Pentecost II 2020 Finding God’s Peace in the Chaos
What practices can we follow to clear through the noise and anxiety of this time?
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LIVING WITH THE COVID-19 BLUES
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LOOKING FOR THE GREEN
Fr. Robert shares how Good Shepherd’s community has held each other up this year.
Mtr. Michele reflects on forests and beetles, and life.
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CHRISTMAS GREENERY
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FINDING GOD’S PEACE IN CHAOS
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FINDING GOD’S PEACE IN HELPING
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YOUTH GATHERING
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Nicole Seiferth has an early reminder about the greening of the church for Christmas.
Kathleen Crevasse tells us about what’s been helping her find God’s peace, one day at a time.
Deacon Janice finds peace in looking for ways to help others.
Get ready youth! A bonfire and Evening Prayer are coming!
HOW SHALL WE SING THE LORD’S SONG? John Wigal shares about the challenges of gathering and singing in this time, and what to look forward to.
On the cover & above: From this month’s Blessing of the Animals service - finding God in the blessings pets bring.
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Living with the COVID-19 Blues Robert Childers, Rector The sunrise this morning, on the first day of autumn, was breathtakingly beautiful. The day began clear, crisp and cool. With the low humidity that comes in the fall, I could see mountains upon mountains looming into the distance. The sense of clarity and wonder that I experience as I look out over the horizon on these autumn mornings fills me with a sense of excitement, exhilaration and hope. Autumn is my favorite season of the year. It is a wonderful transitional time which allows us to pause and take a deep breath between the warmth, the light and often carefree rhythm of summer and the dark and cold of winter. We, like the creatures of nature we see scurrying and flying about, can use this as a time to get ready for what is to come in the days ahead. So, in this time between summer and winter, it seems right to reflect on all that has happened to us here in our worshipping community, not to mention the world around us, over the last several months. Our Good Shepherd community last met and worshipped in a regular and “normal” fashion on March 8, as winter was ending, and spring was emerging. We have been living under the cloud of Covid-19 for seven months now. Our time in the pandemic has now touched all four seasons. Who amongst us, when we called off in person worship on March 15, would have thought we would still be battling this virus in September? Who would have thought we would still be spending the better part of our days (and lives) at home? Certainly, I did not see this coming. But here we are, keeping our distance while trying
to stay connected. There is an awkward tension involved in this dance and it is often difficult to maintain and find the balance. We are social creatures—even the most introverted amongst us—and we need each other in order to be fully alive. I will admit to a certain degree of weariness, exhaustion and even depression as our days of social distancing, handwashing and mask wearing have stretched into weeks and months with the end nowhere in sight. And yet, the path out of this pandemic, calls and even requires that we take these measures for the health and safety of our neighbors and ourselves. I believe these safety measures- social distancing, handwashing and mask wearingwill benefit us all and help to keep us safe. More importantly, I know our church community, the Church of the Good Shepherd, will nurture, hold up, look after and love each other through this crisis. In these last seven months when I have been discouraged and uncertain about what to do or how to move forward, this community has held me, encouraged me and filled me with inspiration, strengthening my faith. Just as many of you have strengthened me, I trust Good Shepherd has done the same for you. I hope that our prayer offerings, meditations, classes, worship and any other virtual or in person activities have lifted you and warmed your heart. I miss all of our in-person gatherings. Truly, there is no substitute for being together. And yet, if we believe in prayer—and I do—we are connected by and through our prayers. Though we are not physically together, we still hold each other. I feel and am held by your prayers. Continue to hold onto each 3
other in this strange and uncertain time. We are the church. We are the body of Christ. We are connected, our hearts and souls are intertwined through Christ’s love for us. Know you are loved. Take care of each other. Love each other. Blessings, grace and peace, Robert
