Sunday, July 21, 2024

Dear Friends, 

The Christian faith is unrelenting in its expectation that human beings should practice honest self-criticism.  Socrates said the same thing: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  

Yet Christianity declares an important truth which in a sense precedes self-examination.  Christianity proclaims that we came into this world loved and loveable. For many of us, that truth got twisted along the way.  It got buried.  It lies hidden.

Why does this matter?  It matters because we must learn to see what is hidden from us. We must rediscover the deep well of love for us and in us.  We must rediscover our capacity to shine light and share grace.  

As we engage in this process of rediscovery, we are then able to uncover and bring to the light our blind spots.  Who doesn’t have blind spots?  Who doesn’t need to be forgiven?  Who doesn’t need behavior modification?  I can safely say, “All of us.”  

This Sunday, we will look at how easily human beings deceive themselves, cover the truth, and lose sight of what matters the most. 

I hope to see you on Sunday. 

Carter        

Sunday, July 14, 2024

Dear Friends,
 
Isn’t summer magical? Every year I find new things that summer brings my way. I share this with the patients at Silver Hill. It is no surprise that Spirituality in Nature is one of my most popular groups. Even those who are challenged with the concept of the spiritual have no problems pointing out the subtle nuances of weeds and wildflowers, flora and fauna and root systems and rivers. It invokes wonder, curiosity, astonishment and hope. It doesn’t speak in words. For many, it points toward God and opens the vast possibilities of God’s very real presence in the creation at our feet and fingertips. 
 
On the other hand, while many people appreciate the beauty, they have no patience for the infinite mysteries behind it. I am the opposite. I don’t think my spiritual life would be nearly as rewarding if I served a God who I had all figured out. I embrace the astonishment in life. It simply invites deeper wonder of God’s place at the source of it all.  It also points to a love and a power beyond my comprehension that will help guide me and my many flaws to be part of something bigger and eternal.
 
I look forward to being with you on Sunday morning to think about where God sustains us with both astonishment and love.
 
Love,
Cheryl

Sunday, July 7, 2024

Dear Friends, 

I am writing to you from Africa where I have been for these past 3 weeks.  It has been deeply felt and magnanimously rewarding.  

Once again, the cross-cultural experience supports my conviction that the spiritual life encourages risk, a willingness to explore, to go beyond what is comfortable, and always to be less afraid.  Many years ago, I heard Henri Nouwen describe Western spirituality as suffocated and disembodied.  Is that true?  The answer of course lies in the heart of each person.  

But his statement draws me to the wonderful words of poet, Dawna Markova:

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

She goes on to interpret the meaning of her poem:

“Traveling from the known to the unknown requires crossing an abyss of emptiness. We first experience disorientation and confusion. Then if we are willing to cross the abyss in curious and playful wonder, we enter an expansive and untamed country that has its own rhythm. Time melts and thoughts become stories, music, poems, images, ideas. This is the intelligence of the heart, but by that I don't mean just the seat of our emotions. I mean a vast range of receptive and connective abilities, intuition, innovation, wisdom, creativity, sensitivity, the aesthetic, qualitative and meaning making. It is here that we uncover our purpose and passion.”

I believe more than ever that Markova’s words lie close to God’s intention for each one of us.  How is God calling you?  What are you ready to do that is completely different from your past choices and patterns?  Are you actively dismantling the fears that have limited your joy?    

I look forward to seeing you again soon. 

Carter   

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Friends

I am writing this week, at the start of summer travels in which many of us are fortunate enough to rest and recreate in softer climes.  Whether near or far away, I hope you will join us this Sunday to experience a new voice talking to us about healing.

In the pulpit, we will welcome the Rev. Mark Montgomery.

Mark serves as one of the Co-Pastors at Wilton Presbyterian Church.  From his early days as a cradle Presbyterian, Mark was ordained in the United Church of Christ. He has worked alongside UCC and Presbyterian congregations from California to Texas and South Carolina up through New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, in both settled and interim ministry. Mark’s ordination standing is currently held in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

Mark says that professionally his best days happen when art, faith, and the community of God all come together to birth a creative and interactive experience.  Personally, it’s hard to beat a day on Cape Cod, mountain bike trail riding, or simply hiking with his dogs.

Here is Mark’s invitation for this Sunday. “In the scripture passage for this week [Mark 5:21-43] we encounter two healings. Both are women. Both are healed. The similarities seem to end there and yet, it is one reading, in one Gospel chapter. What might we understand if we consider this as one story of healing, involving multiple characters and their diverse perspectives? How do our own perspectives shape the story? How is our faith challenged and strengthened? Let us explore the process, idea, and reality of healing and how it shapes our own story.”

You are called.

Patrice

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Dear Friends,
 
I just returned from visiting my parents in Kansas City.  My father turned 92 on Saturday and Sunday was Father’s Day.  I don’t get to see them enough and every visit means so much to me.  That being said, my father spends most of his days caring for my 87-year-old mother who has advanced Alzheimer’s. Their day is a set routine of meals, hygiene, the coming and going of home health aides and the precisely scheduled movements from the dining room to the living room and back again. All of this takes place with the background noise of the televisions (one in each room!) constantly tuned to cable news reporting on “news” that rarely changes throughout the day. The only variety in the news cycle seems to be the commercials, and even they lack variety. The vast majority of those are for pharmaceuticals treating all kinds of health issues, with each commercial ending with a string of boxed warnings including, “may cause stroke, heart failure, coma or death.” But there was one noteworthy commercial that had nothing to do with prescription drugs and seemed to counter the background noise of the news:  It was a commercial for the 2024 Hyundai Tucson and its tag line was “There’s joy in every journey.” It really stood out. It made me smile – and not just because it provided some levity. It was true! Every time it came on, I shifted my reflection to the innate joy of the journey that I have enjoyed with my parents as their child and the bittersweet journey of aging that I am observing through their experience. It is not devoid of pain, health crises, difficult decisions, challenging choices about budgeting or scary moments – yet there is a joy under it all. It is so easy not to see it. But every time I got my little reminder from Hyundai, I chose to feel it and see it and let it linger like the setting sun in these amazing weeks around the Summer Solstice. Wherever you are on life’s journey or summer travels, I hope that you can see the joy underneath it all, even on the hardest of days. And I hope that realization – however fleeting—reminds you of God’s presence and love as the source of it all.

See you on Sunday!

Love,
Cheryl