Of course it was dissappointing…I love worshipping.  One of the great gifts I’ve been grateful for is the lively and grace filled worship at Amazing Grace…when the snow came and came and came and we weren’t able to have worship, it was such a downer…YET, yet sometimes snow has a way of interrupting our routine.  When you have an imposed disruption, a forced slowing down- the disruption makes us pause. 

I walked around today soaking in the sites…not that I don’t try to be mindful of things in all of life.  But today I walked up Broadway street.  There were more people out walking than there were cars on the streets.  It was beautiful..bright.  Three feet of snow covered the sidewalks, so most of us walked the streets.  I bathed in the experience…the variety of families, the diversity, black, latino, asian and white.  I observed the variety of  archetecture…classic row houses, decorative cornaces, a boarded up catholic school.  I watched as some teenagers  had a snowball fight on a street that hadn’t been plowed yet.  And I gave thanks.

It isn’t that I wasn’t grateful before the storm.  It isn’t that I didn’t appreciate the variety of row houses or diversity of the human family I see in this city…But somehow the snow gave me the occasion to NOTICE…or at least to take the time to notice and be mindful of these good gifts.

Here’s hoping you too were able to receive the gifts of the Blizzard.  Peace

I worked with the food pantry today.  Actually, that’s not  entirely true.  I helped in the food pantry because our food ministry coordinator Morgan is out of town this week.  Our Food Ministry currently serves around 50 households.  Folks can sign up between 10 and 2 Monday through Thursday, and then pick up food on Mondays or Wednesdays between 3 and 5. 

But everyone can’t get boxes at once, so while folks wait, we hang out in the fellowship hall.  We share coffee or hot tea and visit.  Today a massage therapist came and did hand massages.  It was nice, relaxing.  But today as I chatted with one of the dear neighbors of the church, our thoughts and conversation went to the suffering of our sisters and brothers in Haiti.  We. like so many, can’t even begin to absorb the weight of the sadness and loss.  And suddenly, the woman I was visiting with asked me if our congregation was responding to the crisis.  “Absolutely!”  We already began collecting money for Lutheran World Relief and Disaster Response last Sunday.

As the woman was called to go next door to the Center for Graceful Living to pick up her food, she reached into her bag and gave me some money.  “Please use this to help those suffering in Haiti.”  Her gift surprised me.  I was humbled and touched by her graciousness.  This woman who is facing challenges in feeding herself and her children, choose to give generously to  help other sisters and brothers in pain. 

We know God is with us always.  We who follow Jesus trust that God is in the very center of things, bringing help and hope and healing;  bringing guidance and care to our lives and world…But sometimes… sometimes we get caught off guard.  The extravagant grace and love and forgiveness of God gets reflected in a  holy moment we experience.   And it almost takes our breath away, to be touched so profoundly.  Oh, that we all live with such extravagent generosity!

It was only a week before Christmas when I and the other members of “Perfect Praise” choir from Amazing Grace travelled to Hopkins hospital to visit and sing with the young women who are in the CAP program.  CAP stands for the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy, a place to support and help women and their babies who are in recovery for drug addictions.  They are largely young women on the edge.   Many don’t have family support.  But they are here, moving toward healing. 

We sing about our longing for God to come anew into our lives and world.  We sing about anticipating the arrival of something new, about God doing new things.  Several of the young women are pregnant.  One gently rocks her small new born child.

One of the rich gifts I’ve received at Amazing Grace is that abundant life comes from receiving from others…or really, receiving together from God and each other.  Sometimes the temptation in the church is to suggest that we have this something that people need, and were going to go give it to them, share it with them, let them  have what we have.  Like we’re going to go sing to those CAP women because we can help them.  And don’t get me wrong, we do want to help, support, and love them.  BUT, what I’ve discovered is that honestly, walking with Jesus isn’t about them…its about us.  In fact, its about us together, and no them.  As we gather.  As we sing.  As we pray and talk and laugh at a cooing baby, Jesus shows up.  Right there with us.  Bringing forgiveness, and grace and compassion.

 My heart is drawn to the uncertainty Mary must have felt as a young pregnant woman in the Middle East.  And when one woman comes in and ask to pray with us as we are winding down, I can’t help but wonder if  Mary too would have wanted others to lift her up.  Soon, a baby would be born that would change her life… that would change all our lives…that has changed everything!

It is the 12th day of Christmas.  Epiphany season begins tommorrow.  The season when the wise ones arrived  to worship the Christ child.  The season when the light and love of Christ shines to all places and people…even us, especially us, all of us.

So here’s the tricky part about McElderry Park.  There are amazing people here.  Lots and lots of dear wonderful people.  Oh, I know, there are amazing people everywhere.  But from the outside.  From the outside when you look at this neighborhood, when you read about the sadness, the violence, the challenges.  I mean, yes there are challenges.  Yes there are drug dealers.  Yes the unemployment is over 50 percent.  Yes  there are too many boarded up houses.  But there is also this rich tapestry of people.  When I arrived in August, I met neighbors out on the front steps visiting about the day.  I ate at the market and shared a meal and a blessing with some folks on lunch break who graciously shared a spot at their table.  I’ve dug in the dirt and shared a cool glass of Iced tea on the bench in Port Street, learning about growing up in the city of Baltimore.  And of course, I’ve broke bread with God’s people of Amazing Grace, who pray and serve and love and laugh and even cry sometimes as we walk together in Christ.

So while from a distance, it may seem like McElderry Park  is a place to avoid, a place to drive around and seek an alternate route, I would suggest its a unique kind of place.  And more than that, I would suggest it is a place worth visiting.    Yes, there are challenges…lots and lots of them.  But Jesus is present in this place.  Jesus shows up all the time, in people and circumstances where no one would expect.  Who would imagine God would show up in a feeding trough in the middle east?  And the first ones Jesus birth was announced to?  A group of shepherds-not the most highly esteemed folks at the time.  Jesus shows up all the time in McElderry Park, along with shepherds too.  I hope to see you sometime for a visit.  You just might meet Jesus.