Jessica began teaching our preschoolers the lessons of Holy Week on Sunday, reading The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith.  They created a cross mural, made “new life” playdough flowers, cut and watered the Lenten grass, and shared a snack remembering Jesus’ last supper. 

This past Sunday, Marjorie led our multiage class in a first try of “Bible Legos.”  With the help of Melissa T., Dennis, and 4 tubs of Legos, the class created three scenes from Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Cleansing the Temple, and the Last Supper.  Each group then shared their story with the whole group.  The event was fun and engaging, and the design teams were making real inquiries into the scripture lessons while building their scenes.  Take a look!

“I would like to take a moment to thank you for helping me make my new apartment a home. As a disabled adult with limited income it is not always possible to afford nice things. Your agency allowed me to have pride and dignity. Thank you.” Sincerely, Annalia

Without donations of furniture and household items (large and small appliances, flatware, kitchen utensils, plates, glasses, cookware, baby items, linens, TVs, ironing boards, framed art, mirrors, curtains, etc.), Household Goods (HG) could not do the work it does.

“To the HG Team in Acton Mass. Thank you for all your help after the fire in Leominster Downtown. May God richly bless you all.” Jeffrey

The HG Team is made up of 650 volunteers who logged 38,000 hours last year. Please consider joining us! Visit our website for more information.

“I am so very very grateful all of the Items that God has allow you to give me.” Joseph

Last year HG was supported by 7,150 individual donors who gave us goods valued at over $1.7 million dollars. Did you know we are the only charitable organization that accepts mattresses?

As you start your spring cleaning this year please think of us. There is a bin in the church outside Hannah’s office for small items or you may drop off goods at HG in Acton (on Route 27 almost across from the post office) Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 9-noon. For stuff that can fit in a car you can also call Priscilla (978-369-8250) and she will pick it up. For large furniture you can contact HG by phone (978-635-1710) or on line and book the van. We request a tax-deductible donation of $35 in exchange for loading as much as you have. Our volunteers do all the work.

For a complete list of what we do and don’t take, visit our website. And, as Jeffrey said, “May God richly bless you all.” Thank you!

~Priscilla

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he describes the spiritual gifts of the members of the new church and cautions them regarding their past behaviors, being led astray by false idols. Then he names the many varieties of “gift” from God that are given by the same “Spirit” and are inspired by
the Lord.

After reading this passage the first thing that came to my mind was the familiar Hymn, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, We pray that all unity may one day be restored…”

Paul tells us that each one of us has “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” It is up to us to use our gifts of “wisdom, knowledge, healing, faith working of miracles, prophecy, tongues or the interpretation of tongues” for the betterment of all, for the same Spirit inspires them.

Certainly we see this played out in our congregation at West Concord Union Church as each member and friend of the church gives their own unique “gift” of themselves to the wider community for the benefit of the entire church. However, when we look more globally, at our politicians and the international conflicts between governments and religions it is more challenging to see where individual gifts might be united in one Spirit.

However, if we do as the Jason Upton suggests in his hymn, and pledge that “we will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand … we will work side by side and guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride,” then it might be possible to make progress towards finding the common ground between us without focusing on what divides us. I think that both Paul and the writer of the hymn are calling us to do just that! We do not need to agree on all matters, but we must strive together for the betterment of all and remember that we are “one in the Spirit” and to do as Jesus taught us: above all else to love one another. I think that means all people of the earth and not just those that are similar to us. “All praise to the Spirit who makes us all one. Yes, they will know we are Christians by our love!”

Dear Lord, help all peoples of our world to use the gifts you have given us to find the common ground on which to build peace, unity and the dignity of all people. Remind us that your love and your Spirit resides in each of us. Amen.

~Candy

Genesis 49:29-50:14

Throughout this reading, in which Jacob lives out his last days and asks to be buried by his son, Joseph, in Canaan, there is a theme of tradition that seems odd in that it doesn’t reflect our modern lifestyle. When Jacob dies, he requests to be buried in his ancestral burial grounds. He takes great care to request a certain burial site, and in doing so maintains a longstanding family tradition. Nowadays, that tradition is much less prevalent. Why? Because in modern times, tradition is not as important. For the people of Biblical times family was critical and upholding traditions was honorable.

Today, people are more involved in their day-to-day lives and their immediate families. Extended families are dispersed. As a culture, we have become more interested in things we can hold in our hands than the idea of something we can’t grasp. People nowadays seem to crave knowledge more than traditions, too. In our quest to learn, we have forgotten some of our values, and become more distant from one another. In this way, this age of information could be an issue in the fragmentation of family bonds.

It is my hope, that with all that technology offers, we can find some way to use that technology to become closer to our family, close and extended. We may just need a little time to learn how, and no small amount of faith.

~Jack

Mark 7:24-37

Jesus has ventured out of Jewish territory and into the region of Tyre, perhaps to take a few hours’ rest. Jesus’ peace is broken as a Syrophoenician woman comes in. She is definitely not a Jew, but her humanity is laid bare. She is distraught about her daughter; we can relate to her pain, fear and helplessness. Her daughter is possessed. Whether it be seizures, mental illness or something more sinister, the mother seeks out Jesus, the foreign miracle worker, and begs him to intervene.

And what does Jesus do? Stretch out an arm and with a beatific smile assure the woman that her child has leapt off the bed and rushed out to do the dishes? No, Jesus insults her, “Should I give the children’s bread to the dogs?” (implying that the children are Israel, and Gentiles are like dogs). These are not the words of compassion and healing that we expect from Jesus. Jesus shocks me in his narrow-mindedness.

But the mother is not deterred. “Even the dogs under the table get to eat the crumbs” she replies. Perhaps this brings Jesus to his senses; he recognizes her wit, her audacity, her love for her child and maybe most of all, her common humanity. Her daughter is healed.

