Join us for online worship on Sunday, June 7, at 10:15 a.m. at https://vimeo.com/channels/1547852
You can read and download the bulletin here.
This is the first Sunday of the month, the day on which we generally celebrate the sacrament of communion. You may be all set with what you are going to use for communion this morning, but if not, I invite you to get whatever you eat and whatever you drink. It can be bread and grape juice or wine or perhaps simply a cracker or rice cake and water for use later in our worship. You might want to do that now as we take time to greet those that we are with—or to think about those whom you would like to be with if you could.
This morning, as I do every time we gather for worship, I will take a Bible in my hands. I will open it and read from it. In the sermon I will seek to make some connection between those ancient words and our modern lives. And in our lives, each one of us will seek to live out what we have heard in those words. We don’t always think about this—it is as astonishing as it is simple. And it begins when someone opens a Bible.
The deaths have been too many for too long.
The injustice has been too great for too long.
Black lives matter. We proclaim that here. We seek to live out the consequences of that statement. And yet that truth does not dwell deeply in the heart of this nation.
In our congregation we’ve read the books, we’ve heard the sermons, we’ve worked to get out the vote, we’ve allied ourselves with African-American congregations in the Johnson County Interfaith Coalition.
Yet here we are, after more than a week of protest and marches in Iowa City, after more than a week of protest and marches across the nation and around the world. And the violence continues. The racism continues.
We are painfully aware that there is more for us to do—much more. There is more listening, more conversation, more voting, more political action, more change required.
And we worry that we are not up to the task.
So what should we do today?
SCRIPTURE LESSONS: Isaiah 5:1-10; John 20:19-22
SERMON: “Take a Breath”
The Rev. William Lovin preaching
No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome to join us online.