The 4th Sunday in Lent: Even So Lord Jesus Come -- Converted Over and Over Again In New Ways: A Conversation About Apocalypse Then and Now

Jim Wallis writes, “When I first read Matthew 25 as a student activist, I felt it was the most radical thing I had ever encountered.” He goes on to say that “Matthew 25 has continued to convert me over and over again in new ways.” I find it striking that with all of the talk about apocalypse and the “second coming” rising again in Christian Nationalist circles in the U.S., with our undeclared war upon and bombing of Iran, that this scripture is never mentioned or used in the conversation.

Yet this very apocalyptic scripture about judgment is directly from the mouth and teachings of Jesus. What does Matthew 25:31–45 say about Jesus’s spirituality? What does Jesus want us to know is important in this evocative scripture about “the least of these” and our responsibilities toward them? Does (this scary word) apocalypse mean what we think it means?

Join us this Sunday as we continue our Lenten series about Jesus’ spirituality with “Even So, Lord Jesus, Come: Converted Over and Over Again in New Ways — A Conversation About Apocalypse (Apokalupsis: ἀποκάλυψις), Then and Now.”

I look forward to being with you on Zoom and livestream on our Lenten journey.
—Rev. Jeanne

GREEK WORDS IMPORTANT IN OUR CONVERSATION TODAY:

1. Apokalupsis: ἀποκάλυψις ah-po-KAH-loo-psis: revealing, disclosure, through what is concealed. A manifestation of what is hidden. The book of Revelation in the biblical canon

2. xenos: ξένος KSEH-nos stranger, alien, foreigner, the root from which we get our word Xenophobia.

3. aiónios: αἰώνιος ahee-OH-nee-os eternal, eternity, forever. perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well) (aiṓnios) does not focus on the future per se, but rather on the quality of the age or aiṓn) it relates to. Thus believers live in "eternal life" right now, experiencing this quality of God's life now as a present possession.

For Empathy During a Time of War (written by Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow)

Let us pray —

God, we know empathy will not win this war
— but it will instigate a future of peace
Empathy will not topple regimes
— but it will liberate collective imagination
Empathy will not destroy weapons
— but it will disrupt our tendency toward violence
Empathy will not solve generational hatred
— but it will open us up to generational healing
Empathy alone will not guarantee peace
— but without empathy, peace is not possible

God, during this time of war
when our government wants us to choose
destruction over discourse
nationalism over faith
and mercilessness over empathy
grant us the courage to choose Your way.

When empathy is too difficult to mine from within
— God, grant Your people grace
When empathy causes chasms of conflict
— God, grant Your people persistence
When empathy solicits reactions bound by hate
— God, grant Your people fortitude
When empathy makes clear the holy within our enemy
— God, grant Your people reassurance
When empathy becomes exhausting and overwhelming
— God, grant Your people rest

And God, embolden Your people
to live a life of unapologetic empathy
in a world that would prefer it if we didn't

For these things we pray

— AMEN

Lent 2026: On Level Ground Exploring the Spirituality of Jesus

Most of us think of Jesus as an important part of our spirituality. But what can we learn from closely examining his connection with God and the spiritual world, and his connection with his community, with his neighbors, and with those in political and religious authority around him? I invite you to join us on Zoom and Livestream for our Lenten series: On Level Ground: Exploring the Spirituality of Jesus. We had a terrific conversation last Sunday to kick things off. Join us for the journey. —Rev. Jeanne

2nd Sunday of Lent, March 1: What is Jesus’ relationship with scripture?  (What did Jesus choose for his first sermon? And how is that choice in alignment with his ministry?  Luke 4: 16-21)

3rd Sunday of Lent, March 8: What does Jesus’ prayer life look like? (We’ll look at what we can know of Jesus’ prayer life and explore “The Lord’s Prayer.” How does prayer keep Jesus and us aligned? Matthew 6 and Luke 11)

4th  Sunday of Lent, March 16: How was Jesus in relationship with others? And what does that say about his spirituality? (We will do a deep dive into Matthew 25: “When you do it for the least of these, you have done it for me” and talk about Jesus call for us to align our values with the Kindom of God rather than the Kingdoms of the World.) 

