To view 2024 year’s prose, click here
To view 2023 year’s prose, click here
To view 2022 year’s prose, click here
To view 2021 year’s prose, click here
To view 2020 year’s prose, click here
To view 2019 year’s prose, click here
To view 2018 year’s prose, click here
To view 2017 year’s prose, click here
Feb 17-22
Dear Vista Grande,
We are beginning to wind down our sojourn with the book of Nehemiah. Together, we’ve explored the ways he allowed himself to mourn, gathered people and resources, and did what others thought was impossible – rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and began to heal the relationships that the violence of empire had broken. It’s an amazing story of what we can do together when we share a vision.
One of the gifts our Jewish siblings have held onto which we are able to witness in our shared scripture is the idea of lineage. This week, we traveled with Nehemiah as he and the rest of the Jewish people heard the story of their people. The priest, Ezra, told the highlights of Jewish history – from Abraham’s covenant with God to Moses leading them out of Egypt to Joshua helping them get to the promised land. Ezra did not gloss over the ugly parts of their history, though. He told of the ways they had betrayed their values and abandoned the principles God had asked of them. Still, however, God was present to them and was a source of steadfast love and abundant grace.
Telling the story of our people – both as individuals and as a community – helps us remember that we are not operating in isolation. Perhaps you have heard the phrase “It is not your duty to finish the work but neither are you at liberty to neglect it”, which comes from the Jewish Talmud. The good news is that people, whether our biological or spiritual ancestors, have been working for justice and liberation for a long, long time. We are only responsible for our chapter in the work of healing the great wounds which have been dealt by the violence of capitalism, colonialism, and empire. We don’t have to fix the whole problem – it’s too big and too complex to do on our own. Instead, it is our job to pick up where those who came before us left off and do the work that is ours to do.
Over the next several months, we as a church will be engaging in discernment about that very thing – what is ours to do? Getting clear together will help us make decisions that are in keeping with our values as we seek to follow the Way of Jesus. One of the strengths of our church governance is that everyone’s voice is welcome at the table. You are an important piece of the fabric of our community which means that your participation is vital as we chart a path forwards – together – on this pilgrimage of hope. Stay tuned for some more invitations from the Executive Council as we get set to embark!
Together,
Pastor Mallory
Feb 10-15
Dear Vista Grande –
It might seem a little out of step to be talking about joy when it feels like everything is terrible and the world is on fire. Don’t get me wrong – though some of the sweeping executive orders have been beaten back in courts, the attack on the most vulnerable in our society has had an impact beyond what we know. This is especially true for trans youth, who have had their access to healthcare stripped away because healthcare institutions are afraid they might lose their federal funding. This continues to be true for migrants who are being targeted by immigration enforcement based solely on what they look like. The danger is real and active – if not for you personally, then definitely for your neighbor.
Nehemiah has a lot to tell us about this moment of destruction and what it takes to rebuild. In this section of the story, the work of rebuilding the wall has been completed and the leaders of the gathered people in Jerusalem have stopped their practices of exploiting each other. But it’s not enough that we just stop hurting each other. How do we want to set up society together so that everyone has what they need?
Nehemiah, the political leader of the people, turns to his friend Ezra the scribe, the religious leader of the city. Together, they read from their shared law and history, trying to make sense of the practices that make them who they are. In it, they discover a lot of their own and the people’s guilt and shame that they had strayed so far from the wisdom of God and their ancestors. Instead of dwelling on that, though, Ezra encourages them to look toward what they are being commanded to do in the Festival of the Booths (known by our contemporary Jewish siblings as Sukkot), which hadn’t been practiced since the earliest days of their time as the people of God – create a structure without walls and invite your neighbors to come and share in the abundance of the harvest.
It was a party! One where the Jewish people actively practice the kinds of traits they wanted to see more of in their midst – kindness, generosity, hospitality, unguardedness, mutual aid, sharing, and possibility.
So what does joy have to do with it? As a church, we’re pretty good at making sure we make space for talking about the things that hurt. We aren’t afraid of hearing about the evils of structural inequality or the painful stories of how it wreaks violence in people’s lives. Right alongside it, though, we are tasked with fostering the things we want to see more of – more joy, more life, more generosity, more caring, more compassion. This is not one instead of the other but is the both/and we have been tasked to hold. We, like Jesus, can critique the powers that be and speak truth to power while also creating space where people can access community, healing, and material care for their bodies.
Joy is a fuel. When we experience it, it’s a powerful glimpse at the liberated, abundant future that’s possible and encourages us to protect it and extend it to those who need a dose of inspiration to keep going.
There’s a new world to build up, friends. And it starts here with us.
Together,
Pastor Mallory
Feb 3-8
Dear Vista Grande,
You may have heard the phrase “united we stand, divided we fall”. In Nehemiah’s case, as he sought to bring together the two halves of his Jewish kin who had been split for 70 or so years, this was a very concrete reality. They were in the middle of an audacious project – to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that had been burned out and destroyed while also repairing the breach in relationship between them. Literally speaking, “a divided house cannot stand”. There were enemies at the gate, rooting to see the Jewish people fail and doing their best to impede the rebuilding process.
