Dear friends,
These are complicated times — filled with uncertainty, stress, worry, and tension. It is hard to know how to live well: how to figure out what we can do to make a difference, how to face the limits of our power, how to find energy to keep trying, how to build bridges while maintaining our own integrity.
In our worship services in the past year, we have been diving deep into our Christian tradition to find help, guidance, and strength for these complicated times. This past fall, we focused on the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and how their wisdom speaks to us today. During the Stewardship season, we explored what it means to trust that what we do matters. During Advent, our theme of “tending the light” offered another way to reflect on faithful living in a pain-filled world.
This winter, we will draw upon the wisdom of faithful Christians in the 2000 years since Jesus as we continue to explore how to live faithfully today. How did the teachings of Jesus inspire them to stand up for what it right? How was their faith in the power of God’s love nurtured and nourished? What can we learn from their struggles and their choices? How do we honor their human imperfections so we can be empowered to act in the face of our own imperfections?
Our winter theme, “Faithful Followers,” will begin with the biblical story of the call of the first disciples. Then, as we honor Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, our guest preacher, Fran Graveson (back by popular demand), will explore one of Dr. King’s most thoughtful and courageous sermons. The following week she will offer reflections on a sermon written by Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights and voting rights activist.
None of these faithful followers acted on their own; always they were part of communities that shaped their faith, encouraged them, strategized together, and supported one another. On February 2, Fran will share the story of the emergence of the LGBT Asylum Task Force — a story of many faithful followers struggling to respond to a need and drawing upon the teachings of Jesus.
Later in February, we will reflect on the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian whose courageous stance and complex ethical choices during the Nazi regime led to his execution. A recent movie has raised awareness about his life, but in a way that oversimplifies his choices and, according to his family, misconstrues them in dangerous ways. We will dive deeper to try to understand what it meant for Bonhoeffer to follow Jesus in horrifying times.
We’ll explore a few saints and mystics, and we’ll also highlight people in our own greater Framingham community whose efforts to follow Jesus lead them to courageous and important work.
I look forward to all we will learn from these faithful followers as we seek to be faithful followers as well.
Peace, Debbie