5th Sunday of Lent, March 23: What is the most powerful and useful spiritual alignment metaphor Jesus uses in the scriptures? I’m going to argue it is “The Vine and the Branches” in John 15. We’ll get into it and see what you think.

6th Sunday of Lent, March 30 (Palm Sunday): What gets under Jesus’ (sometimes very human) skin and how does he manage it? What does what he gets upset about say about his alignment and spirituality? We’ll invite him to give us a spiritual justice tutorial on how to stay aligned and turn over tables when the situation requires. On this Palm Sunday we will enter into Jerusalem with Hosannas and explore Jesus’ cleansing of the temple right after the party in Luke 19: 41-48.

How We Learn to Be Brave: Spring Book Club Syllabus

Join us on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:00 pm Pacific for the first gathering of a seven-session book discussion of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's "How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith."  We will be meeting every other Wednesday for 7 sessions, and you can find more details here.

Here is a map of our journey (Gratitude to my colleague and friend the Rev. Michal Anne Pepper - Episcopalian clergy in New Mexico - for her guidance): 

• Session 1: Welcome, Introductions. (Please read the intro if you can for the first meeting. And Google "Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde" and watch some videos so you can get to know her. Here is one. Questions for reflection: How is this moment in our nation's history a "Decisive moment" for you personally? Reflect on past "decisive moments" in your life. How have your decisions changed you? How have they fostered a bigger sense of agency in your life? 

• Session 2: Deciding to Go. Deciding to Stay. (Please read chapters 1 and 2). Questions for reflection:  Have you made a “decision to go” that transgressed others’ or cultural expectations? What did you learn from that experience and what was its impact on future decisions? What “life quakes” can you identify in your own personal transitions? Think about a significant time and/or situation when you decided to stay. Identify any sacrifices or blessings you reaped from a decision to stay?.

• Session 3: Deciding to Start (Please read chapter 3)  Questions for reflection: Reflecting on past decisions to start a particular life path, do you agree that they start with small steps? What were your sources of courage to take those first steps?  What vision has carried you through past decisions to start? What is your vision, even if incompletely formed, that supports your current decision to start or to stay?  What are your biggest fears or misgivings associated with your current decision to start or stay?

• Session 4:  Accepting What You Do Not Choose (Please read chapter 4) Questions for reflection: Frodo was not happy that the ring of power had come to him in Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring. Gandalf responded: “We cannot choose the times we live in, but we can choose how to respond to the time we are given.” What corollaries do you find in your life? In events in your lifetime?  Have you ever been part of a community that was faced with the need to take an evolutionary leap in order to thrive in a new environment? What was transforming about walking through that experience?  How have you found meaning in adversity? Have you ever found the divine or your higher self in adversity?

• Session 5:  Stepping Up to the Plate (Please reach chapter 5) Questions for reflection: Think about times in which you “stepped up to the plate”, both large or small. What was your experience in making that decision in the moment.? Was there a time when you stepped up to the plate and did not feel ready? How did you manage your fears/anxiety in following through? What were the consequences and how did you manage them? What benefits have you experienced? 

• Session 6:  The Inevitable Letdown. The Hidden Virtue of Perseverance (Please read chapters 6 and 7) Questions for reflection. Bishop Budde describes a variety of types of “let down” (eg natural consequences, backlash, desolation that follows consolations). Why is perseverance called a “hidden virtue”? Think of a time in your life when the “guiding star” of your perseverance was a “hidden companion on the quest” instead of a reward or goal at the end. Have you experienced moments of kairos ? How did that support you on the journey? Reflect on the status of your “heart energy”?

• Session 7:  Hope or Despair? Closure  (Please read the Epilogue) Questions for reflection: How do you sustain hope and speak of hope about the challenges we are facing? How has our reading and conversations helped you in our current “decisive moment”? How can you share any insights, or even transforming thoughts, with your community?

