Easter Continues! Christ is Risen!
The Easter Season lasts for 50 days, until we celebrate Pentecost Sunday (May 31), the birth of the Christian Church.

Word of the Week:
“The disciples of Jesus devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need…” Acts 2:42-45

A wise church leader wrote this week that the poor and marginalized in our country are the “canaries in the coal mine.”

We are reminded in this reading that selling, sharing and redistributing exposes class differences present in Luke’s community 2,000 years ago. (Luke is the writer of the Book of Acts.) If some are able to sell their possessions and others “have need,” then their previous faith practice had not extended to matters of economics.

Luke calls us to see our faithfulness must include sharing what we have with others.

The “canary in the coal mine,” wrote Steven Charleston, is a single mom who works as a hairdresser. The cage she is in is financial necessity. The mine is the state where she lives that is opening up right away. Does she stay home and lose her job, or does she go to work and risk her health and that of her child?

I share this image to help us be aware of the people who will carry the burden for the choices made around the country. The most vulnerable among us will be the test cases for the wisdom of those decisions. They will tell us if it is the right thing to do: but at what cost? Bishop Steven Charleston

Bishop Charleston’s words make me uncomfortable. I don’t like the inequity in our society. I pray and wonder about what God is calling me to do. that Will you join me?

I also confess and ask God’s forgiveness. Will you pray with me?
Gracious God, have mercy on us. We confess that we have turned from you and given ourselves into the power of sin. We are truly sorry and humbly repent. In your compassion forgive us our sins, known and unknown, things we have done and things we have failed to do. Turn us again to you, and uphold us by your Spirit, so that we may live and serve you in newness of life through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

In the name of the Compassionate Jesus,
Pastor Bonnie Wilcox