"For Such A Time As This” - PCOB Announcement And Devotion For 3/27/2020

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,

Sunday morning, around 8am, you will receive an email with a link to this Sunday's worship service.  The service has been prerecorded this week, and continues our Lenten journey "Guided by Women," with the sermon by Audrey Finkbiner.  Many will remember Audrey as our former Pastor of Congregational Care.  Once again, this service speaks to our current situation with the coronavirus.  We hope it will be a blessing to all.

Today’s devotion is a poem of gratitude written by Rachel Witkovsky, inspired by Jan Wessel’s reflections on last Sunday’s worship service.   Thank you to Rachel for writing and sharing this with us.  If you wish to respond to Rachel directly, her email address is rwitkovsky@palmyracob.org.

 

Scripture – Psalm 122:1 and Psalm 111:1-2

I was glad when they said to me,

   ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’

Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

   in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

2 Great are the works of the Lord,

   studied by all who delight in them.

 

Poem: Away From Home

Our new normal is uncertainty

Our new normal is anxiety

It’s confusion

And it’s fear

 

But there is still hope

Even if we can’t feel it yet

There is still community

Even if we can’t touch it

 

Our rituals have changed

But we remain connected

 

The words of our leaders

Support us

The notes of the hymns

Encourage us

 

But to see my home

My home away from home

The sanctuary

That holy place

Even through a small screen

Fills me up

Sustains me

 

I watch the bells ringing

Hear the piano singing

Filling that forgotten space

With light and love

 

I look through my screen

around the sanctuary

at the emptiness

and appreciate, in an unexpected way,

my church home

 

I can see the memories

Of those seated in the now vacant choir chairs

I can see their faces

I hear their voices

Softly, tenderly, and rising in song

 

The guitar rests, forgotten, in the chancel area

But as I watch

My memory brings it back to life

The sound of the strings

And a voice strong and clear

Praising our God 

Our awesome God

 

The pulpit stands empty

But my mind’s eye fills it with faces of our leaders

Words of question

And words of promise

float in from the past

 

I see moments of our life together in every corner

Memories of windowsills filled with Easter flowers

Christmas candles placed on the altar

Canned goods donated for Harvest time

Empty hallways filled with beautiful murals and children’s laughter echoing through them

 

I see the empty spaces

But I don’t feel sadness

I am warmed by the memories of this place

I can see the love of the past filling these spaces

And I am given hope of what will surely be there again

 

Most Sundays, I would walk right past these moments

These places

But today, seeing them through a new perspective

 

I become conscious of them

in an unexpectedly

comforting way

 

Through a small screen

I am reminded of my community

Of my God

Of my family

Of my home

 

Because of who we are

Because of what we do

Through the good times

The bad times

The crazy and scary times

We learn over and over again

Through new ways of worship

And new ways of interaction

To hold each other close

And find our way home once again

 

Prayer

Thank you, Lord!  Amen.

 

Reminder:

If you know someone who does not have email, please call them and offer to read this email to them and share this devotion with them.  And, check in on how they are doing.