"Midweek and the Light Shines On" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 06/23/2020

Hello everyone—

Confession:  when the pandemic began my faith was overshadowed by my fear and anxiety.  There was so much uncertainty.  No one knew when or how the pandemic would end.  We weren’t sure how rapidly the virus would spread.  We wondered how we would get groceries.  How would we be the church?  What would we do if we couldn’t worship together on Sunday mornings?  Big worries and little petty worries about things like haircuts and toilet paper (maybe that isn’t so petty.)

Does “anxiety take-over” ever happen to you?  Our minds become so full of what can go wrong, that there is no space for what can go right?  Anxiety is both a national sport and a national addiction.
But even in the worst moments, when my faith was shaken, I was still certain that there would be blessings, that God would draw good from the chaos and the uncertainty.

It has taken a while, but those blessings are becoming more apparent.

Our church council voted to allow AA to meet in our building again.  There was very little discussion.  Someone said AA needed to meet. Other heads on our zoom meeting nodded.  The council voted and AA will begin again in a few weeks.  Why?  Because AA helps people and it is important and the people of our church see that, even in this time of pandemic and worry.  Perhaps especially in this time of pandemic and worry when isolation fuels addictions.

Food goes out of our doors every day.  Every day.  We feed children and their families.  This ministry seems even more important these days, defining us in ministry when we can no longer be defined as the people who gather in the pews every Sunday morning.

Our prayer ministry is busy.  Who is hurting? How can we surround them in prayer? 

The prayer shawl team is making field trips to homes to deliver a prayer shawls to people who blow them kisses from the window.

Today we will sing happy birthday on a zoom meeting.  Some of the people have never met each other in person, and yet we see each other once a week and are happy to celebrate a birthday.

A few weeks ago we met in the parking lot to congratulate the graduating seniors.  Smiles, honking horns.  A small celebration and I still smile when I think about it.

Driveway conversations have built friendships.  Every friendship has become more precious.  We have become more aware of loneliness.

Last week the midweek devotion became a daily exercise reflecting on racism.  People sent stories of their experiences and book suggestions and asked really good questions. 

On Sunday at 11:45, we are invited to gather with the Imani Church (masks! And social distancing!) to take a knee, a humble moment.  Would we have pondered the race issue if we had not been facing the pandemic?  I don’t know.  Would we have met with our Imani neighbors?  Probably not.  God and God’s mysterious ways.

Someone wants to help.  Someone wants to help.  Someone wants to help…I hear that often.
Today, hope has nudged out worry.  Faith tells me we can do this.  We are doing this. 

Yesterday during the thunderstorm, the eternal light in the sanctuary was struck by lightning and burned up.  There was no damage to anything other than the light.  Today, with the help of an electrician, it is burning again.

And it feels like God has said: “See, Cindy?” The light shines on.  Watch for the blessings.

In this uncertain time, the light shines on.

Thank you for being the church.

Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Ave
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on Facebook (and see pictures from the fire!) or visit us at wdmumc.org

We worship on-line at 9:30 on Sunday mornings!

This week at WDMUMC:
Join in solidarity with the Imani Church on Sunday at 11:45!  Gather on the sidewalk around our church.  We will celebrate that we are one people!  Bring a lawn chair, wear a mask, and plan to social distance.

“'Open My Eyes': A Journey to Understand Racism and Our Role In It" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 06/20/2020

Friends,

Matthew 22:37-38.  37 He [Jesus] said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself.  In Jesus’ mind, these are all related.

For the last week, we have been taking time each day to consider racism and our role in it.

It is hard to love our neighbor if we don’t know them.  Maybe the first step in loving is caring enough to learn more. I have learned a lot this week.  I did not know about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre before this week.  When our church sent a mission team to Detroit, we learned about redlining, but I did not know that redlining was used in Des Moines.  This week I learned that it was.  This week I learned that the GI Bill, that was used by so many World War II veterans to buy homes and attend college, was not as accessible to Black veterans of World War II.  I am humbled by how much I have to learn.  (If you want to know more about the Tulsa Massacre or redlining or the GI Bill, you can easily research them on your computer.)

I read a lot, and I thought I would suggest books to you about African Americans.  I have a number of books about African Americans, but I am surprised by how few are written by African Americans.  I think the people best qualified to tell their story are the people who lived it.  Here are some books that have been important to me.

Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson.

The Lynching:  The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan By Laurence Leamer.  The lynching in this book occurred in 1981, long after I thought lynchings were over.  Want an ironic twist?  My gentle-farmer grandfather told me he belonged to the Klan in the ’20s and ’30s in Iowa.  The Klan was harassing Americans of German heritage at that time.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas.

Bipolar Faith, A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith by Monica A Coleman.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.

Detroit, an American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff.

As I type this list, I think about how much these books challenged me and how much more comfortable it is for me to read a book that is written from the white perspective.  Reading these books was unsettling, like traveling to a foreign land I didn’t know existed, where the rules were different, where I felt like an outsider. Reading these books challenged my understanding of myself.
So, if you are still reading, thank you for spending this week reflecting on the divisions that have been created by racism.  We have much to learn, much to understanding.  But learning and understanding are variations of love.  And God has given us the gifts of learning and understanding.  We are wise when we accept these gifts and use them.

