Leaf blowers are an instrument of the devil. / They snarl from across the street while you were trying to sleep / and pollute the air with dust and gas and pointlessly blow leaves around / for the next gust to bring right back where they started. Good people / use a rake or a broom, as God intended. I knew this, clear as day, until / the dads showed up at the protest, joined the wall of moms with fists upraised, / singing hands up, don’t shoot in tones that could comfort a baby. / The dads brought hockey sticks to bat away the canisters of tear gas. / And leaf blowers to disperse the gas back whence it came I don’t trust anyone / who tells me what God intends. Nonetheless, I will tell you this: / God means for us to use the tools we have on hand / to protect what is threatened and growing. — “Leaf Blowers” by Lynn Ungar

Like many of you, there are times lately, I have struggled with things that are far out of my control. You know I like to plan. I like to set up Clivie’s Zoom School week ahead of time. I like to know where we are and what is happening in the liturgical calendar at UCH. I like to have coffee/calendar dates with church lay leaders and strategize about what needs to be tweaked. I like to have a sense of where and how things are moving and flowing. Some of that is still possible. But that is not largely the case in Mid-September 2020. I’m having to pray Reinhold Neihbur’s prayer a lot that I learned in recovery 18 years ago. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference.” I am called to think carefully about what I can change and what I can’t. I also must evaluate if that is true because there may be some things I really can change my response to and relationship with if I go deeper. Most of all, I must cultivate the wisdom to know the difference. And I may have to be creative now to do that.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed in this decentering, deeply challenging season. But we still have tools on hand that God calls us to use to build the Kin(g)dom of God here in South Hayward and beyond. What are some of the tools you have right now on hand? What do you need to pull out, wipe off, and hone for this time? Hockey Sticks? Those are the kind of things that fall out of the closet in the garage that we really need to get rid of but don’t for some reason. And it turns out they are brilliant for knocking tear gas canisters out of the way when protesting white supremacy. Leaf blowers? Really? Who would have thought! I hate the sound of the darn things too. Nothing can make me shut our master bedroom sliding glass patio door faster. And yet that loud sound raised in protest of police brutality and the devaluing of Black Lives, made a tremendous difference in Portland. What other tools do we have? Sharing photography and artwork on Social Media to undermine negativity? Zooming Scripture Seekers, Book Group, or Healing Group? Calling folks in the Beloved Community to see how we are in all the chaos? Praying and doing spiritual practices and devotions that give you peace? Writing checks for the good work of South Hayward Parish or FESCO on behalf of our neighbors in need? Checking on our neighbors? Making sure we have our masks handy and physically distancing when we go out? Protesting the injustices going on around us in whatever (safe) way we can? Calling our Representatives and supporting candidates that represent our Classical Jesus values (as opposed as the values that are attributed to Jesus in some circles in our nation that bear no resemblance to his life or teachings)? There are indeed many things we have no control over right now as we continue our modified shelter-in-place. And yet we have tools that we can use to love God, neighbor, and ourselves during this unprecedented time. We may have to be very creative with what we have. But it is my prayer as your Minister & Teacher that God will guide our hands, eyes, and hearts, and give us the wisdom to use our hockey sticks, leaf blowers and anything else we have that works in new ways and old, during this tossed and turning time.

May it be so. – Rev. Jeanne

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