Meeting Dates:

• Session 1: March 4

• Session 2: March 18

• Session 3: April 1

• Session 4: April 15

• Session 5: April 29

• Session 6: May 13

• Session 7: TBD 

Meeting Link

P.S. At UCH, we encourage everyone to support your local independent booksellers. If you are in the Hayward Area, our go-to Bookstore is Books on B. If you'd like to join the group, but can't afford the book, drop me a note and I'll make sure you get a copy.  

Lent: 2026 (We Are Giving Up White Christian Nationalism)

On Level Ground Exploring the Spirituality of Jesus: And Cultivating The Art of Sustoicheó/συστοιχέω (Alignment)

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; and may your Spirit
    lead me on to level ground. -Psalm 143:10

In recent years, we have explored Jesus’s healings, miracles, actions, exorcisms, relationships, and primary teachings. In Scripture Seekers Bible Study we are now studying Jesus’s parables with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine as our guide. And I have decided that in this remarkable and exhausting year, during the Season of Lent, we are going to bring a new lens to the conversation and explore Jesus’s spirituality.

Most of us think of Jesus as an important part of our spirituality. But what can we learn from closely examining his connection with God and the spiritual world, and his connection with his community, with his neighbors, and with those in political and religious authority around him?

This seems like an important conversation to have when Christian Nationalists in the US are getting out of alignment with who Jesus was so drastically. His ministry and life are tutorials in spiritual alignment. His actions, thoughts, feelings, and words usually match up- which is one of the key things that makes him such a fully divine fully human force to be reckoned with. Jesus invites us to live in alignment too, and it is a life-long challenge. If we can get even a little closer to the way Jesus does it- and stand on the “level ground” he does our spiritual journey(s) will deepen, and our joy will be more complete (John 15:11)

The Greeks called alignment sustoicheó: συστοιχέω:  Sustoicheó means literally: “to file together as soldiers in ranks or straight (or for some of us: gayly forward) lines.” Sustoicheó is about being lined up, and parallel with or in alignment with something. There is also a sense of being “level” which is why Psalm 143 is so relevant to our conversation. Sustoicheó shows up in the Pauline scriptures one time in Galatians, in a bit different context. But sustoicheó strikes me as a terrific descriptor for the way Jesus lived and walked in alignment spiritually.  

"The Thousand Columns" at Chichén Itzá. (Yucatan, Mexico)

So, I invite you to join us at UCH on Zoom and Livestream during the Lenten Season for: On Level Ground: Exploring the Spirituality of Jesus and Cultivating the Art of Sustoicheó/συστοιχέω. Here are some things we will be chewing on. -Rev. Jeanne

• 1st Sunday of Lent: What is Jesus’ relationship with the spiritual world and what does that have to do with how he moves and aligns himself in the physical world? (We will look in-depth at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and his conversation with Satan in Luke 4: 1-13)

• 2nd Sunday of Lent: What is Jesus’ relationship with scripture?  (What did Jesus choose for his first sermon? And how is that choice in alignment with his ministry?  Luke 4: 16-21)

• 3rd Sunday of Lent: What does Jesus’ prayer life look like? (We’ll look at what we can know of Jesus’ prayer life and explore “The Lord’s Prayer.” How does prayer keep Jesus and us aligned? Matthew 6 and Luke 11)

• 4th Sunday of Lent: How was Jesus in relationship with others? And what does that say about his spirituality? (We will do a deep dive into Matthew 25: “When you do it for the least of these, you have done it for me” and talk about Jesus call for us to align our values with the Kindom of God rather than the Kingdoms of the World.) 

• 5th Sunday of Lent: What is the most powerful and useful spiritual alignment metaphor Jesus uses in the scriptures? I’m going to argue it is “The Vine and the Branches” in John 15. We’ll get into it and see what you think.

• 6th Sunday of Lent (Palm Sunday): What gets under Jesus’ (sometimes very human) skin and how does he manage it? What does what he gets upset about say about his alignment and spirituality? We’ll invite him to give us a spiritual justice tutorial on how to stay aligned and turn over tables when the situation requires. On this Palm Sunday we will enter into Jerusalem with Hosannas and explore Jesus’ cleansing of the temple right after the party in Luke 19: 41-48.