Looking for the Green
Michele Simmons, Assistant to the Rector When my family and I moved to Colorado in 2006, we found ourselves at the epicenter of an enormous mountain pine beetle outbreak. Unlike the diversity of trees that we enjoy here on Lookout Mountain (how do you ever learn them all??), the subalpine habitat on the west slope of the Rocky Mountains is dominated by lodgepole pine. As it happens, mountain pine beetles LOVE lodgepole pine. For some decades now, the Rockies have not experienced lengthy periods of subzero temperatures during the winter as they had historically. Without extended deep freeze events, the native pine beetles have been able to winter over without significant population losses, to the point where their numbers reached epidemic levels. Rather than impacting a stand of trees here or a swathe of forest there, they ran rampant on a regional scale, killing mature pine trees across areas measured by states, rather than miles. The landscape changed dramatically. People who came to the mountains for the beauty watched their beloved trees die. Verdant stands of forest turned orange, then brown, then grey. When I arrived in Colorado, the locals were experiencing all the stages of grief, including sadness, anger, and fear. It is heartbreaking to know that the forest will never look like it did before – at least during our lifetime. You see, the forest itself has lifecycle of birth-growth-old age-death-and rebirth. Lodgepole pine forests, in particular, are adapted to weather what foresters called “stand-replacing events.” Most often, this is fire. Lodgepoles have cones that are designed to open in the heat of a fire. When a fire removes a stand of trees, it also releases millions of seeds which thrive in the soil enriched with the ashes of the earlier generation and in the abundant sunlight made available by the absence of tall trees. A new generation bursts into life, with growth rates far above that of an older, shady forest. Many animals also thrive in these areas of new and rapid growth. Hunters in Colorado would tell me that these younger stands are great places to look for deer and elk, which feast on the grasses and other plants that flourish in these sunnier areas. Beetle-killed forests aren’t identical to fire-killed forests, but some of the same principles do apply. The forest canopy is opened to ample sunshine for the first time in decades. The intense heat of the sun on the exposed slopes opens pinecones much like fire does. A new generation takes root; pine seedlings and other plants spring up in sunshine. One of my 4
colleagues liked to say, “The trees have died, but the forest is becoming young again.” I found that one of the most “pastoral” gifts that I could give to locals and visitors was the challenge to “look for the green.” It was so easy to be overwhelmed with grief for the forest-that-was. The ugly orange-brown trees dominated the landscape, making it impossible to ignore or forget what had been lost. But while accepting and acknowledging and mourning that truth, we would also encourage people to look down. Notice the multitude of small green trees emerging from the earth. In the short decade or so that I was there, these tiny seedlings grew to be head-high and more. It will be a long time, if ever, before the forest is the same as it was before. Nevertheless, it has become young again and there is joy and hope and fascination in watching the new growth mature along with all the other living things that come with it.
A grove of lodgepole pines
We are all now going through another time of upheaval. Life as we knew it has changed, possibly forever. The “forest” doesn’t look anything like it did a year ago and we find ourselves sad, and angry, and sometimes fearful. Even as we grieve what we have lost and even as we decry the ugliness of some of what is in this present time, let us remember to “look for the green.” There are blessings in this time (you can read our Covid devotions booklet to discover some of them). Where do you see new life emerging? How have you grown? How can we help good, healthy, Spirit-filled disciplines, habits, relationships, programs, and policies take root and flourish? How can we live into a reality where “the trees have died, but the forest has become young again?”
Christmas Wreaths and Greenery Nicole Seiferth, Parish Administrator
If you would like to sponsor one (or more) of the wreaths that adorn Good Shepherd at Christmas in memory of or thanksgiving for your loved ones, please contact Nicole in the church office at (423) 821-1583 or nicole@gslookout.com . You can also contribute toward the greening of the church in your loved one’s honor.
