Too Many Eggs for One Basket
I was surprised by a question posed to me by the highest ranking ecclesiastical leader in my corner of the Moravian Church world. The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth D. Miller, President of the Provincial Elders Conference of the Moravian Church, Northern Province called my cell phone one recent day to ask, of all things, “Do you have any egg cartons?”
Egg cartons? Wait. What?
Betsy went on to explain the conundrum. As she was volunteering with the food pantry of Central Moravian Church, she learned of a donation that would be arriving the next day: 70 dozen fresh eggs! It would be a windfall for the pantry and its customers! The donation would be coming from a commercial egg farmer whose 1,700 laying hens continued to do their jobs in spite of the pandemic, but whose buyers had dried up when so many restaurant kitchens shut down. The only trouble, from the pantry’s perspective, was that the eggs would be arriving on palleted trays. How could they be distributed? There’s no way to simply toss them, unprotected, into grocery bags.
Here is where College Hill Moravian Church enters the scene. Our beloved friend-member Gloria Reisinger is the administrative guru to the PEC President. She told Betsy that our congregation often collects egg cartons for our other beloved friend-member * Bill Boehm, who then passes them on for re-use to a different farmer. But that farmer had gotten rid of his chickens and was not currently in need of the cartons that were stacked up and stored on the corner of the stage in Fellowship Hall.
And so it came to pass that, after a few other phone calls and a little more arranging, the egg cartons made it to the food pantry and the eggs made it to the homes of hungering neighbors. Networking can be a beautiful thing.
All of this talk of eggs and cartons has gotten me thinking—thinking about fragility. Throughout 9 weeks (thus far) of a global pandemic, we have been reminded daily, if not hourly, of the fragile nature of life. From the first terrifying days when we learned of an invisible killer called coronavirus that could sneak in, latch on, and infect not just a person but a population, to our current scenario in which the economy teeters insecurely, it is clear that we are breakable. Our bodies. Our livelihoods. Our social order. This recognition could be the motivating factor that leads us all to treat one another tenderly. We are all like eggs in need of a carton when the world is providing such a bumpy ride!
In a letter he wrote to one of his churches, Paul noted that people are a lot like clay containers—brittle and susceptible to shattering. But inside of this terra cotta shell, there’s something of tremendous value. Paul talks about it as being the light that shines out of darkness, or the knowledge we carry with us of who Jesus is. I’m putting words in Paul’s mouth now, but it seems to me he’s describing the spark of God. God’s Spirit. This is what powers us on towards resilience in spite of our fragility.
We have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.”
2 Corinthians 4: 7-9(CEB)
Resilience is the quality that allows us to get back to living after experiencing brokenness. It comes from having hope. At a time when so many are challenged on so many fronts, though, I urge us all to be egg cartons for one another! I urge us to be humbly protective however we can, exhibiting concern for one another’s health and well-being. Be gentle with one another, and generous, too. Cushion the shock. Lower the impact. Reduce the wallop. Cradle the fractured world.
With Care,
Pastor Chris
* I spoke with Bill yesterday, and he tells me that his farming buddy is back in the chicken business. Feel free to start saving those egg cartons again.
+++++++++++++++++
Here’s how to find our online events for Sunday, May 17. You’ll want to know that the worship service from Moravian Church Without Walls will celebrate Moravian Music Sunday and will feature leadership from The Moravian Music Foundation. Our own church musician, Gwyn Michel, will be “instrumental” in the service.
1 0:15 a.m. Virtual Fellowship Time
Bring your own coffee, juice, and doughnuts to the screen with you and join in catching up casually with your church family! To get the chatter started, we’ll have a lighthearted mixer or question. Children are welcomed to pop in with a giggle and pop backout again, just as they might if we were physically together in Fellowship Hall. We’ll take about a half hour for all of this, allowing anyone who would like to transition to worship to do so.
If you’ll be joining via computer, tablet, or smart phone, please use the link: https://zoom.us/j/91671628972?pwd=bFcwRXJqQUhVRmJpZXJGNGdUUVpSdz09
Meeting ID: 916 7162 8972
Password: 176048
11:00 a.m. Moravian Church Without Walls Worship
Through a joint effort of the Moravian Church in both the Northern and Southern Provinces, virtual worship has been offered weekly throughout the pandemic. Lots of College Hill folks have joined in already, but there’s always room for more! (Well, unless there’s a technical glitch. But USUALLY there’s room for more.)
If you’ll be joining via computer, table, or laptop, use this link:
Tip 1: If you are a Facebook user, many of your friends are likely to be hosting “Watch Parties.” (Pastor Chris tries to do this when she can from her page: Christine Sobania Johnson.) This is an alternative way to wander into the same MCWW worship service and does not require the Zoom link.
Tip 2: To discover even further Moravian worship opportunities, please consult the updated list at https://www.moravian.org/2020/04/online-worship-opportunities/ . Quite a few Moravian congregations offer livestreamed or pre-recorded worship opportunities.
6:30 p.m. Zoom Prayers
If you’re looking to quiet your spirit with a devotional and prayer focus to round out your Sabbath Day, stop by this session. Bring the concerns and the joys that are on your heart so we might pray for one another, for our congregation, and for our world.
If you’ll be joining via computer, table, or laptop, use this link:
Meeting ID: 919 6174 3369
Password: 216385
Join us for 1, 2, or all 3 gatherings on any or all Sundays. As with all things during the pandemic, things are subject to change. Keep an eye on emails or collegehillmoravian.org for updates.
Blog
