Reflections

Summer really is a magical time in Chicago. Because we know winter will be back sooner than we’d like, the opportunities to experience music, art, and food run at a gluttonous pace from Memorial Day to Labor Day. There is so much happening that it’s difficult to keep up. And it’s even more difficult to compete for the attention of city full of people with so many options. That’s why we’ve decided to create a summer program schedule that seeks to compliment all the stuff that makes a Chicago summer great. We’re calling it “Urban Spirituality,” and we hope it will be a chance for you to encounter God this summer through the sights and sounds of city living. We hope it will be a fun way for you to live in our mission.

Personally, I see this as a biblical experience … not unlike the one the apostles had on Pentecost. Inspired by the Spirit of God, they were sent from their sacred place and into the streets of their city. Eventually, the ended up in cities throughout the region. While in those places, they were intentional about listening to the rhythms of daily life and culture. They got neck-deep into custom, art, and sport, so they could experience enough of the world to transform it with the gospel. This summer, I hope that can happen for you in Chicago. Check out the new summer groups below!

Peace,

Pastor Matthew

Monday Night Music Club
7 weeks * Beginning May 20
Every summer, the Chicago skyline becomes the backdrop for some of the world’s greatest artists and performers. From the deceivingly simple blues it made famous, to lush layers of symphonic orchestras, Chicago may offer the best summer music scene in the world. Nearly every day, we can experience the euphoric rush of unbridled rock exuberance or the thoughtful melancholy of piano-accompanied poetry. What an amazing gift! Why ever would we want to just meet inside when all this is going on?

Each week, beginning with online discussions and ending with free concert meetups at Millennium Park, we will use scripture to see where God is in the music that makes up our personal soundtracks. Be sure to sign up now to get in on the discussion and alerts for all the meetups.

Art Walk
8 weeks * Beginning June 19
Chicago is renowned for all the art that is curated within the city limits, and much of it is outside. Join with your friends from “The Church with the Mural” as we travel around the city to Chicago’s unique public art inspire us as we look at it through the lens of scripture. Contact Pastor Matthew if you are interested.

One Book, One Chicago, One Church
8 weeks * Beginning July 17
The Chicago Public Library always chooses the most delightful and thought-provoking books for their “One Book, One Chicago” program. This year should be no different, as the city joins together in reading “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” We will join with the city and read Isabel Wilkerson’s in tandem with the Exodus story from Hebrew scripture. Physical and virtual/Google+ discussion groups will be formed on demand. Contact Pastor Matthew if you are interested.

It is really hard to believe that my time at Holy Covenant is already coming to a close. When I came to my first worship service that first Sunday back in September I was not sure what to expect. I had heard so many great things about this church and this community, it was a bit intimidating at first. Add to that intimidation was the reality that this church was unlike any I had ever been a part of. A reconciling congregation focused on social justice? I really had no idea what to expect.

What I hoped to find though was a community that was caring, accepting of new people, and that provided a safe space for an intern like me who was still somewhat new to the United Methodist Church. And that is exactly what I found. The love shown to me and the gentle guidance provided has been beyond anything I could have hoped for or imagined. After watching the events of the last General Conference before coming to Holy Covenant I had started to struggle to find hope for the future and hope for our Church. But my time at Holy Covenant has not only renewed my hope, but has also reinvigorated my passion to work towards helping bringing about change, both in the Church and in the world.

As I said in my last sermon, you will all be sending me out to love like Jesus did with his disciples. During this summer I will be taking my final required class to receive my certification in evangelism, along with working on several other academic projects to get a head start on some things for next year. I will also be working on some special projects for my field education site next year where I will be working with Bishop Sally Dyck and the Director of Communications for the Northern Illinois Conference, Anne Marie Gerhardt. I will be working with them on social media strategies, and other web and communication projects. It is a great opportunity and one that I am humbled to be able to engage in.

As I look forward to graduation and commissioning next year, I know that my time here at Holy Covenant has been transformative for me and will continue to influence my work in God’s ministry. Holy Covenant has been a blessing to me, and is a blessing to our Church and our world.