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Finding God’s Peace in Chaos
Kathleen Crevasse, Director of Christian Education So, this assignment - Where do I find God’s peace in the midst of chaos? - should have been an easy one for me. Afterall, for decades I’ve cultivated intentional practices that give me peace and draw me nearer to God – things like breath prayer, walking labyrinths, hiking in nature, and reading poetry, more recently, engaging in the Daily Offices. In early summer, I helped a diocesan team develop a program we rolled out in July called The 4 Ms. We encouraged a daily dive into mindfulness, movement, mastery and meaningful connection as an antidote to chaos and trauma and a prescription for mental health. Although we offered it in July, it works any time and you can access it here: https://www.dioet.org/4ms/. In the past several weeks I solicited, edited and prepared for publication essays for our parish devotion book Blessings in the Time of Coronavirus. I even wrote one. But if you were to see me in recent days my body language probably didn’t telegraph peace or joy. My mask, well, masked my unsmiling face -and I hope it perhaps muffled the occasional grinding of my teeth. What’s going on? What’s the disconnect? I’ve worn through some shoe soles and tooth enamel on this one. Moments of peace (and even joy – hiking this weekend with my beloved sister who I hadn’t seen for more than 24 hours in the past year, sitting outside in the sun in my first Godly Play circle in half a year! ) are interrupted by moments of adrenaline-flooding alarm and jarring disquietude. Do I need new or better practices? Am I hitting a 20-years-in ministry rut or am I a victim of the 6-month wall folks are talking about lately? (http://bit.ly/6monthWall) I follow someone who goes by @lorihetteen on Instagram. She shares wisdom, quotes, and quirky things that feed my soul, served up in what she calls “poem-ish” drawing. Today, I clicked on this and something, well, clicked:
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I realized that in these long months of weathering the pandemic and all that entails – isolation, grief, adjusting to new routines, lost opportunities for meaningful connection, worry about vulnerable loved ones – I often truly have been able to find peace through my practices, through watching humans being lovely to others, through the tender ministrations of some of the angels in my own life, through praying for and reaching out to the young families in our church. But that’s all been in response to a virus. A virus is a virus is a virus. It doesn’t care about anything other than finding a host cell where it can reproduce itself. There’s not much I can do about it. I can wear a mask, socially distance from others, wash my hands, try not make anything worse with bad behavior or a bad attitude. I can wait it out and allay my anxiety with prayer and practices and seeking to be present to the now - where God can always be found. But loud voices in my head (excuse me, are they bothering you?) keep shouting. They disturb my peace. And I think they are chanting, “No justice, no peace.” Our society’s divided response to the virus has stolen my peace. Our society’s divided response to the cries and actions against racial injustice - revealed all over again in new and ‘same old’ ways - has stolen our peace. The virus’ disproportionate danger and deadliness to people of color has mirrored other dangers and deadly forces that threaten those same people. And that, frankly, doesn’t feel like something I should be seeking peace about. That doesn’t feel like something to be quiet about. That feels like, “How do I help tear those chains from the wall?” There’s a collect we pray that says, Almighty God, who created us in your own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Make no peace with oppression. It’s not about peace when it comes to racial injustice. Where there is no justice, there can be no peace. So, when it comes to the trials dealt out by the pandemic, yes, seek peace. Pray, meditate, get outside, move, do something for others, read good books, reach out to someone whose day it will make. Watch a classic movie or silly Tik Tok videos. Come to church – online or in person, on Sundays or any of our weekday options. But for me, when it comes to the struggle to fight racial injustice, I think a season of discomfort is in order. I have no right to seek peace for myself when there is no justice for others. Indeed, the bold prayer asks for the grace to fearlessly contend against that evil and to use our freedom to fight for the oppressed. (And if following social safety guidelines makes you feel oppressed, perhaps take a moment to wonder if that’s a battle worth spending your already fraught energy on right now.) In the book Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott offers the following on when things go wrong: “Carolyn Myss, the medical intuitive who writes and lectures about why people don’t heal, flew to Russia a few years ago to give some lectures. Everything that could go wrong did — flights were cancelled or overbooked, connections missed, her reserved room at the hotel given to
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someone else. She kept trying to be a good sport, but finally, two mornings later, on the train to her conference on healing, she began to whine at the man sitting beside her how infuriating her journey had been thus far. It turned out that this man worked for the Dalai Lama. And he said — gently — that they believe when a lot of things start going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born — and this something needs for you to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.” Oh, God, make it so! May this time of trial that seems hell bent, like the wild fires out west, to wreak havoc and destroy everything in its path, be instead a tempering blaze, steeling our resolve to do the hard work of justice, no matter how much it disturbs our peace. Let us bear with each other and bear with the birthing pains of a more just, more perfect, union, where there is respect and love for the dignity of every human being. Let us, with God’s help, strive for justice and peace among all people.
