Holy Saturday - 03 April 2021 - Plague Journal Day 387

Micah 6:8
Matthew 27:62-66
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

It's hard for us Christians to grasp what that last day before the Resurrection was like for the disciples.

Jesus was dead and buried.
They knew where His body was - in the tomb -
    but they couldn't perform the traditional preparations of His body because it was the Sabbath.
Jesus was dead and buried.
They knew where His body was - in the tomb -
   but they didn't know what would happen to them next.
Jesus was dead and buried.
They knew where His body was - in the tomb -
   but they didn't know what would happen with His promises next.
Jesus was dead and buried.
They knew where His body was - in the tomb -
   but they still didn't know that He would rise on the third day.

We know all those things, so we're all too quick to skip over Saturday, overflowing with the Joy that is to come on Sunday. Today, try to experience some of what they did. Don't wallow in misery - I'm pretty sure they didn't do that (it was the Sabbath, after all, a day dedicated to serving God). After all, the women were up early on Sunday to attend to His body. They were all together, no doubt miserable, but also commiserating and comforting one another. They were still a community.

Try to imagine the near (but only near!) despair they endured. We know that Joy comes in the morning, but all they knew at the time was mourning.

Try to imagine. And try to imagine the Love that motivated His sacrifice. He endured death for the Joy that was set before Him, and that Joy was you. and me. and all who will come to believe.

Try to imagine.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Good Friday - 02 April 2021 - Plague Journal Day 386

Micah 6:8
Matthew 27:45-54
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Good Friday. Good Grief. Both of those phrases seem odd - nearly oxymoronic. And yet, on that Friday, Jesus paid the price for my sins - for my sin - and for yours. The grief His friends, family, and followers all suffered didn't seem good to them then, but on the third day they discovered what He was really doing - He was about His Father's work. Mourning gave way to that glorious morning when they realized Jesus had conquered death.

Still, on that Friday which we call 'Good' from afar, they saw it as anything but good.

Imagine yourself there at Golgotha. Where would you have been? With the passersby who didn't know what was happening? With the mockers who thought they knew? With the despairing followers who thought they had known what would happen, but were shocked by what really did? With the soldiers, just doing their jobs? With the rulers and leaders who were doing this to keep the peace?

It's too easy to say we would have done one thing or another from our perch two millennia after the fact. What would I really have done? Where would I really have stood? God have mercy on me - I don't know what I'm doing.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

No Fooling (?) - Maundy Thursday - 01 April 2021 - Plague Journal Day 385

Micah 6:8
Luke 22:14-23  Ezekiel 3:1-3   Revelation 10:8-11
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is April Fools' Day. I understand that this designation came about when France moved from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, moving the New Year from 01 April to 01 January. Those who continued to celebrate on 01 April were labeled April Fools.
That's a nice story, but I don't think there's any real history to back it up. I think it's nearly as true as the famed BBC documentary of the Swiss spaghetti farmers and their pasta harvest. How gullible do they think we are? Moving New Year's day from April to January - that's simply incredible.
Further evidence, as if it were needed, is found in the fact that today is still New Year's Day for our Assyrian friends and family. I'm not inclined to call them "Fools" for celebrating their distinct heritage - are you? Culturally insensitive is probably the kindest way to describe such an attitude.
While we're at it, remember that today is Maundy Thursday - the day we commemorate the institution of the Lord's Supper. It's quite appropriate that it fall on April Fools' Day, as it was the beginning of God's prank on Satan. Take that, chump!

Further, today is also the International Edible Book Festival. Frankly, I don't understand why this needs a festival - especially since any non-digital book is already edible, thus making the "Edible" part unnecessarily redundant. (No, really, the paper is just good old fiber ("Grandma called it 'roughage'" as the oatmeal carton used to inform us.) and the binding glue is generally made from natural products.)
I recall a classmate in my first Elementary School who generally ate the notes that were sent home to his parents before he arrived there - a walk of a mere two blocks - suffering no apparent ill effects. If he could eat paper with that purple ditto ink that smelled so good, surely you can eat paper with the soy-based ink that most publishers use these days!

On a personal note, we recall the passing of the late, great Herschel Bernardi. Not only did he have a fairly good TV sitcom (Arnie), but he also voiced some of the most classic commercial mascots of all time. He was the voice of the Jolly Green Giant (modeled on the Ent, Treebeard, from JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy) as well as Charlie the Tuna, spokesvictim for Starkist Tuna. In that vein we note that today is also Sorry Charlie Day. Sorry indeed.


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Colour My World - 31 March 2021 - Plague Journal Day 384

Micah 6:8 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Micah+6%3A8&version=ESV

Yes, your life matters. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+30:19&version=ESV

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is National Crayon Day - I always liked the Umbers and Siennas best. Ultramarine was good too.
I was searching the web for pictures of Crayola crayon packages and found the one above. It took me back to my childhood, as that was the box I remember using for all kinds of important projects. We didn't have a lot of luxury items, that's for sure, but we did have good arts and crafts stuff. I guess that really was a pretty big part of my upbringing.