Blessings,
Michael

I have to say, Holy Covenant, this has been quite a year for me as one of your interns. You all have quite the reputation for cultivating some amazing interns, so I knew going into this that I could only grow and improve. In the beginning, I found myself feeling excited yet nervous about what type of role I would play and what I could bring to the already bustling life of this community with so many gifts. Over time, I found opportunities to open myself, to become vulnerable, and even mess up more than a few times, and you all graciously opened yourselves individually and communally to receive what I had to offer. Weekly, I would make my commute to church by bus and train praying for the life of the community that week and reflecting on the written prayers or sermons I had in tow for worship. However, the return commute home I felt I was bringing so much more home with me than I had brought, that had enlarged my soul, that had challenged my preconceived notions, that had awakened my call to ministry. For these things and so much more Holy Covenant, I am moved and grateful.

But before we say the long goodbyes and thank you’s, mainly I’m talking to myself here, know that I am not going far. After a summer sabbatical of sorts, I will be coming back as a member of Holy Covenant, and look forward to building relationships in new ways. This summer I will be serving as an intern within the Urban Clinical Pastoral Education program, continuing to expand my call to ministry. I’ll also be resting on the beaches of Mexico and connecting with my family, visiting friends and old colleagues in Austin, and finding new places in Chicago for rest and adventure! As commissioning for the United Methodist Church is less than a year away for me, I know that this time of rest as well as my continued involvement with Holy Covenant will provide much needed nourishment and challenge for the ministry in my future. I am thankful for the ways we have grown together over the last year, for the ways you will extend the same hospitality and challenge to incoming ministry interns, and for the grace of God that will connect and go with us no matter where ministry takes us.

Blessings,

Britt

In the suburbs, nobody ever wanted to crash on our couch. We had a spare bedroom back at our parsonage in the Fox Valley, but I can count on one hand how many times it was used. The only person to ever sleep on the couch was myself while engrossed in (i.e. binging upon) a Star Trek marathon or 24 hours with Kiefer Sutherland. It got to the point where we rid ourselves of the extra blankets and pillows. The spare bed was never made. It was like plastic fruit: without purpose and collecting dust.

Then we, along with that bed and couch, moved to Chicago. In the city, everybody wants to crash on your couch. We could have different people here every night of the week. I can’t even recollect the number of people who have slept in that bed or on that couch. Some have been just for an hour’s nap. Others have been for a few months. The latest trio just left on Wednesday afternoon.

I’ve been wondering what this says about the differences between urban and suburban life. Certainly, Chicago has more going on than the suburbs. I doubt my house guests this week, The Pinkerton Raid, would have traveled all the way from Durham, NC, to play a show in Elgin. But the longer I’m in the city, the less I believe this is the sole reason the pleather on our couch is starting to crack.

The core of this phenomenon, I believe, is actually about space. Space is virtually meaningless in the suburbs and the countryside. Nearly everybody has it. Its abundance makes it an afterthought. Yet in the city, space is a luxury. Like squirrels burying nuts, we spread our belongings throughout our neighborhoods because there isn’t enough room for it in our homes. Building towards the heavens to claim the dimensions that are left, we end up living on top of one another. We trade our claims on intimacy and privacy for a few square feet in the center of this accumulation of human life.

With space at such a premium, what does it mean to have an extra bed go unused in Chicago? What does it mean, then, to have a church building empty for much of the day and night? Or a table that goes unset? Or a stove that is typically cold?

When the resurrected Christ left the tomb, he entered the space of others. Sometimes he was invited. Sometimes he invited himself. I have learned from all those who sleep on my couch, or walk into the church uninvited, or pull up a chair at table where I’m occupied with something else, or squeeze their way into a circle of conversation without welcome, that space goes from being valuable to sacred when you stop claiming it as your own. That is when the Resurrection and the Life looks you in the eye and you know the blessing of love and grace. That is where Easter continues … in the space where you thought nothing else could fit.

May Jesus squeeze his way into your space this week. And may we continue to conceive ways for our community to make the space for this to happen to others.