Asking The Right Questions: Re-examining the Parables of Jesus

Scripture Seeker’s Bible Study
2026 Spring/Lenten Study
5:30 PM Pacific on Thursday evenings
(no meeting the 3rd Thursday) on Zoom

Our Guide: Dr. Amy-Jill Levine

The Books:

• The Bible (Whatever translation you prefer)

• Short Stories By Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi

Jesus’s parables serve “as keys that can unlock the mysteries we face by helping us ask the right questions: how to live in community; how to determine what ultimately matters; and how to live the life that God wants us to live. They (the parables) are Jesus’ way of teaching, and they are remembered to this day not simply because they are in the Christian canon. But because they continue to provoke, challenge, and inspire. -Dr. Amy Jill Levine.

Join us as we do a deep dive into Jesus’ parables, see how 1st century hearers might have heard them, and invite new insight as we hear them again in the 21st century. I decided not to put dates on the later sessions that I will have to change because we have decided to linger or move faster. So we’ll adjust the dates as we go. Watch Updates from the Journey for (well…) updates.

For those who would like to join us (or return) this is an excellent time to do so. We meet on Thursdays (except for the 3rd Thursday of the month when we have Council and PPRC). If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Amy-Jill Levine and her work, here is a podcast of interest from the Maxwell Institute.  

Here is a loose map (with early adjustable dates) of our journey.  — Rev Jeanne

New Book Club starting March 4

Join us on Wednesday, March 4, at 7:00 pm Pacific for the first gathering of a six session book discussion of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith. We will be meeting every other Wednesday for 6 sessions. So if you have been thinking about joining a group here at UCH, here is a short-term commitment and a chance to make some new friends or get to know some old ones better. We welcome your coffee, your pets, your laughter, your tears, and your wisdom. LGBTQIA+ folkx are especially welcome. 

If you think Bishop Budde's name sounds familiar but can't place her, here is a reminder of who she is. I think, after the sermon she preached at the National Cathedral, standing firmly in the values of Jesus, while speaking truth to power, uniquely qualifies her to guide us in our sharing and discussion about being brave, standing in our integrity, and doing what we can to make a difference wherever we find ourselves.  

If you have any questions about the group, let me know. I'll be posting a "syllabus" of sorts to create a container for our conversation. So watch our UCH weekly e-news "Updates from the Journey" for more soon. 

Ash Wednesday/Beginning of Lent 2026: Loving What Is Mortal, Holding On, and Letting Go

To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go, to let it go.

- Mary Oliver “In Blackwater Woods”

You are probably starting to hear about the spring season we call Lent. And I wanted to clarify again that it has nothing to do with that stuff you remove from the dryer. (Although I do think I could turn that into a sermon metaphor if I worked at it.).

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the season of Lent in the life of the church, which begins 40 days prior to Easter. (For those of you who are looking at your calendars and adding, Sundays are not included in the count). The 40 days of Lent mirror the 40 years that the Israelite people wandered in the wilderness and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. Does anyone resonate with wandering in the wilderness right now?

Ash Wednesday is a time when many followers of the Jesus Way prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, spiritual practice (such as “giving something up”) and repentance/evaluation. During traditional Ash Wednesday services, the minister or priest will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads or hands of worshipers as a reminder of our humanness and mortality. Ashes from the previous year’s Palm Sunday palms are traditionally burned and used. On Zoom, we have learned to be a little more creative.

The Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or the custom of Lent since it evolved later, But the practice of repentance is mentioned repeatedly in the scriptures. In the New Testament: metanoia: μετάνοια (Greek) and in the First Testament: shub שׁוּב (Hebrew) are translated as repentance. These words both carry the meaning of having a change of mind and heart, or of turning back, or around, and returning and retracing our steps.

As we repeatedly discuss at UCH, it is important activity on our spiritual journey to notice when it is time to turn around and retrace our steps. We all get out in the weeds from time to time.

And our Still-Speaking God has gifted us with spiritual practices of forgiveness, transformation, and repentance so we can get unstuck and find our way forward, home, out of the wilderness, or wherever we are headed on our journey.

