Melinda's Musings: How Will You Measure Your Year?
by Rev. Dr. Melinda V. McLain, pastor for The Good Table UCC
Image Credit: Live Japan
“Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
How do you measure a year in a life? How about love?”
Spiritual Touchstone
We’ve just passed the first anniversary of the first case of the novel coronavirus reaching the United States. But for me, the global pandemic truly “began” with our initial statewide lockdown on March 15, 2020 that also coincided with the liturgical season of Lent - a time when those of us on the Jesus path reflect on our mortality and humanity. At the time, I don’t think any of us could imagine all that would transpire in our world between then and now, but while the death and economic destruction has been devastating for millions, we have also been able to move forward on our project to create The Good Table and as a church, we’ve also been able to keep serving our communities with love. And not just love in the form of kindness, but in the form of measurable assistance to our neighbors in need.
Our Lent last year included the launch of a campaign by a group of United Church of Christ (UCC) local churches to erase all the available medical debt in Contra Costa and Alameda counties as part of our joint Good Friday service. We weren’t able to gather last Good Friday in person AND it took us a bit longer to finish the campaign, but with help from the national UCC, at its conclusion, our 2020 campaign erased $5,473,959.51 in medical debt for 2,604 families in 34 counties in California including $3 million in debt for over 1,000 families in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. I have no doubt that this campaign made a big difference to those families.
This year Lent begins on February 17th with Ash Wednesday. In previous years, we have had a joint contemplative prayer service with Taizé chants and the imposition of ashes with Christ Lutheran, El Cerrito. Two years ago our joint service also included Hope Lutheran, El Sobrante who also hosted a daytime service and we began our “Ashes on the Go” outreach during rush hour at Del Norte BART along with colleagues from Arlington UCC, Kensington. Last year, both the Japanese and English language congregations from Sycamore UCC, El Cerrito joined us at BART and for the evening service. In some ways, last year’s Ash Wednesday on Feb. 26th felt like the last time that any of us could do “public” ministry. And I know for sure that it was the last time that any of us were able to share a hug or hold hands while praying together.
With our UCC siblings, we plan to take on another Lenten love project this year called the Black Homeownership Fund (BHF) sponsored by Arlington UCC, Kensington and housed at the Richmond Community Foundation. The BHF would create a zero-percent-interest loan fund, to be paid back only when the home is refinanced or sold. This is especially helpful for providing assistance with the super high down payments needed to get into the Bay Area’s high-priced housing market.
We still have many months to go before we will be able to gather in person again. And it will be many months before our renovation of our site is complete. The death toll due to the pandemic will continue to rise and the economic crisis is far from hitting bottom, although the advent of vaccines and more economic stimulus may begin to slow the devastation soon.
And yet, we still have a lot of capacity for love in the form of caring, but also concrete and tangible assistance for our neighbors.
What gifts of love have you received during this time of pandemic and stress? What gifts did you give? What can we do to continue to increase love in our communities?