Pastor Matthew

Hallelujah! Christ is risen, indeed! And, the celebration on Easter Sunday at HCUMC was joyous, indeed! Approximately 250 people worshipped with us between the three services. Children received Easter baskets; grown-ups ate sweet treats and home baked bread and cheese. The Alleluia Chorus still rings in my ears! Huge thanks to all who made this such a wonderful day.

As Easter people, it is now time to live like we really believe life is stronger than death, and love more powerful than hate. As we celebrate new life in Christ, let us hunt for new ways of living, new ways of being alive, new ways of sharing life and love with all those around us. And if you still have chocolate bunnies to eat, ears first??!

Peace,

Polly Toner

Lent is a trying time for me. On multiple occasions this season, I have said that Lent is a Sisyphean endeavor … like pushing a boulder up a mountain, or dragging a tree up a hill. I suppose that means I’m doing it right. Or at least I’m in the right spirit of it all.

I know there are those who disagree with the Lenten season, saying we Christians shouldn’t practice it because we are a people who believe the ultimate trials and suffering have already been endured by Jesus. We shouldn’t revel in trials because the verdict has already been read. Jesus has been found worthy of life. And we get to have the happily ever after.

But do we, really? Have we reached the fairytale ending for humanity? While this may be the story that is perpetuated — that it is always Easter for Christians — it is also just a fairy tale. You don’t have to go far to find that Easter is still the (albeit beautiful) exception to the rule. The joy of resurrection is more like one shoot of a flower pushing through the darkness of winter than it is a teeming equatorial rainforest. Because, for every celebration we can imagine, there are exponentially more sufferings and injustices that roll by in our dreams unnoticed. Scan the headlines, listen to your conversations about politics, consider the latest gossip: it is like a wasteland of trials and tribulations.

We live in a Lent kind of world. And that is likely what makes this season so abrasive … it tears away the bandages and exposes the wounds we keep hiding. Lent doesn’t allow us to keep answering “I’m fine” when we are asked how we are doing individually and collectively. No, Chip Diller. All is not well.

It may not look like it on the outside, but we are all running around and screaming in some way. Be it from simple anxiety or fear for our life itself, we’re all enduring some kind of trial. And, while it may seem a bit macabre, I take some comfort in that. I am comforted in knowing that I am not alone in my suffering; that my trials are not a unique experience. It is there that I can find empathy.

One of the greatest blessings of this Lent has come in hearing all the different voices of the Holy Covenant community be vulnerable through our daily Lent Devotionals. Not only have I been discovering things about those who post, but I have also been learning about myself. I’ve been learning about the bandages that I put on the stories of scripture to make them more Easterish. I’m learning the hue of my lens by looking at the world through the lenses of others. And there is something life-giving about this. Journeying together, the trials seem more bearable. The impossible seems a little more hopeful. A lesson of the cross may be that Jesus walked and died alone to remind us how ludicrous it is for us to do the same.

As we head into Holy Week, I am choosing to enter into the world more than recess from it. In addition to all the Holy Week worship services, I’m going to add myself to the many who will join in CROSSwalk II this Friday to remember the victims of violence in Chicago. And Monday, I will add my body to the many who will gather at Federal Plaza to rally for Marriage Equality. Because there are some rocks I don’t have to push alone. And there are some rocks that I can’t push alone.

If you aren’t in Chicago, I would encourage you to find the places where you can stand in the gaps in your own neighborhood as the penultimate days of Lent arrive. Find the places that make you uncomfortable … the places forgotten by so many who claim to be “Easter” people. It is there that you may see that shoot emerge and catch a glimpse of the resurrection to come.

And if what you’ve got now is all you can handle, please let me know how I can walk with you.

Prayers for you all as we walk the last miles together.

