategies that should have prevented at least some of the killing of African-Americans by police. But that isn’t where we find ourselves today in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Again, we cry, “How long, O Lord? How long?” How long will it be before our nation comes to a great reckoning with our history? How long will it be before we dismantle the systemic racism and injustice that dogs our justice system? How long will it be before European-Americans understand and disassemble the wide-ranging privilege that we and our forebears have enjoyed? My prayer is that our nation is being given a chance to address what the Rev. Jim Wallis calls “America’s Original Sin,” and a big first step is listening to the voices of our sisters and brothers of color and exploring how we can be a part of the solution. We can use our voices to decry the loss of sacred lives at the hands of police and the inherent inequities in the justice system. A bill in the Colorado legislature addressing police accountability is a good first step. (Many of its recommendations have already been implemented by FC Police Services.) And if you have not seen the film, Just Mercy, (telling the story of Brian Stevenson and the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative) it is an important that you watch it and talk about it…and it’s showing free on many streaming services right now. The lives of our sisters and brothers of color are sacred. And for European-Americans to remain silent at this time would not only be a sin of omission, it would mean that we are complicit in perpetuating a system that deprives God’s beloved not just of opportunity, but of life. For those of us who are white, it is especially incumbent upon us to listen, to talk, and to act to dismantle racism. We cannot do everything…but we can do something. In a sermon a few weeks ago, my colleague, the Rev. David Williams of Abyssinian Christian Church, said that the best thing for non-black allies to do is to talk about confronting racism with your own circle of contacts, friends, and family. So, I am talking to you. And I am praying with and for you, as we stand up and engage the struggle, which is a marathon and not a sprint. We’ll hear more at Plymouth as we move forward, and in the meantime listen, read, watch as we take further steps toward God’s reign of shalom. Together with you in faith, P.S. If you missed it, here is a link to Sunday’s Coloradoan and an Op-Ed piece I wrote (before the death of George Floyd) on keeping houses of worship closed during the pandemic AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. I was stunned to see that some Roman Catholic parishes in Colorado are opening for in-person worship…though with masks, social distancing, no communion, no one over 65. When I read about the Catholic parishes, I couldn’t help thinking about the Evangelical-Reformed Cathedral in Berlin, where 59 of 78 choir members were stricken with the coronavirus…or the United Church of Canada congregation in Calgary that gathered for a birthday party in March; 24 of 41 people were infected with coronavirus, and two died. Their minister said, “I would do anything for a do-over.” Later this week, your ministers and program staff will start a discussion about what (not when) it might look like eventually to reopen. And it will be different from what we knew before, and various groups will have different types of gradual re-opening. It will be done with the utmost care…I don’t want to need a do-over. Please continue to be wise and safe! The Leadership Council is in the process of forming a strategic planning team, something we had on the docket for 2020 anyway, but our planning this fall will be in a very different context for a church than it would have been without the pandemic. We will be consulting with John Wimberly of Congregational Consulting Group (alumni of the late Alban Institute), and we will really consider the future of the church in a new reality. It may seem crazy, but I am really excited about the possibilities of who Plymouth can become! One learning for most of us is that the church is the gathered body of members, not our building at 916 Prospect Road. We are still the church! We are still people at worship, in service, doing ministry together. We won’t waste the opportunity of a crisis to make something beautiful happen with God and with each other! Shalom, P.S. If you haven’t seen this pandemic-related story, please watch it and wonder… AuthorThe Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal. |
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