(2) Isolated But Not Alone

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Isolated But Not Alone, originally shared on April 3, 2020. It was the second video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

    In our first video, I mentioned that someone online had observed that suddenly there are more pastors online than cat videos. Then our cat Phoebe appeared at minute 12. So, a two-fer! 😊

    Sally is a retired pastor of the Christian Church – Disciples of Christ\ United Church of Christ pastor and I’m a retired Lutheran pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and we both  continue to do what old people like us are supposed to do: stay at home.  It occurred to us that one of the things we could do while we are here is to connect with friends old and new and share encouragement with one another via video.

    Some have said that Covid 19 stands for the number of pounds we are gaining or losing from stress eating or from not eating from a sense of scarcity.

    We are new to this streaming video technology; that’s why we’re calling it Streams of Living Water (get it?) 😊

    Today, we are going to take a look at another place where Jesus speaks about streams of living water. We’ll be looking at John 4:7-15. Get your Bible, in print or digital form, whatever you use right now. We’ll be looking at that passage in a minute.

    These are challenging times for all of us, especially medical professionals, food service workers, clergy, teachers, those living with families and those living alone.

    We’re planning to improve every time we go online, so please let us know how we could do better.

    You can contact us directly be commenting directly through the comment section below, which is public, or privately a dberkedal1@gmail.com.

    We are streaming this video and producing this blog in the hopes that you will be encouraged and live the abundant life that Jesus came to give us, even in this time of risky work and quarantined homes. You are not alone.

    I’ve noticed a lot of memes online about the times we are living in. Memes are pictures with a few words of text. If they get popular, they are said to go “viral”. I guess that carries a special meaning these days. Here are a few.

 *March 2020 came in like a lion (stuffed toy) and went out an apocalyptic, four-headed, green scaled dragon with heads of a buzzard, rattlesnake, lizard, shark faced, slimy, six-legged doom beast.

 *Bill Murray in Groundhogs day saying, It’s quarantine day. Again.

 *Me at 9:00 p.m. “I’m going to go to bed early tonight” Me at 3:00 a.m. “Hey Google, what’s a good recipe for guacamole?”

 *While in quarantine, Shakespeare wrote King Lear.

While in quarantine, Isaac Newton developed calculus and discovered gravity.

While in house arrest, Paul wrote some of the New Testament.

While in prison, John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.

While in self-isolation, I consumed a large bag of tortilla chips.

 *Above a grid of letters, “The First word you see is where you are going in April.

Every sequence of letters spells out, “Nowhere.”

 *Social Distancing Baptism: a dunk tank.

*Social Distancing Communion: A pastor throwing a communion wafer like a frisbee into the mouth of a church member.  Now looks dangerous.

 *My house got tp’d last night. It’s not appraised for $875,000.

 John 4:7-15

   The Samaritan woman at well was living in isolation. Jesus brought her an offer of living water.

   Rain has been coming to Southern California. I remember when we had almost no rain until March one year. And then it rained every day in March. Maybe we’ll have a Miracle March in April this year.

    Living water in everyday life at the time of Jesus meant moving waters, like rapids, or a swiftly moving stream.

   Rain fills our streams and they move, the flow, that is, they live; they are not stagnant. The bring change all around them, they overflow their boundaries, they bring life to us and to everything we depend upon, they are the same yet always different.

    The Samaritan woman lived in isolation. What did she do? She reached out to Jesus.

   Some of us are in isolation with our families, and we’re getting to know one another. It can be stressful because we didn’t have to know how to be together in the past.

   I read about a man whose wife asked him to set the table. When he did his wife said, We need three more places. Why? For the children. We have children? Yes. Jimmy, Janey, and Jarod. What, we have three of them?

    These days are an opportunity to reinforce your identity as a family, to declare This is who we are. Maintain a schedule, with space for every one separately and together. Worship together, say grace together (I watched a program on TV the other day about the manners of the day in the Downton Abbey era. It said that much of mealtime behavior was based on the saying of prayers inviting Jesus to be present at the meal. Everyone therefore acted accordingly), listen to bedtime prayers, go for walks, work around the house together.

    Establish rituals, not so that they become rote but living. What rituals are supposed to be: behavior to embody our deepest values in a way that can be repeated and passed on.

    Establish a schedule for yourself and set manageable goals. People often say they will read the Bible in a year and become discouraged when they do not. Maybe a goal to read the first 5 book of the Old Testament and of the New Testament would be both manageable and meaningful. Make it manageable to make it meaningful.

    The Samaritan woman came along for water, and she left a member of a community in a living relationship with the living God.

    She was introduced to Streams of Living Water.