Pastor Matthew

My friends often say that they never expected me to get so entrenched in an institution like the United Methodist Church. To them, I’ve always been a non-conformist with rebellious tendencies. I was grunge rock … the guy writing editorials calling the university president and his administration “The Mickey Mouse Club.” So you might see why my choosing to live and work in one of the largest religious denominations in the world is baffling to them. Frankly, sometimes it baffles me, too. My relationship with the UMC has always been strained. That university president has nothing on the collective buffoonery the UMC has perpetuated over the years. We are often slow to speak, even slower to act, and adverse to change in the ways the Gospel calls us. Yet, here I remain. I’m well past the my fifth anniversary of full-time ministry — that is the mile marker where you will often find malcontents broken down like the charred remains of a car fire.

Why? Why do I still keep moving in that strained relationship? It is love, certainly. But if I had to name one reason it would be that the UMC does “mission” really well. And we should. It is our DNA. While some other traditions have only focused on building and maintaining an individual’s relationship with God, ours is one that sees that as just a part of the work. Equally important, we say, is an emphasis on “social holiness.” We care about the world and the people in it. We care about their bodies as well as their spirits. We put hands to saws to build houses, and bring heads to shoulders to build love. We do this because we see God doing it throughout history. We do this because others have done it for us. We do this because we’ve been changed and want to share that amazing, changing grace with everyone we encounter.

Many who have come through Holy Covenant dedicate themselves to that part of the greater church’s work. Extensive is our network of “graduates” who have served as missionaries and/or change agents on behalf of the UMC. Many are doing it now. I’ve filled out reference materials for many who hope to do it in the near future. We are a congregation that really believes in the “change the world” part of our mission statement. And we are aligned with the right tradition to make that happen.

That is why your gifts the “Global Sharing” portion of our budget are so important. By meeting our monthly goal of $550, we are helping to bless and support the work that our very own Kara Crawford and numerous other people have been doing on God’s behalf.

Your gifts toward these monthly goals are appreciated and necessary. If you want to give online, you may do so through our secure website. Be sure to use the “Global Sharing” line. And, if you would like your dollars to go 3-5 percent farther, I would encourage you to give in person by check, and designate your gift with the words “Global Sharing.”

Thanks for all you do to help change the world. And thanks for assisting the UMC in doing it.

Peace,

Matthew

I love the snow. I put on my first skis at the age of 4 and have spent most of my life as an avid downhill skier. I grew up figure skating on frozen ponds in our neighborhood and building snow forts on the front lawn. This usually happened after school, though. We didn’t get snow days very often in Massachusetts when I was in elementary school. I chuckled a bit as I listened to lists of schools being cancelled around Chicago this week prior to a single snowflake actually hitting the ground!

On Tuesday, I enjoyed the gorgeous view we have at St. Joseph Hospital looking out to the east over the frozen lake and the snow-covered park. It was absolutely beautiful to watch big flakes fall on the trees from inside the warm building. I am fortunate that I do not have to shovel or drive much in the winter. Walking to both the hospital and the church makes my commute pretty simple no matter the weather, so yes, it is easy for me to say that I love snow.

Tuesday I also had a gnawing feeling in my gut, though. I was very aware all day that I would be closing up the church after Dignity Diner and a community movie. Breaking News announcements of more snow continued to flash on TV screens throughout day, and FB post after FB post announced how people were spending their day off of school or work because of the storm. While grateful that Holy Covenant has the resources to keep people warm, safe and fed for a few hours on Tuesdays, I was dreading sending people back out onto the streets in the dark and snow. If there was too much snow for working folks to move around the city, how could I ask our guests to spend the night out on the streets?

Once again, I am inspired by human resilience. I cannot speak for every guest, but those I chatted with had mostly come up with a plan to get to a warming shelter, a hotel room, the apartment of a friend of a friend of a friend…A few people spoke of buying extra coffees during the day to justify spending extra hours in local cafes. Almost everyone left calmly at the end of the night without too much obvious distress.

Snow is one of so many things in life that are both miraculous and painful, joyous and risky, bitter and sweet. And, of course, snow is easier to handle when people work together to manage it. Part of the gift of Tuesday nights at HCUMC is the community that is built and shared there. Part of what eased my dread of closing up tonight was sharing the task with Emma Crossen. Thanks be to God that we are not on this journey alone. We can share both sides of life with one another- the stuff we love, and the stuff we don’t. No one should have to shovel the path alone!

