On Sunday, January 26, 2020, the children’s story of the day was a favorite, “Old Jake’s Skirts.” The story of a bachelor farmer who finds a trunk full of women’s skirts by the side of the road. It is the story of how these skirts of colorful calico bring him back to life. I concluded by saying:
Broken and remade. . . . We don’t have to have suffered cancer, or the plague of crows, to experience the power of a calico skirt in our lives. Old Jake, St. Paul, me — and you — this is our story.
We all deserve love and nurturing — and we deserve it because that is, in its essence, just what it means to be human. It is our job to come to see that. Again and again. And to share it with a full heart. And a full table. . . . .
Join me in celebrating all that is so good.
And together we broke bread and said:
We, who have gathered in this safe and sacred space, from houses and farmhouses, condos and apartments, from Montpelier to Burlington, the Center and Duxbury . . . give thanks and praise for all that is good in the world; for the bridges that connect us across rivers and ideas, the telephone lines that carry words of hope and love and mutual upbuilding.
The Lord’s Supper, which we then celebrated for the last time before the pandemic broke out and stopped us, is something we do not because if we don’t we are somehow not Christian, not because if we don’t we are somehow “in trouble,” but because it is one, often beautiful and tender, way for us to acknowledge that despite our confusions, and our frustrations, despite our illness and losses, we all deserve love and nurturing . . . and that is a gift, freely given to us in our need.
Communion is not a requirement of our faith, it is an opportunity. The deacons and I are planning, provided community Covid-19 levels remain low as they have since early summer, to celebrate communion again. We will serve it by passing plates of the juice and the bread, grateful for this church and for the chance we have to “break bread together.”
The servers and preparers will prepare and serve with the utmost care and concern for good hygiene. We hope you can join us this Sunday, December 11.