A prayer and a song

Lord God,
There is so much we don’t know about ourselves and others.  Maybe we are afraid if we ask too many questions, if we investigate too deeply, we won’t like what we discover.  And yet, in these days as the pandemic rages around us, as our streets fill with people calling for justice, you seem to be calling to us all to pay attention, to listen, to learn more, to try to understand.  The people kneeling in the streets of our cities have me thinking about Jesus walking the streets of cities so long ago.  He talked with people, listened, ate dinner with people he had just met. He spent time walking with others and getting to know them. There was a gentleness about him that I would like to have in this time. Lord, give me the spirit to do that too.  And when Jesus knelt and prayed, asked that your will be done. And then where Jesus saw wrong, or suffering, or injustice, people treated as the least, he acted.  I will need courage to do that, Lord, but I believe if I want to follow Christ, I need to live as he did. 
Thank you, Lord, for this fresh new day.  May we all live it according to your will.  Amen

The Hymn  “Open My Eyes, That I May See”

1. Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!

2. Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!

3. Open my mouth, and let me bear
Gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
Ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Words and music by Clara H. Scott, 1895
My goodness friends, how I miss you.

Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman

West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Ave
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Worshiping on-line tomorrow morning at 9:30!

One More Announcement:  Change of Date!
WDMUMC will be Taking a Knee with our neighbor the Imani Church on Sunday, June 28 at 11:45.  (NOTE:  THIS IS A CHANGE OF DATE)  We will kneel (as we are able) pray and sing.  A moment to love our neighbor as Christ asked. More info will follow!

"Midweek in This Curious Time" Pastor Cindy's Devotion 06/11/2020

Good morning,
This is a curious moment.  We have changed the patterns of our lives, staying home, wearing masks, distancing to keep one another healthy.  As a curious side effect of all this, we are more conscious of how much we need one another.

And in this unsettled time, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis.  He is not the first Black man to die in police custody.  In the past when these incidents have occurred, they have been in the news for a time and then our attention has moved on to something else.

Not this time.  This time George Floyd’s death has caught the attention of people around the world.  Black people, brown people, white people.

I cannot help but wonder if the Holy Spirit doesn’t have something to do with the openness of our hearts at this time.  Somehow an opportunity has come to address the deep pain of racism in our country.

Many people from our church have told me that they know that racism is a serious problem, but they don’t know what to do.

Next week, from Sunday, June 14 through Sunday, June 21, we plan to take time each day to think about our role in addressing racism.  We are calling this week “Open My Eyes,” from the title of an old hymn.    There will be no Midweek Devotion next week.  Instead each day, via email you will receive a short idea, or a prayer, or an activity to do to increase our understanding of our role in ending the injustice of racism. If you receive the Midweek through the mail, the daily activities are included in this mailing.

To get started, I would like you to view last Sunday’s worship service at Mount Vernon United Methodist Church in Stuart.  Their pastor is LaTonya Calderon.  She is one of only two African American Elders in the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  Last Sunday her sermon addressed racism.  You can follow this link to find the service.

https://www.facebook.com/stuartiaunitedmethodist/videos/547319959280112/

You can advance through the service and simply listen to her sermon if you like.  But I want to offer you another invitation.  Pastor LaTonya also offered communion.  You can join her in communion if you like.  She encourages you to have a candle, bread, and juice ready. * Sharing communion with Pastor LaTonya might serve as the first step toward standing together against racism.

And then watch your email throughout the week next week for ways we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, can do our part in creating a kingdom where all are valued and loved.

Pastor LaTonya will tell you she worships a God who can do the impossible.  Amen.

(*Offering communion has been a challenge for churches.  We have received mixed messages as to whether we can offer communion in on-line services.  Pastor Trevor and I will be talking about this.)

Blessings,
Pastor Cindy
Pastor Cindy Hickman
West Des Moines United Methodist Church
720 Grand Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-279-0826

Like us on Facebook or visit us at wdmumc.org.  And join us for on-line worship at 9:30 on Sunday mornings!

This week at WDMUMC!
Week Two of our Summer Hunger Program!  Everybody Eats!  180 bags of food went out the door this week to 180 homes and 520 children.  Hooray!

Honoring Our High School Seniors!  Drop off your cards and well wishes for our high school grads.  And on Sunday at 11 am we will gather in the parking lot to honor our high school grads.  (Please remain in your cars!  But honk those horns!)

Ringing the Bell in Remembrance!  Every Monday at 10:30 we will ring the bell in remembrance of the people who have died due to COVID.  Last Monday we rang the bell 69 times.  If you would like to help, show up at the bell at 10:30 and wear a mask, please!

Survey!  If you have not already filled out the survey about returning to church, please do so. This link will take you to the survey.  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5S5TNQ3  You can also request a paper copy.

Church Council Meeting Monday, June 15 at 6 pm via zoom.  The church council will be reviewing the responses from the survey and planning our next steps in response to the pandemic.  Keep our church and our leaders in your prayers.