Good Afternoon Church,
It’s a gorgeous, sunny afternoon following yesterday’s snow.
The soft, smooth blanket of white, which now covers the ground, sets off the brilliance of the blue sky and the shining sunlight. What a glorious day!
Here’s today’s news:
Monica Sandreczki to Preach This Sunday
Please join us in the Center at 10am this Sunday, as Monica brings us a word from the Word.
Girl Scouts Selling Cookies During Coffee Hour
For one more Sunday, girl scouts will be offering their delicious array of cookie treats for purchase.
Communion and Choir on March 5th
Sunday, March 5th we will worship for the first time with our newly minted choir and celebrate communion together.
All Church Potluck March 5th
Following worship on the 5th, we will continue our agape feast with lunch. Please bring a dish to pass and your joy for fellowship!
Medical Fund for Ron Kaiser
We have secretly been collecting funds to offer to our sexton, Ron Kaiser, who has been incurring high medical expenses for the last year due to heart problems. To date, we have raised $2,210! We will continue accepting donations for one more week. If you’d like to contribute something, just write Ron Kaiser on the memo line of your check.
And thank you, if you’ve already contributed! 🙂
Soup Lunch to Benefit CPH
Friday, March 10th the Canton Methodist Church is sponsoring a take-out soup lunch to help support the Canton-Potsdam Hospital. For $12 you get a choice of chicken rice soup, broccoli cheddar, or vegetable soup, along with a garden salad, roll, and dessert.
Pre-Orders Appreciated by March 3. To pre-order go to: www.cphguild.com and complete Soup Luncheon Order Form.
You can pre-pay using PayPal or pay be cash or check at the time of pick up. For Info & Questions: 315-261-0723
The Season of Lent
If you haven’t been paying attention to the liturgical calendar, this last Wednesday kicked off our Lenten Season. It’s the time of year that we set aside for quiet space to reflect on our spiritual lives and prepare for Jesus’s betrayal, arrest, death, and ultimately, the good news of his resurrection.
Sometimes at the start of Lent, churches hold special Ash Wednesday services, where a minister will rub ashes on your forehead in the shape of a cross, and say a special blessing over you: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
It’s meant to remind us of the vastness of God’s presence and the impermanence of our earthly life.
The other day though, I was reminded of the quantum reality that relates to the truth in this saying. Did you know that each of us is formed from the same material that stardust is made of.
When God created the heavens and the earth, she did it in a form of mystical union. Everything in God’s beautiful creation is interconnected. We, as humans, are not separate from the earth. We, as humans, are of the universe– part of the web of God’s expansive creation.
During Lent, it is our spiritual work to remember where we belong in the universe– how our lives impact others, how our decisions impact our own lives, and how all of this lives within our relationship to God.
Today, may we remember that we are born of God’s gracious love, and from the dust of stars, and may we remember that we will one day return to God’s starry sky and the mysteries of that grace.
Friends, hear this good news! God’s love and stardust live in us, around us, through us, under us, over us, and beyond us. God in all dwelling, and all dwelling in God.
From God’s dust you were born, and to God’s dust you shall return.
Peace be unto you,
Pastor Katrina