This Year our UCH Ash Wednesday service, “Loving What Is Mortal: Holding On and Letting Go” (Based on Mary Oliver’s poem “Blackwater Woods”) will take place on February 18 at 7:00 PM Pacific on Zoom. Join us for a rich time of listening, poetry, and reflection. We will be participating in a creative visualization of the traditional imposition of ashes, and if you would like, you can impose ashes from a candle or palm leaves you have burned in your home on your forehead or hands. Or you can just come and be in community and out of chaos for this simple, quiet reflective service about the joys and challenges of holding on, letting go, and being human.

I look forward to being with you on Ash Wednesday evening as we begin our Lenten journey together. — Rev. Jeanne

A Prayer for the Ceasing of State Violence and the Protection of All People

A prayer from Rev. Deborah Lee, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.  

Holy, Loving and Compassionate One,

We hold grief in our hearts at the brutal and tragic ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good, a beloved daughter, mother of three, poet, and good neighbor—whose life was taken in Minneapolis during an ICE enforcement operation. Every person deserves safety, belonging, and freedom from fear, harm, and discrimination. May her life be honored with justice, compassion, and the sacredness of every human life.

We say her name. And we say the names of at least 6 other loved ones who have been killed in ICE operations since the beginning of 2025: parents, workers, immigrants and citizens: Jaime Alanis Garcia, Silverio Villegas Gonzales, Marimar Martinez, Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, Josue Castro Rivera, Keith Portal Jr., and one who is still unnamed killed at the Rio Grande.

We say their names. And we say the names of the 32 people who needlessly died in ICE detention in 2025, deprived of healthcare, basic necessities and their liberty. We lift up each life who has died into your loving arms. We pray for their children, their families and communities who are suffering and grieving. Grant them comfort, healing and the strength to go on. 

We condemn these ICE killings. And we lift up their lives. We celebrate the fullness of their lives, their best memories, their hopes and their dreams. May their dreams become ours. May we carry them in our hearts and remember them with dignity, honor, and justice.  

We pray for the ceasing of this state's racialized violence and state terror. The occupation and repression has stricken our communities with fear, grief and trauma. Here within our nation and through our country’s actions globally.  

We pray for the end of US military violence, state violence and all forms of violence that go against the dignity and sacredness of human life. We pray for the more than 80 people who were killed this week in the US attack on Venezuela in direct violation of human rights, sovereignty and international law. Our faiths teach us: No life must be shed. No stealing of that which is not ours.  

We pray for the protection of all people. We hold the 68,000 who are confined in ICE detention centers across the country. We pray for their safe release and swift return to their loved ones. We pray for refugees and people everywhere who have been displaced and impacted by militarism and violence, especially in Palestine and Sudan. 

When systems of power turn into tools of harm rather than peace, grant us the courage to speak up in truth and stand with those who face injustice. Give us the commitment to continue to look out for one another and walk in humility alongside those who suffer.

May our hearts mourn, but still grow in love. In the face of “might makes right”, give us resolve in the belief that only Love makes right. May our creativity transform fear, force, and dehumanization into actions that honor and protect all human life and dignity.  

Grant us a deep source to continue to walk in love, welcome all with joy and compassion, and celebrate our common humanity. May our wellspring of love run deep and overflow.  

Bearing the Light in a Disturbed Time

I'm glad to be back from break. Our leaky roof and living room ceiling are repaired and all of the plastic and buckets are out of the living room. It feels overwhelming to land back at work in the middle of yet another more intense and escalating national crisis. Like you, I am angry and upset about many things. I am particularly upset about the murder of Nicole Renee Good, a mother, poet, and member of the Queer community in Minneapolis, and the escalating violence in our nation that is being driven by irresponsible leadership, non-existent moral compasses, lies, greed, and incendiary rhetoric. I am aware that more than ever, we at UCH need to take deep breaths and root ourselves and our actions in our values and in the values of Jesus Christ: values like empathy, compassion, peacemaking, justice seeking, boundaries, table turning, spiritual practice, and love of God and love and care for our neighbors and ourselves. (Link to values statement here). The Holy Spirit wouldn't leave me alone last Sunday and didn't seem to care that I was on vacation. I know Jackie beautifully celebrated Epiphany with you. And I'm grateful for that. So here's a piece of my Epiphany sermon I didn't preach but felt in my blood and bone. I love you'all.  May the words of Mother Mary bless and inform our steps in the coming days.  

