Anti-Racism Book Group Begins Next Week
Anti-Racism Group July 21!
Our anti-racism book group will resume on Wednesday July 21 from 10:00-11:30am for our first discussion of The Church Enslaved: A Spirituality of Racial Reconciliation by Tony Campolo and Michael Battle. All are welcome to join us on Zoom. Please read the first three chapters for our discussion on the 21st. Frequency and dates of future meetings will be determined when we gather for our first session. Please contact Rev. Ellie if you have any questions.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 996 1374 8417
Passcode: 113949
Creation Care
Acton Residents !
The Good Shepherd Vestry, along with Acton Congregational Church, South Acton Church, West Acton Baptist Church, local businesses and organizations, supports this concrete step in lowering Acton's carbon footprint, as one way to participate in the emergency mobilization needed to arrest and reverse climate change.
On Monday June 21, Acton will hold its annual Town Meeting. Please review the BuildingWithCleanEnergy.org website, which answers many questions about these warrant articles.
Strong support will be needed to pass these articles, so Acton residents, please attend Town Meeting to vote for them. If you are able to attend and vote for the Building with Clean Energy articles, please fill out the pledge form on the website.
This step towards clean energy is one we hope other towns represented in our congregation will consider.
Creation Care Environmental Movies
May 23rd!
Movie Night! Movie Night!
The Creation Care Committee has launched a parish-wide, movie night party! In a given month, we will watch the same environmental movie on our own schedule, on the networks we have available at home. At the end of each monthly movie cycle, all are invited to discuss the movie and our responses to it on Zoom.
May’s film is The Story of Plastic.
Discussion Sunday May 23 7:00-8:30pm Zoom Link
You have a choice between 2 film versions. In both films, The Story of Plastic uncovers the ugly truth behind the current global plastic pollution crisis.
· an animated short (4 minutes) (Click here)
· or the documentary for rent on Amazon, on Apple TV, on the subscription DiscoveryGo streaming service and on Xfinity video-on-demand.
Either way, join our discussion, learn about solutions and leave with an action goal for yourself, your family, your faith community or town.
Stations of the Cross Two Ways!
Check out the Stations of the Cross from the Courtyard!
Check out the Children’s Stations of the Cross!
We have set up a Stations of the Cross display around the parish hall that can be viewed from the courtyard. It is also available online here.
Kids have read the text, Rev. Ellie’s son videorecorded the images and Deborah provided background music in order to make it a multisensory experience. This is another way for parishioners of any age to observe Good Friday for any of our parishioners.
New StoryWalk! Love the Earth Themed Church School Event
Enjoy reading the book outside while appreciating your surroundings!
New StoryWalk!
A New StoryWalk begins in April. The book by Julian Lennon (ask your parents about his father and the Beatles) is called Love the Earth. Enjoy reading the book as you walk the church grounds. Check it out!
Creation Care News
MA Bishops declare a Climate Emergency!
On March 23, 2021 the Massachusetts Bishops declared a Climate Emergency, joining many Anglicans and other denominations that have already done so. You can read their full declaration and the four areas of engagement advocated here. Their statement contains a lot of guidance as well as links to helpful information and organizations. This will guide us in our efforts to make the changes that are needed in our own lives and our communities. We hope you will make time to read it. It is a timely challenge to act now, before it is too late. To summarize, they ask us to Pray, Learn, Act, and Advocate for a sustainable climate.
Good Shepherd Film Series
Following the Bishops’ recommendations and in the spirit of Earth Day April 22, , we are joining with Interfaith Power and Light in using the movie Kiss the Ground to learn about our planet’s soil. See our earlier announcement for a more detailed description of the movie.
Resources: www.interfaithpowerandlight.org . Click on “Get Involved” and then “Upcoming Events” which will take you to “Faith Climate Action Week”. This gives you the opportunity to view the movie for free between April 10-26 and provides other resources. Otherwise the movie is available on Netflix.
We encourage you to watch Kiss the Ground and to join us to discuss it on Sunday April 11 from 7:00 to-8:15 pm, via zoom.
The Rev. Eleanor Applewhite Terry Sermon
Sermon for 3 Lent B; March 14 2021
Sermon for Palm Sunday; March 28, 2021
Jesus, when you rode into Jerusalem the people waved palms with shouts of acclamation. Grant that when the shouting dies, we may still walk beside you, even to a cross. Amen (New Zealand Prayer Book, Collect, p. 580)
Often, when I read Scripture in my own devotions, I imagine myself one of the characters, walking beside Jesus hearing and learning from his teachings as if they were spoken specifically for me. It is a spiritual practice I find very meaningful.
But today, on Palm Sunday, I find myself resistant to entering this part of God’s story. The Passion Gospel we hear this morning is as difficult and painful as it is familiar. And, truth be told, I would rather not identify with the participants in today’s Scripture.
I don’t want to be Peter in this story. I’d rather not imagine myself the one to whom Jesus comes in the Garden of Gethsemane and finds asleep. I don’t want to bear the burden of hearing Jesus say to me, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” I don’t want the responsibility of being the confidante of Christ in his hour of need. I don’t want to be Peter in the Passion story because I know he will deny Christ three times. And I’d rather not be that person.