What do we make of this? Some have suggested that Jesus is offering the woman the opportunity to show her faith, her broad trust. That seems to let Jesus off the hook. There are times my jaw drops when I appreciate the unconditional love Jesus offers, but I also relate to a Jesus who can get angry, call out hypocrisy, knock down a few tables and scatter the temple coinage.

Although I wish Jesus had immediately reached out in love for the Syrophoenician woman, if I want my Christ to be fully human, it’s possible that I need to let him wrestle with what that means.

God, thank you for the gift of Scripture that guides us and inspires us, but does not give us all the answers. Help us to be gentle with those who carry great strain and sometimes fall short. Help us also to find a balance in our expectations for ourselves, and our need for reassurance when we struggle.

~Jean G.

John 9:1-41

Never Becomes Now

Sides drawn in debate over sin and fault,
He took a different tack, sidestepping the arguments
and stepping aside to anoint the man’s eyes
with mud made from saliva and earth,
common things fused with mystery and a washing in the pool.
No sin in that. Oh, but on the Sabbath.

And now the uproar,
not thrill for the man’s given sight,
but back to sin and assumptions,
threat to power, challenge to authority,
the miracle sidelined
by more orthodox headlines.

Let us cheer the man, applaud the healer,
delight in clear sight, mouths dropping in awe
as “never” becomes “now.”
However.
Whenever.

~Barbara

Psalm 90
Mark 7:1-23

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations … Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom … May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us” (Psalm 90:1, 12, 17).

These are a few verses in this Psalm that promise hope. In between, we find a depiction of the shadow side of life, followed by pleading with God to fulfill the promise that mortality, failure and troubles are not the end of the story. What a span of life experience, written by one claiming to be Moses, moving from creation to death to beyond, from judgment to compassion, from sorrow to joy. The turning point in this Psalm is v. 12: Teach us to really see the days we are given, in order that our hearts may be wise.

In the gospel reading for today, Jesus, after being confronted by the Pharisees because his disciples were eating with unwashed hands, calls the religious leaders of his day hypocrites and then addresses the crowd with much the same message. This time the focus is on failure or sin. Jesus’ list of evils which make one truly unclean is all-encompassing—from specific behaviors to general attitudes (greed, envy, arrogance, malice). Once again, what is in our hearts is the key. Jesus repeats it twice: nothing outside of us can make us unacceptable—nothing anyone says or does, no circumstance in our experience, no rules someone else imposes. All that is important is the condition of our hearts!

Dear Lord, may my heart be filled with the wisdom of your Spirit, so that the work of my hands may be favorable in your sight.

~David St.

Jean is the third of three musical sisters who were raised in Northampton, MA. Her older sisters both became professional musicians. Jean moved east to attend nursing school but met her late husband John, a native of West Concord, and got married instead. At first they lived in an apartment right above what is now the ’99 Restaurant. They joined WCUC in the early fifties. When the choir director at the time heard Jean singing in the church kitchen while heating a baby bottle, he told her to get out of the nursery and join the choir, and she has been there ever since, some sixty years.

Jean’s loyal tenure at WCUC has seen many changes in the church and the music program. Jean remembers when the organ and choir were at the front of the church, then at the back of the church blocking the stained glass window, and finally at the side. She laughs about the infamous green curtain behind which “the choir could do anything it wanted.” She recalls the music committee going to New Hampshire to buy our wonderful tracker-action organ. And Jean has seen music directors come and go, some of whom did not play the organ pedals! Jim Barkovic wins the prize as Jean’s favorite choir director and best all-around WCUC musician. Music is what keeps Jean at WCUC. She especially loves music from the Baroque era; Handel’s “Messiah” ranks as Jean’s favorite.

Last month in Polly’s profile of long-time member Holly, we learned that Holly ’s mother had played the harp. When Jean’s daughter Karen was in the hospital, she awoke to harp music and feared that she had died. It turned out that Holly’s mother was a patient in the next room and was playing her harp. Fortunately Karen survived and is the grandmother to Jean’s two great-grandchildren all of whom live in Georgetown where Jean visits regularly.

Next Sunday listen for Jean’s rich voice. About ten years ago she moved from the alto to the tenor section where she now keeps the other tenors in line.

~Susan A.

Psalms 88, 91, 92
Genesis 47:1-26
1 Corinthians 9:16-27
Mark 6:47-56

The Holy Scriptures always amaze me, particularly the range of expression and the feelings each reading produces. Psalm 88 is titled “Prayer for Help in Despondency”; Psalm 91 is titled “Assurance of God’s Protection”; Psalm 92 is titled “Thanksgiving for Vindication.” The feelings are all there in those Psalms—despair, relief, gratitude. In the Genesis reading, Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his family, “provided his father, his brothers and all his father’s household with food according to the number of their dependents.” In Corinthians, Paul, in a section on “The Rights of an Apostle,” says “nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” Finally, in Mark, in a section titled “Jesus Walks on the Water,” Mark writes, “but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. But immediately he spoke to them.” It’s all there—family relationships, rights and duties, supernatural events. What to make of it? It’s so human, so divine!

I often think of Lent as a time of reflection on experiences that are sad or painful. But these passages taken together reveal to me the infiniteness of God’s love, Agape. They show me the trustworthiness of God. To me, they reveal a truth: God created us to love us, over and over and over again—love without end.

O Holy One, You have given us the Scripture to reveal to us your eternal love for us and for all of our brothers and sisters (even the ones we do not like or those we fear). I thank you for your Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and for the Scriptures that helps us to see the “big picture,” the Good News that Jesus is Love Incarnate! Amen.

~Tom B.