Text: Galatians 5:22-23; Matthew 11:28 – 12:8Speaker: Mark Rupp

A couple years ago I heard a story that stuck with me. It was a Buddhist koan, which is kind of like a parable, and I’ve been thinking about it this week. The story goes:

There were two monks traveling through the countryside, one younger and one older. Their path was long and muddy after a night of heavy rain. The older monk walked with a quiet steadiness, used to the rhythm of the journey and the unpredictability of travel. The younger monk was more anxious, his robe already muddy and his body still soaked and cold.

As they turned a corner, they came upon a river swollen with rain, the current rushing, the banks slick with mud. A well-dressed woman stood at the edge, clearly frustrated and trying to figure out a way across. She looked at the water, then at her nice clothing, then back again. There was no bridge in sight. She was stuck.

Without saying a word, the older monk approached her. He bowed slightly and held out his arms toward her. After a moment of hesitation, the woman understood and allowed the monk to gently lift her into his arms. He carried her across the river one step at a time, carefully, quietly, and then he set her down on the other side with another bow. She acknowledged him briefly before hurrying off down the road.

The younger monk followed silently as the two monks continued on their way. But he was obviously agitated, mulling something over in his mind. After nearly an hour, he finally burst out, “Why did you do that? You know that in our order we are forbidden to touch women. You broke that vow. You risked everything!”

The older monk looked at him quizzically and said, “I…

By Julie Hart

Galatians 5:19-25

 It’s very humbling to be asked to speak on the fruit of the Spirit of patience. In fact, whether or not I am the right person to speak is up for grabs. But, all I can say is that in retrospect, over the course of my 71 years, I am certainly more patient today than I was in my 20s, 30s or 40’s when my motto was something like goals first, time management, efficiency, charge!

So that we’re on the same page, I want to start by defining patience. I see patience as an ability to endure difficulties without frustration, complaining or anger. It includes a calm non-judgmental perseverance in the face of life’s challenges or when things are not going as planned.   Patience involves the capacity to bear pain and suffering with quiet, steady resolve. It includes self-control and an ability to let go of our frustration when confronted with all kinds of barriers. I think it’s also helpful to note what patience is not. Obviously, it’s not impatience but lack of self-control, acting out of frustration and anger, being erratic and complaining a lot. 

When I think about patience, I think about my son Kellen with three little girls ages 6, 3 and. 8 months when getting them ready for bed, getting them into and out of the bathtub and dealing with meltdowns. So I asked him, what do you think is your key to patience with the kids? He thought for a bit and said he heard a podcast once talk about the importance of letting go of what should happen, what should be, how people should behave. He added, when I am able to let go of the shoulds, it gives me the patience to deal with most difficult situations. This is a great observation…

Today’s Scripture: Galatians 5:19-25; John 14:27

Reflection by Jeri Arent

As many of you may know, I am a retired librarian. I worked for Columbus Metropolitan Library and enjoyed my 30 years there as a reference librarian who helped library patrons find information and materials they wanted. ( I love to “look things up” ) After I retired, I wanted to continue helping people but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do as a volunteer.  I led tours of a historic house in Worthington as a volunteer at the Worthington Historical Society, but I wanted to do more to help people less fortunate than I.

I had always wanted to sew and had a fascination with quilts and quilt making, but I had not taken the time to learn how to make a quilt.  I admired quilts and comforters, and was amazed by them, but I was not sure I could do that kind of sewing.

Judy Hartzler and I often chatted about quilts and quilt making when we worked together at the library. Many years before I retired, Judy had invited me to a quilt auction at the Ohio MCC Relief Sale in Kidron, Ohio.  I had never heard of MCC or had any idea what they did. I enjoyed the auction, watching quilts and comforters being auctioned off, sometimes for very high prices and all to be given away. It was amazing to me.

After I retired, Judy invited me to come to her church and help with a group that made comforters.  She asked me to come to help set up quilt frames for a knotting party.

All this was a mystery to me having never set up a quilt frame nor knotted a comforter.  As a total novice, I wondered how I would fit in.

Well, I was overwhelmed by the warmth…

Text: Galatians 5:22-23Speaker: Bethany Davey

Today is the first of our Fruits of the Spirit worship series, and we’re kicking it off with a focus on joy. What a fitting start to our series, and what a fitting focus for Pride Sunday. 

Pride Sunday is, indeed, a Sunday for joy, a Sunday for joyful resistance.

Pride Sunday is a Sunday for celebration, and a Sunday that confronts and refuses the violent boundaries of our societies: the barriers that include some while excluding others, the gates of access kept by those holding social and political power, the borders designed to keep out, the lines that become dangerous and all too often lethal. 

None of this is new. Throughout recorded human existence, we observe fortress walls, borders and imposed barriers of all sorts. Most often, these lines of demarcation are determined by those within, to accommodate those within and to keep perceived “outsiders” out. 

We can observe this very human pattern not only in who is kept out, but what is kept out. We may convince ourselves that whatever behavior, belief or practice we find undesirable lives “out there” or “over there,” beyond our established border walls. When we believe ourselves so other than another, we are more likely to believe our lines of demarcation, barriers and separations are not only important, but justified and even beneficial, necessary. 

We’re prone—as a species—to harsh divisions, to polarization. We too often operate—particularly in Western, colonial thought—in opposites, binaries, either/or dualisms. But in reality, humans and life are (thankfully) more complex and nuanced than either/or allows. Though we’re focused on two particular verses of Galations 5 during this series, Galations as a whole has much to say to the notion of barriers, in-groups and out-groups. 

Believed to be one of the earliest New Testament texts, Paul’s letter to the Galations cautions against…

Remove Invasives, Plant Natives and make America Biodiverse Again! by Tracey Lehman

I work part-time at Leaves for Wildlife, a native plant nursery. It opened about five years ago when the owner, Patty, a practitioner in natural medicine, read a book by entomologist Douglas Tallamy. Convinced of the intricate connection between the well-being of our environment and human health, she shifted gears and opened a native plant nursery.

I, too, have been inspired by Tallamy’s ongoing research that supports the idea that the non-native plants that dominate our landscape have contributed to the loss of biodiversity, which is the variety of life on Earth. As entomologist E.O. Wilson said, “Biodiversity holds the world steady.” The 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference said that biodiversity “is important for our health and well-being, food supply, and safety.” It also said that the widespread preference for non-native plants in the horticultural industry has globally transformed millions of acres from potential habitat into ‘food deserts’ for native insects, with the unintentional consequence of reducing the abundance and distribution of birds, as well.” And of course, those pristine green lawns that are so appealing to many Americans also count as food deserts.

Insects and plants co-evolved alongside of each other for millions of years, and 70-90% of plant-feeding insects are specialists, meaning their larvae are adapted to feed on a very narrow range of what are called host plants. Without these host plants, the specialist insect must either adapt to a new plant, which can take thousands of years, or die. This is why there has been a grassroots movement to plant species of milkweed, because that is the only plant species that monarch butterflies will lay their eggs on, as it is the only species their caterpillars can eat. As for bees, many ground-nesting bees are specialists on certain…