I don’t want to be Judas either. No one wants to identify with him. He’s the traitor after all. The bad guy who betrays Jesus with a kiss.
I don’t want to be Pontius Pilate or the High Priest. They are the ones with the authority to decide Jesus’ fate. I don’t want to be the Priest who heard Jesus declare that he is the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One and then accuses Jesus of blasphemy. I don’t want to be Pilate who hears the testimony against Jesus and must decide whether to free him or have him killed. I don’t want to be in the position of being able to release Jesus, only to be driven by the crowd to execute him instead. It would not be good to be Pilate.
And I certainly don’t want to be Jesus. Not today. It’s too overwhelming to even try and identify with Christ at the moment of his Passion. I don’t want to know the despair and the sorrow that Jesus feels the night he pray in the garden. I’d rather not know what it is to cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
No. I would just assume look at the Passion from a safe, unimpassioned distance. But today is Palm Sunday, and we can’t do that. Today is the day in which we all are forced to play a part in the Passion of our Lord. -The day when we have to struggle with the uncomfortable reality that we do have a role in the story we tell today.
As much as we might be temped to- today is a day when we should not put roses on the cross to make it easier to accept. We cannot gloss over the events of the Passion and jump straight to the Alleluias of Easter without spending time living the story for ourselves. We cannot leave it to others to play our part in the Passion.
We may not want to admit it, and we may not like it, but we all are a little bit like Peter, who sleeps and denies rather than ministers and proclaims.
We all are a little bit like Pilate and the High Priest, in that we share in the conviction that sentenced Christ.
We are all a little bit like Jesus, in those moments when we find ourselves lost and alone in our faith. -When our fear leaves us feeling abandoned, even by God.
And we are very much like the crowd, the passersby, who gather around Jesus and experience a range of conflicting emotions as they hail the arrival of the Messiah, waving palms as he enters Jerusalem, and then turn around and call for his crucifixion.
I have heard it suggested that every Christian, throughout the ages, is present at the foot of the cross. In that moment of sacrifice, we are united in our grief, in our complicity, and in our salvation. So, too, we all find ourselves in the throng that greeted Jesus as he arrived in Jerusalem.
We are part of that crowd that waves the branches of palm. All glory, laud and honor to our redeemer King. And then, within minutes, we who are members of that crowd outside of Jerusalem find ourselves members of another vastly different crowd, shouting for the death of the Messiah.
It’s an emotional roller coaster we ride every Palm Sunday. We are on a twisted path, privileged to shout and proclaim our faith in Jesus one minute, and calling out for his death the next.
Palm Sunday forces us to confront that juxtaposition- as uncomfortable and challenging as it is. It is a day which forces us to admit that we can and should identify with the people in this story. Because the Passion is more than a story. It is the record of one of the most emotionally powerful episodes of our collective faith. It is part of the history of God’s life with us. And we are part of the narrative. We participate in the events we commemorate, capable of praising Christ in one moment and forsaking him the next.
I am sure I am not alone in having friends (and family) who have chosen not to be part of a church. Many of those I know stay away because they see churches filled with hypocritical folk who say they believe in God but then don’t lead particularly faithful lives. Why bother being Christian if they’re no better than the rest of us, one friend asked me.
She was a bit surprised at my response when I agreed that we church folk are no better than the rest. And that’s just the point. We don’t follow Jesus because we are not sinners, but because we are. We live out our lives of faith doing the best we can, but knowing that we are perfectly capable of praising Christ one minute and forsaking him the next. We know we can be invited to stand by Christ’s side in his time of need and instead be found asleep. To be a Christian does not mean to be perfect. To be a Christian is to be convicted by the roles we play in today’s Gospel. To be a Christian is to be reminded by our liturgy today how easy it is to forsake the God who died for us, at the same time we proclaim him as our Messiah.
Saint Paul writes that “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). Throughout this Holy Week, we will be reminded of the sins and faithlessness which contributed to the death of Christ. But, as we all know, the story does not end today. It does not end with the cry of Jesus from the cross, or with our guilt for the roles we play in his Passion. The story, in fact, is just beginning. And one week from today, we will rejoice again. Thanks be to God. Amen.
BIOBLITZ 2021
Bioblitz 2021
What if You Could Change the World Just by Taking a Picture?
Join the Acton Boxborough BIOBLITZ
April 30-May 3.
Nature is in trouble. The climate is changing, landscapes are shifting, and species are disappearing, while we gaze at our monitors, hunch over our phones, and ignore the world around us.
But what if our cameras could help us pay attention to nature and teach us about that bird in our backyard, or that flower by the woods? What if our social networks included oaks, salamanders, and robins, as well as all our friends?
Join the Acton-Boxborough BIOBLITZ
A bioblitz is a communal citizen-science effort to record with your iphone or android as many species (plants, animals, insects etc) within a designated location and time period. iNaturalist makes this all possible.
Bioblitzes are great ways to connect to the environment while generating useful data for scientists. They are also alot of fun. Join the fun and help change the world with family, friends, neighbors, houses of worship, and students. Click on this link to download the flier.
