Mid-week Message

Greetings!

“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” - 1 John 3:17-18

As explained in the most recent Précis, the Session at Briarwood passed a motion indicating that safety would be the number one priority in decision-making about reopening in the context of the pandemic. This is a very important Biblical foundation. There are over 100 verses in the Bible about the importance of caring for the vulnerable. Many identify God as the One who cares for the vulnerable, while others accuse God’s people of being faithless for ignoring the needs of the vulnerable.

I am looking forward to being able to gather again, as are many others in our church family. In our plans for in-person gatherings, we have to remember who our God is. Our God is the protector of the vulnerable. What that means in our current context is that we, as Christ-followers, must meet and exceed health and safety protocols to be sure that when we gather it is safe for the most vulnerable among us. We must do our due diligence—because of our faith in Jesus—to put plans in place to prevent Briarwood from becoming a source of transmission for this novel coronavirus.

I hope that you will join with me in prayer for our leaders. They have important and complicated work ahead of them as they plan our gradual reopening (please see the most recent Session Précis for more details about this). In the words of this verse from 1 John, we can pray for them to be guided by science (the truth) about this virus. We can pray for them to demonstrate love in action by meeting and exceeding health and safety protocols. We can pray for them to be faithful to God in their work, honoring God’s identity as the protector of the vulnerable. And we can pray that God would bless them to run the race and complete the tasks. A huge thank you to our leaders. We are lifting you up in prayer.

Grace and peace,

Rev. Sarina