Dear Friends,
“Journeys into the unknown shape who we are. We are indeed pilgrims together winding through an unknown country.”
This quote from Pastor Betty’s Order of Worship this past Sunday aptly expresses where we find ourselves in this time. When we last were able to gather in our Sanctuary on March 15, little did we know that we would still be worshiping virtually in mid-August. I found the message on Sunday encouraging as we forge ahead with our life’s journey in today’s world.
Many of us have achieved a degree of stability in our lives – we think we know what to expect on this journey and that has certainly been thrown out of kilter with the pandemic! We have expected firm answers about COVID-19 from our scientific and medical experts, while they are still in the process of discovering much of what we need to know. The public has become impatient when advice changes or scientific outcomes are unclear or seem to reverse.
As an aside, one of my husband’s favorite anecdotes relates to a conversation he had, as a first-year graduate student at UC Berkeley, with Professor Andrew Streitwieser. Prof. Streitwieser wisely advised him that in chemistry, in fact in all sciences, the questions never change, only the answers. I suspect that to be true for many disciplines beyond the sciences.
Maybe we have had a false sense of stability, for one can never be certain what the future holds for any of us, our community or our world. We do have the certainty that we are not alone on our journey, with our own unknowns.
As part of the Mt. Tam Church family, we have one another, but most importantly, we have the assurance that God is with us. As Pastor Betty reminded us, we share a community that has weathered crises before, so we find the courage to go on and to strive to bring justice, kindness and love into our community.
With warmest wishes to all!
Karen Jernstedt