Eureka Christian Church

Reflecting Christ's Light from Our Doorsteps to the Ends of the Earth

Pastor's Blog

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COVID Update, July 2022

Dear friends,

You can’t escape it, there’s constant talk on the news about the new Covid variants, BA4 and BA5, which are now taking over the country and driving up infection rates. At least four families in our congregation have gotten it in the last month (that I know of), and I can assure you from personal experience that it’s no fun.  But we’ve been through this many times over the last 2.5 years, and it gets difficult to figure out what’s real news that we need to worry about and what is alarmist handwringing by media folks who just want the ad revenue. Thankfully, there are several epidemiologists, virologists and testing experts who have been very generous with their research, and I am going to try to distill some of this information into action steps that can help to keep our congregation safe this summer.

First, the bad news:
Reinfections are on the rise. If you had covid more than a few months ago, you’re not very protected from getting Covid a second time, and there’s no guarantee that a repeat bout with Covid will be less severe than the first.

But there are steps we can take to help keep us protected:

  1. If you are eligible for a booster shot, go get one. Vaccines continue to do a very good job of keeping most people out of the hospital with covid. If you are over 50 or immunocompromised, you may be able to get another booster. You can get vaccines free of charge at our local CVS as well as most other pharmacies. Also, our Woodford County Health Department offers vaccines on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
  2. Consider wearing a mask in crowded places. If you’re in a room of people for more than a few minutes (such as a sanctuary), increased mask wearing can decrease the chances that you’ll spread or catch germs. At this point ECC does not have any plans of requiring masks again, but we will continue to monitor risk levels and keep you posted.
  3. Keep a stock of rapid Covid tests in your home. You can order free tests from https://www.covid.gov/tests, or stop by your preferred pharmacy and ask about tests there. You are entitled to 8 tests/month covered by your insurance.
  4. Use those tests regularly. If you’re feeling poorly, a rapid test will help you know whether you’re suffering from allergies, a little cold, or have caught Covid. This will help you keep others safe, as well as allow you to get Paxlovid, which needs to be started soon after symptoms start for best results. It’s also a good idea to test yourself before visiting elderly or sick friends, just in case you’re infected but have no symptoms.

If you have questions or concerns about Covid in our community, please reach out to talk about it. If you have medical questions, call your doctor or the Health Department. If you are struggling with emotional or spiritual problems coming from the fact that we’ve been in pandemic mode for almost 2.5 years? Call me. I am happy to sit down with you and chat. This absolute disruption to life as we know it has left many of us feeling disconnected, dysregulated, and has left some of us without a lot of hope. Please do not suffer alone. Humans are meant to be in community, and I want to help.

Grace and peace to you all,

Rev Robin

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Notes from Rev Jennie

May 5, 2022

While Rev Jennie is getting ready to start walking the Camino De Santiago, she took a moment to share a little update with us. First, she wanted to lift up prayers of gratitude for her daughter Rachel and friend Stephany. Jennie’s wallet was stolen while they were in Paris, which meant that she was left with no cash or credit cards. Stephany has been covering her expenses while she waits for replacements to arrive, while Rachel has been making the zillion phone calls stateside to try to get all of this straightened out.

Also, Jennie sends along this meditation on the statue of Notre Dame in Le Puy, France, where her Camino journey begins (the photo is looking out from behind her crown):
“This lovely lady was made from the metal of 213 Russian cannons captured by the French in the Crimean War in the 19th century. At a time when war is again being waged, this is a beautiful reminder that the Bible calls us to beat our swords into plowshares.”

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Cries of Lament

The Hebrew name for the Book of Psalms is Tehillim, a word that means “Praises.”  Which is interesting because of the 150 prayers in the Book of Psalms, 60 of them are laments.  That works out to 40%.  In other words, nearly half of the prayers in a book called “Praises” are not, in fact, what we would normally think of as praises.  They are instead gut-wrenching, angst-filled cries of the heart.  Cries like:

Psalm 13:1

 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1), and  
“How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1), and
“I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears.” (Psalm 6:1).

What does this tell us?  A few things.  It tells us that lamenting is part of the human condition.  It tells us that lamenting is good for the soul.  It tells us that God can handle our laments.  It tells us that laments are a “holy and acceptable” (Romans 12:1) way to pray, every bit as worthy as our joyful celebrations of thanksgiving.

We are in a season of lament.  Right now everything feels wrong.  Torn apart.  Heaved up and out and all over the place.  Things are a mess.  They are an absolute mess.  We are scared.  We are exhausted.  We are fed up.  We are anxious.  We are overwhelmed.  We are discouraged.  We are confused.  We are at each other’s throats.  We are at our wits’ end.  We are on our last nerve.  We are done.  D-O-N-E done.  Well, maybe I shouldn’t speak for you.  I am done.  D-O-N-E done.  Do you feel this way?  If so, let me suggest that we all take another look at the psalms of lament.  There is good wisdom for us here. 

Our ancient brothers and sisters just let it all pour out.  Grief.  Frustration.  Anger.  Disappointment.  Some really, really dark thoughts.  (Take another look at Psalm 137, if you don’t believe me.)  You see?  They let it all out.  Nothing held back.  Nothing off limits.  They prayed their hearts out; they prayed their grief out.  Because they knew—they knew—that if they held it in, if they swallowed it and shoved it down, it would only destroy them from the inside.  It would only make them bitter, and eventually the pressure would make them explode once they couldn’t hold it in anymore.  Laments are good for the soul because they get the darkness out of our insides and into the hands of God so that God can release us from these burdens.

It is a season of lament, so let me suggest that we get on our knees or flat on our faces or put a pen in our hands, if writing is your thing, and let it all out.  Just pour and pour and pour until there is nothing left to pour anymore.  All your griefs.  All your frustrations.  All your anger and disappointment and fear and impatience and anxiety.  Pour it all out.  Get that darkness out of your insides and into the hands of God. 

But we can’t stop there.  As a people sent into the world to be the Body of Christ—a people sent out among, in the flesh—this cannot just be about our private laments.  As Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 12:26, “Where one member of the body suffers, we all suffer.”  We carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).  We weep when others weep (Romans 12:15).  With the Spirit, we bear silent witness when the groans are too deep for words (Romans 8:26).  In other words, we open our ears and our hearts to the laments of others.  This is what Christ did, and he expects us to do the same.  We are, after all, his disciples, his followers.

This is a season of lament.  In fact, the lamenting within the African American community has been going on not for a season, but for generations, centuries.  Have we been listening?  I will confess that I have not been listening as carefully as I ought.  I have not understood.  I have not seen.  I have not heard.  And this makes me ashamed. 

But rather than dwelling in my shame—or worse, seeking to be consoled in my shame—I decided to educate myself.  I decided to open my eyes and learn how to see what has been happening around me all my life, going all the way back to my earliest days in a southern town quite literally divided by race.  (Wichita Falls had—probably still has—a white prom and a black prom for crying out loud.  “Nobody” went to the official high school prom; “everybody” went to Mayfest held at the Wichita Falls Country Club.  These dances were, of course, divided along racial lines, but I didn’t put two and two together until just a couple of years ago.  How did I not know this?  How did I not see this?  I was there.  I participated.)  

If you are struggling to understand the laments we see being poured out all around us, I recommend starting with a book called Waking Up White by Debby Irving.  Several of us read this as part of our “Let’s Talk About Race” Fearless Conversation last year.  It changed me.  It opened my eyes to my past and our present. 

Indeed, it opened my ears to the gut-wrenching, angst-filled cries of the heart we are hearing now.

~ Rev. Jennie