Rev. Polly Toner

Greetings from your Church & Society Team!

In our first meeting of 2013, we spent a few minutes recollecting our justice-oriented activities and accomplishments as a committee and as a faith community at Holy Covenant. It turns out that we had a busy and productive year in 2012, and we are excited to share with you, our church family & friends, some of those accomplishments, as well as dreams for 2013.

When Church & Society first formed as an official committee last year, as with so many groups within Holy Covenant, we each brought our own passions, experiences, and ideas to the table. Many of us had previously served on other committees, and/or had given our time, energy, and gifts in less formal ways that still contributed our church’s life. Now, as a group, we organize and participate in events that promote inclusivity of all people, sensitivity to the Earth and its resources, and a greater presence in the world that exists beyond our church’s front doors. The nature of Church & Society at Holy Covenant is to lift up the ideals of social justice through action that is possible on the ground, such as:

• Participating in discussions about and peace marches to protest gun violence in Chicago.
• Demonstrating our ongoing commitment to promoting LGBTQ equality in our neighborhood and within the UMC at large, by marching in the Pride Parade, and writing letters to General Conference delegates.
• In partnership with Lakeview Action Coalition, organizing an educational opportunity at church to learn about issues addressed at the Action Assembly: transgender policy for the Chicago Police Department, access to healthcare, and affordable housing in Lakeview.
• Raising nearly $3,000 at the fourth Alternative Giving Fair, using primarily recycled materials.
• And many others! Take a look at our 2012 Activity Report (pdf).

What we are most proud of, dear Holy Covenant family, is that we as a committee couldn’t possibly have accomplished these things just by sitting in meetings, or even alone as a group marching or writing or speaking up – we needed you, and you were right there with us. You increased our body by inviting even just one friend to come along. You stood arm-in-arm and marched down the street. You added your voice, your ideas, and your spirit to the mix. Thank you for being the church in the world, for speaking and living for justice and fairness and love.

In the coming year, we will keep listening, working, talking, and marching. We have witnessed the power of many individuals united in purpose, and we invite you to be with us as we continue the work of Jesus within Holy Covenant, and beyond.

In Peace,

Laura Dean Friedrich, Shirley Garland, Brit Holmberg, Mark Hopwood, Candie ODell, Laura Selby, Liz Shickles, Andrew Wheatley, Katie Wickman

Pastor Matthew this past Sunday spoke about looking at Jesus from different perspectives and in different ways in the upcoming sermons. And not just because I will be preaching about this soon, but just in my own thought process I have begun to consider just who exactly this Jesus person is to me.

Some people might answer Savior, or Healer, or Redeemer. Others might offer divine being, Son of God, or even King of Kings. What about freer of the oppressed, sacrificial Lamb, or simply our Rock? The different images and ideas for who Jesus is and was are probably as countless as the grains of sand on this earth.

So who is Jesus to me? Growing up and singing “I Am Jesus Little Lamb”, I probably would have told you that Jesus was a caretaker and protector to me. By the time I hit high school and college I might have answered something more along the lines of Jesus being a selfless sacrifice to cleanse me of my sin. And even up to a few years ago I probably would have had an answer that focused on something that Jesus did for me.

It wasn’t until more recently that I began to think about who Jesus was TO me. Jesus who died upon the cross to save the world. Jesus who healed the broken and cured the sick. Jesus who walked on water and calmed the sea. But I found that Jesus can be even more than that. What about Jesus as an example of how to treat others? Or Jesus as leader that pushed against the stereotypes of society? Or Jesus as an open and welcoming person who embraced everyone, no matter their status?

So who is Jesus to you? It could be Savior, or Healer, or Redeemer. It could be Son of God or sacrificial Lamb. It could a shining example of how to live. Any of these answers, and many more not mentioned here are all acceptable. The challenge here is not “Is who Jesus is to you right?”, but rather “Have you taken the time to ever consider just who Jesus is to you?”. If not, consider spending some time this Lenten season on this. You just may be surprised to find out.

Michael Vollmer
Seminary Intern