There were internal prejudices at play, too, though. The divide was real, stark, and had significant consequences. Those who had been brought back from Babylon were being charged fees just to eat, were suffering violence, had no property (because it was being occupied by their relatives who stayed in Jerusalem), and had no way to make a living. So how were they supposed to move forward together as one people?
Nehemiah knew intuitively that if they did what they’d always done, they’d get what they’d always gotten. Over and over and over again, the Jewish nation was subjected to the violence of empire. The logic of dominance and extraction shaped everything about their lives and experiences. The people who stayed in Jerusalem adopted an “it’s a dog eat dog world out there” stance and used the situation they found themselves in to profit, even if it made other people suffer. Nehemiah called them to account, saying that as God’s chosen people, they had been asked to act differently than the nations they were surrounded by. Nehemiah invited them into solidarity across perceived separation, allowing for healing and a rebalancing of power to happen.
You may have seen something similar in your own life. Sometimes, when people go through suffering, they work to ensure everyone else experiences the same hazing they did. Other people make sense of the situation differently and work to make sure no one experiences the harsh conditions they endured. Every day, we have the option to choose whether we will retreat into fear and scarcity or if we will lean into solidarity, what it takes to create the Kin-dom realm of God here on earth. Now, more than ever, it is vitally important to choose each other, choose solidarity, and choose to repair relationships broken by the power structures and violences which have kept us apart from each other.
May we have the courage to make this choice together, in whatever forms it may come before our community in the days ahead.
With love and solidarity,
Pastor Mallory
Jan 13-18
Greetings, Vista Grande –
Last week, in this letter, I wrote that the theme of this year is “A Pilgrimage of Hope”, in keeping with our repeat Star Word as a congregation – hope. It might strike you as a bit odd, then, if you were in worship on Sunday and we started our journey out with complete and utter devastation…
We are embarking on a journey with Nehemiah, a character in the Hebrew Bible you may not be familiar with. As I shared in my sermon, I wasn’t, either, until I was invited to preach on it by former interim Conference Minister, Rev. Dr. Doug Wooten. In Nehemiah, there is a compelling story arc of loss, grief, hope, possibility, rebuilding, and celebration. Scripture continues to surprise.These ancient stories, even (and maybe especially) the parts we aren’t as familiar with, have something to say to us that is remarkably relevant.
Hope is a funny word that can take on a lot of different meanings, depending on the context. Sometimes, it’s an escape hatch so we don’t have to take a look at how bad things actually hurt, as if being realistic, ‘thinking negatively’, and ‘giving up hope’ are all the same things. What Nehemiah teaches us, though, is that you can’t skip to hope. Just like you can’t have Easter without Good Friday, Nehemiah’s story begins with him receiving bad news. He moves toward the future eventually, but he doesn’t use his hope to gloss over how bad things have gotten after the destruction of Jerusalem. In fact, to have a tangible hope, he goes through the immensely painful experience of having his false hope – the idea of Jerusalem as he always envisioned it – taken away from him.
So, our first step is to look honestly at how things are going. The answer for a lot of us ranges somewhere from Not Great to Really Bad. In our midst, we have had devastating losses, unimaginable changes in health, the breaking of relationships, and more life events that have brought us to our knees. Nehemiah teaches us that it’s okay to grieve – grieve for the lost potential, the possibilities that are now impossible, the future we thought we were going to have. Scripture tells us that he wept for days.
After the tears cleared, though, he returned to what he knew his faith to be – prayer and his understanding of covenant relationship with God. For us, this life raft in the middle of the storms we’re currently being buffeted by are this: community, eating together in the basement, humor and, above all else, LOVE.
May that Great Love attend you this week, dear ones.
Together,
Pastor Mallory
Jan 6-11
Epiphany greetings, Vista Grande!
It is so good to be back with you again. Thank you for the grace, love, and support you showed me while I was out on medical leave. I am happy to report that the surgery was successful and I already have greater quality of life after having it. I look forward to connecting with you all soon and catching up on all the stories and life events which have transpired over the last several weeks!
As has been our practice for the last several years, we drew our Star Words to guide us on our pilgrimage through this year. A pilgrimage is a sacred journey, undertaken with reverence, intention, and attention. Sometimes, like the Magi in the Epiphany story, you set out and don’t quite know where you’re going. Instead, it is something so compelling that it makes you get up, leave what you know behind, and hit the road. Pilgrimages can be tough, sometimes. They are often full of unexpected twists and turns that surprise and challenge. Mostly, though, they are full of wondrous experiences that bring us into deeper relationship with God and with one another.
For the last couple of years, we have chosen a Star Word for the church as a whole. The first we chose was Hope. Last year’s was Prayer. This year, as the Divine would have it, is Hope again. Seems like we need another dose of it this year, which I can’t argue with. Expect the theme of hope to pop up as we travel through this year together.
In the autumn, I attended a transitional ministry training, which helped illuminate how we at Vista Grande can work together to foster and deepen the health and vitality of our congregation. There is an abundance of life in our midst and it deserves our nurturing. One of the prominent themes in the training was that of a journey, focusing on where we have been, where we are now, and where we hope to go.
There’s that word again – hope. I am proposing that the theme of this year is A Pilgrimage of Hope.
What do you say? Want to travel together?
The blessings of light and dream attend you, wherever you are on your path.
Pastor Mallory