By Rev. Jeanne Randall-Bodman
April 2024
“You have heard of collateral damage.
Now hear of collateral renewal.
Every time we act in kindness,
in mercy, in love:
the impact of our actions radiates out to
touch many more lives than the ones in our immediate vicinity.
Others we do not know will be affected.
The reverberations of our compassion will circle the world.
Collateral renewal - healing rippling out, never ending.”Steven Charleston, March 2024
This Easter season, as my newsfeed is filled with anxiety-producing headlines calculated to make me click on one link after another, I am trying to wean myself from that little frisson of dread that comes with each click. Setting aside the mystery of why a frisson of dread should be addicting (I know I’m not the only one), I am trying to let go of the habit and instead lean into the sturdy reality of goodness, and follow every sign and glimmer of collateral renewal.
Because Easter reminds our tired spirits that hope is stronger than despair,
that love is stronger than hate,
life is stronger than death,
and that nothing is impossible with God.
The promise of Easter is that God is with us in every human moment,
that the story of “God with us” has not ended but is always starting anew.
During worship through these seven weeks of Easter, we will be thinking together about how we hear God calling us as a community to participate in the collateral renewal of Easter. How to use our unique gifts and graces to spread God’s love and work for God’s justice. You’ll be invited to reflect on your own or chat with a neighbor in the sanctuary or on zoom (whichever feels more comfortable to you) and then, if you’d like, to share what came to light in your discussion or reflection.
The first prompt will be to remember a time when you witnessed or participated in the creation of something that had never yet been done in just that way.
Join in worship on April 7 to learn more…
In hope and solidarity.