I wonder what liking tertiary colours best says about a person. I'm not big on primaries (Red, Yellow, Blue), secondaries are OK (Orange, Green, Purple), but I'm more of a tertiary guy (Browns, really). Of course I do like my purple and orange sweaters (that's two different ones), and my Detroit Express Staff shirt with the Orange and Blue stripes still hangs proudly in my closet (graced with the autograph of the trainer - Karl Glass!).

In unrelated news, here's one that Christian needs to celebrate carefully. Today is National Tater Day. I suppose if he thinks of it as home runs that's not so bad (although it's before Opening Day, so that's not likely to be the real reference), but if he wants to be able to eat anything else he'll need more than a modicum of moderation.

In even more unrelated news, there are a couple interesting birthdays today.
Johann Sebastian Bach, Saxon organist and composer was born in 1685, following René Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician (or was he Spanish, Mark?) who was born in 1596.
It's pretty cool - Descartes spoke about Creation with Mathematics, and Bach spoke to God with Mathematics. (Thanks to Poul Anderson for that quote about Bach!)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Attempted Assassination Anniversary - 30 March 2021 - Plague Journal Day 383

Micah 6:8
Exodus 20:13
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Forty years ago today, 30 March 1981 U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot when a mentally ill gunman opened fire outside a hotel in Washington D.C. Apparently he claimed his only motive was to become famous. I'm not going to help him out by repeating his name, even this long after the fact.
Everyone of the appropriate age remembers where they were when President Kennedy was shot. Well, I also remember where I was when President Reagan was shot. I had gone home for lunch between classes (grad school) and turned on the TV while I ate my braunschweiger, onion, cheddar, mustard, and crunchy peanut butter sandwich. I tuned to CNN to see what was going on in the world, and there was the report of the assassination attempt.
It was very surreal, and even more bizarre when I returned to campus and told folks about what I had seen. This was long before everyone was connected all the time, so no one there had heard the news yet. An unsettling experience, and an odd memory.

At least we have another, more positive event to celebrate today, as it's the 154th anniversary of our purchase of Alaska from Russia. Initially known as Seward's Folly, it seems that we made a pretty good buy after all. Glad to have the 49th State in the Union! (That's a shot of 49th State Brewing near Denali. We had a great dinner and a couple different beers there several years ago.)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Tickling the Ivories - 29 March 2021 - Plague Journal Day 382

Micah 6:8
Psalm 150   Colossians 3:16
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

UPDATES BELOW IN RED

Today is the 88th day of 2021, and thus it is Piano Day. Indeed. (As I recall, it was on the Flintstones that I learned there were 88 keys on a piano keyboard.) At any rate, it was hearing the instrumental monster hit, Alley Cat, by Bent Fabric (seriously, Bent Fabric) that made me ask to take piano lessons as a kid. I checked my sheet music (the same one pictured below), and it turns out that Bent Fabric was the recording artist; the composer was Frank Bjorn. Poor guy only had first names, it appears.

That song is the reason we bought a piano and why I took all those lessons (nine years or so). I still have the sheet music on my piano (not the same one), and I might be able to almost play it semi-competently were I to give it a try. (I did try at lunch time. I both over- and under-estimated my retained abilities. I managed to get through it without being too embarrassed, but not in a way I would want to perform in public. Time to practice.) At any rate, I guess I need to say "Thank you" to Mr. Fabric (and Mr. Bjorn!) for getting me started on my musical journey. I can't imagine what my life would be like without the playing, singing, and writing that all got its start with that catchy little piano tune. It's vastly richer than it would have been, no doubt.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

 

 

Worship - 28 March 2021 - Plague Journal Day 381

Micah 6:8

Psalm 118: 25-29
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

 

 

This Sunday is the Sixth Sunday in Lent - Palm Sunday

With the COVID case levels settling down in Grosse Pointe, we've resumed our in-person worship!
Yes, we're going to be back in-person in the Sanctuary today. You need to have registered ahead of time to attend, and an email went out from the church with all the details!

This is Palm Sunday! We had hoped to have a video of our congregation's kids waving palms and shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" but the palms didn't arrive in time to organize that project. Maybe we'll do one later anyway. Still, we have a great solo for our offertory time and a hymn for us to read along while Doug plays. (We're slowly getting back to real Methodist worship!) Remember, we'll be streaming for all those who can't join us in person.

As usual, today's stream should just appear as the latest entry on our YouTube channel, here.
You'll find all our previous worship videos right there at that same place, and today's stream will stay there as a recording as well.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264