Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

 Happy Juneteenth!

Blessed Juneteenth, too, if you can manage it. It’s a new observance for many of us and a wonderful excuse to celebrate our checkered history as a nation. Two hundred and fifty years of trying to get along with each other and find forgiveness, reconciliation, and grace. It has not been “all lambs and bunnies,” as Roberta Bondi would say, but I have to believe we have come a long, long way and perhaps even done our best. Jeez, it’s hard to leave what we know for a place we don’t.

On this last, please see Ken Samuels’ Daily Devotional here!  

And now, speaking of what we know (or think we do) and what we don’t, you may be asking what I was doing in Paris. And you may not be asking but I want to tell, so. If I told you this story before, please forgive me.

When I lived in Paris, lo, these many years ago, it became my practice on Fridays to leave the first dance class I had ever had, where I constantly fell short of the glory of God and the dance teacher, and where my inability to understand either dance language or French was on display mercilessly, to take a bus ride. To console my wounded spirit, I would look for a route that I had not ridden before and take it to the end of the line, where I would get down and get lost. In a neighborhood that I’d not seen before. (Paris has hundreds of neighborhoods, all unique and fascinating.)

To make these little sojourns interesting, I had two goals in mind as I wandered. First, to find a different bus to go home and, second, to sample the pastries of a different patisserie. Over time, a little contest emerged to see who made the best croissant, then pain au raisin, and finally, gâteaux aux amandes. Oh, the butter! I got lost, repeatedly. I got found just as often. I saw parts Paris that I would never have seen and have not seen since. And I learned this: To be found, you must first be lost. (The best croissant turned out to be downstairs from me, chez M. Weber.)

The gospel reading for this week is Matthew 10:24-39. That passage is full of the wonderful paradoxes included in “the cost and joy of discipleship” and the Christian life. All the week’s readings brought my Paris practice to mind. My personal paraphrase of Matt 10:39: “Those who find life in following in the way of Jesus will lose it, those who lose life for Jesus’ sake will find it.” But you gotta risk being lost for a time, find the faith and trust in between. This is the really hard part. Pray God there’s a patisserie along the way to keep your courage and faith up. The risks of lost are many, the rewards even more.

This is my last Friday eNote as Designated Term Senior Minister at Central Church. It’s time to “find my way” and the bus that will take me to a neighborhood I don’t know and then find my way home to another location and vocation. I’m sure I did not know that when I set out on that trip earlier this month, but I had a practiced pattern there. At home now, I am sure there was method I could not yet see in the trip. “And G-d heard…” Genesis 21:17

Sunday at Central has lots to offer including, adult Sunday School classes at 9:30 am; 11:00 am worship, in the house and online; children in the foreground and background, making their precious noises; a congregational budget meeting (whohoo!); and the fellowship of all of us together on this journey by stages with music, prayer, flowers and Coffee & Conversation. A time to gather in celebration of Fathers, and communion with God and neighbors. I hope your wanderings will find you “home” with us.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

PS I did miss you, Paris notwithstanding. I will miss you again. It’s been a great ride.