Finding God’s Peace in Helping Others
Janice Robbins, Deacon
As I was driving up the mountain last week, I heard our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry speaking. I didn’t hear it all, but I did hear him say, “Love is not a sentiment, it is a commitment.” Whoa...now that is food for thought... (and action!). Loving our fellow humans is a manifestation of that commitment. Granted, it is made harder when we have such limited personal interaction with our community. It is well known that people who help others feel happier and more optimistic than those who look and feel only for themselves. Love can start as a sentiment or feeling, but the feeling needs to morph into a commitment to actually do something. The difficulty in 2020 becomes showing our love outwardly for our fellow humans in ways that are safe for all. At Good Shepherd now and throughout the year, we are collecting healthy snacks for approximately 40 Fairyland children whose families need food assistance. Sacks of snacks are sent home every Friday so children have healthy snacks over the weekend. Good Shepherd sends sacks every month during the school year. Donations are being accumulated in the wagon in the narthex and can be brought any time. It is an ongoing collection. Snacks need to be healthy and individually wrapped. If we end up with excess snacks, they’ll be taken to to the school for further distribution. Healthy snacks are ALWAYs needed. Our chairs are Wendy Taliaferro, Kara VanBrunt, and Ferne McDowell. If you feel so inspired and you’d like to send 40 already stuffed sacks (or any portion thereof!), please give Wendy, Kara, Ferne or me a heads up. Also, If you should have any items (gently used clothing, sports clothing, winter clothing, canned goods, childcare items, cleaning products, etc.), please bring these to the narthex. They will be delivered to the appropriate agency for distribution. 8
Also scheduled for Good Shepherd is a work day on the Habitat for Humanity’s Faith House. All that is needed for participation is willingness. There is a limit to the number of people we may send – 6 people at a time. We may operate 2 or more shifts. Skill and experience is NOT needed – experienced workers are there to assist. 16-year-olds may participate, but may not be on ladders or the roof. Further information will be forthcoming along with signups sheets. At this time, the date is set for Saturday, November 7. Good Shepard is also partnering with Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga to assist three families in need as they transition to self-sufficiency. Our role during the week of October 25 through 31 is to provide dinner each evening and breakfast options for a week. The three families have been staying full time at the Church of the Nazarene in Chattanooga since July. In October the families will utilize the Family Promise Day Center Program which includes case management and assistance to existing community supportive services. The families will return each evening in October to the Church of the Nazarene for lodging and meals. You can sign up to make a meal at http://bit.ly/FamilyPromiseOct2020 . Sometimes too, we have to recognize that the best we can do in giving is to donate financially. Without a doubt, there is an abundance of organizations who would love to have some assistance. If you don’t have a special agency that you want to donate to, please contact me for ideas. Loving your neighbor in the 2020 chaos takes more effort, but doesn’t lessen the need. In giving we are committing our love to our fellow humans.
IMPORTANT HANDS-ON OUTREACH ACTIVITIES • Provide meals for Family Promise - October 25-31. Sign up at http://bit.ly/FamilyPromiseOct2020 • Work day for Habitat’s Faith House – November 7. Email Janice@gslookout if you’re interested • Snack Packs for Fairyland – ongoing collection in wagon in the narthex. Please keep the wagon filled.
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How shall we sing the Lord’s song upon an alien soil? John Wigal, Director of Music
Over the last 7 months or so, I have often wondered about this verse from Psalm 137. We certainly are on “alien soil” when it comes to so many things in our daily lives, at church, and in music and the arts. Much of the spread of the Coronavirus is attributed to aerosols, tiny droplets of water that are produced as we breathe and even more so when we create sound using our voice. This has made music making, and particularly singing, a great challenge. We have, however, learned that there are several ways to help mitigate this spread – masking, limited time of exposure, and social distancing being the big three. Beginning in October, we will be using small ensembles of singers to present the musical portions of our Sunday morning 10 am service. These singers will be masked, will be distanced 6 feet apart in the balcony and will offer only the opening hymn and an anthem. Rehearsals will have no more than eight people and will be conducted in 45 minutes in our two largest spaces to allow for better air flow. The Good Shepherd musicians have done some marvelous work over these past months and I am deeply grateful to those who have served in this role: Delores Beery, Rachael Henderson, EJ and Cathy Laird, Hal Miller, Janelle and Trevor Wagoner and Cecelia Wigal. If you go to our Facebook page, http://facebook.com/GoodShepherdLookoutMountain, and click on “Videos,” the “Music at Good Shepherd” playlist has nearly 100 videos of our musical offerings since the suspension of public worship. We are looking forward to making music and helping to lead our worship as we move into a new Liturgical year this coming Advent. Watch for some new offerings and for some of our treasured offerings in new ways in the coming weeks and months!
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The Church of the Good Shepherd 211 Franklin Road Lookout Mountain, Tennessee 37350
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