2nd Sunday of Easter during the Coronavirus Pandemic

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Last Sunday my mom and I were driving to Cortez to see a friend in need. Just past the west side of Mesa Verde hill, we saw a barefoot woman running hysterically down the shoulder of Highway 160. She was crying and flailing her arms in the air. She stumbled and weaved as she ran, pure terror. A car was parked behind her and I thought she might be running for her life from whomever was in the car.

My stomach tightened in a ball and I gripped the steering wheel harder. What should I do? I turned to my 81-year old mom and asked, “Do you think we should stop? And, if we do stop should we give her a ride if she needs one?” I was not for sure, but intuitively I thought she was fleeing a domestic violence situation. The parked car behind her concerned me. Her life could be at risk and if we stopped our lives could be at risk. We could call 911 but by the time help arrived it might be too late. And, I had concerns about the coronavirus as well. Would we want a frantic, barefoot stranger riding in our car?

What was our best response?

Many of the stories of Jesus tell about him being moved with compassion. Marcus Borg in his transformative book, “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” says, “For Jesus, compassion was the central quality of God and the central moral quality of a life centered in God.” Compassion is feeling the suffering or the pain of someone else and being moved by that suffering to do something. “To be compassionate is to feel as God feels and to act as God acts in a life-giving, nourishing,” and generative way. Frank Rogers says compassion is the heartbeat of humanity that restores life, and Jewish rabbis and scholars believe the ethic of compassion is the essence of the Torah.

Jesus lived compassion. He touched the lepers and the blind. The hungry moved him with compassion. Jesus drew close and healed the man with unclean spirits. He forgave the thief on the cross. He listened intently to the woman at the well.

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Recordings from previous weeks

 

More recordings available on Soundcloud.

SERVICES

SUNDAY WORSHIP

  • 10:30 a.m. in-person worship.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Tuesday, 9:30 A.M., Parent Time.
  • Wednesday, 10:00 A.M.-Arts and Crafts. 10:30 A.M.-Valley Inn worship service.
  • Wednesday, 6:00 P.M, Forgiveness class. Read chapter 5. Receiving God’s Forgiveness.
  • Friday, 9:30 A.M., Yoga with Silvia.

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Minutes

Meeting minutes can be viewed here.

Meditations

RECONCILING STATEMENT

1 John 4:19 “We Love because God first loved us.”

As a reconciling congregation, Mancos United Methodist Church prayerfully strives to live in community with open hearts, open minds, and open doors. We affirm that each person is of sacred worth.  We believe that all people are God’s children, created in God’s image, loved and blessed equally by Christ; so, we seek to be a fully inclusive church. We welcome and encourage full participation of all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identification, race, gender, marital status, family structure, faith origin, economic or educational background, and physical or mental ability. While there are differences among us, we do not seek to erase them but to journey together in faithful love toward greater understanding and mutual respect.