Herod leaves a trail of lies, death, and destruction because he is terrified of losing power. He is a desperate, mentally compromised, cruel, and vindictive man with a history of misusing his office, sowing chaos, parading and flexing the Legionnaires garrisoned at Caesarea Maritima, and destroying everyone around him who opposed him (or who he thinks might be disloyal like his wife Miriamne). He also had a familiar to us habit of self soothing by knocking down and building up very large buildings in his own honor as noted in historical (Josephus) and archaeological record.

There is a very good reason that Matthew's Gospel tells us, when "King Herod was disturbed. All of Jerusalem was disturbed with him." He doesn't care how his actions affect others, especially those who are most vulnerable. I'd wager that folkx in Judea were perpetually exhausted from living in a constant state of being disturbed.

Is anybody here disturbed? Is anyone here exhausted from being disturbed, or pondering the next violent self-serving move by our very own 21st century Herod?

Maybe that is one reason Mother Mary, in Luke's account, starts singing with God in the tradition of her ancestors. Women do odd things like this when we are exhausted, pondering, and disturbed. And Mother Mary had a lot to ponder and be exhausted and disturbed about as she said "yes" to the work of carrying God in her womb. But unholy empire, unjust rulers, and the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice (as Dr. King would have put it) seem to be very much on her mind.

May her words , her utterance, her song of calling down power in the midst of exhaustion, pondering, and disturbance be so. And may we say a resounding "yes" with her to bearing the light of Christ unapologetically in the face of imperialism and white Christian nationalist evil:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for God who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is God's name.

And God's mercy is for those who fear them from generation to generation. She has shown strength with her arm; God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; she has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. God has helped me, God's servant, in remembrance of their mercy, as they spoke to our ancestors, and will speak to their descendants forever.”

Castro Valley's Adobe Art Center

The construction of an adobe structure required the ingredients of sand, clay. and water mixed to form a thick mud to which straw was added for stability. The mixture was then pressed into wooden forms and sun dried to create bricks. Once dry, the bricks were stacked forming the structure with a wet adobe mixture used as mortar, and finally the dried walls were typically painted with a protective white lime coating.

There are a handful of original adobe structures of Spanish Heritage dating from the mid-1700’s to the mid-1800 still standing in the East Bay. Fremont’s Mission San Jose Museum, Higuera Adobe in Warm Springs and Vallejo Adobe in Niles, along with Casa Peralta in San Leandro and Dublin’s Francisco Solano Alviso have been carefully restored, or are being held in a state of arrested decay. Not among the original adobes is the Hayward Area Recreation and Park Department’s (HARD) Adobe Art Center in Castro Valley, an authentic adobe reproduction built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. The building is located in an old elm grove planted by Boy Scouts in 1926 on the rear of the former location of the Castro Valley Grammar School on Castro Valley Blvd. The building is constructed from hundreds of 4x9x16 inch adobe bricks from soil excavated from the site of Redwood School on Redwood Road, hand hewn timbers from discarded telephone poles provided by the Pacific Telephone Company, and coated with special paint developed by the Gliddon Paint Company of Oakland. Unlike the original crude adobes, the Castro Valley reproduction featured a tile floor, entrance lobby, kitchen, restrooms, a large meeting hall with a copper mural over the large fireplace portraying scenes from of life of California Indians, and a mosaic at the entrance to the building depicting a bull fight and the completion of the intercontinental railroad.

The Adobe Art Center has become the center for local community arts and history housing permanent exhibits and hosting rotating shows, temporarily for other purposes in intervening years, but most memorable to me, The Castro Valley Adobe is the grammar school where I attended kindergarten under the patient and thoughtful teacher Mrs. Bea Hampton in 1947.

Stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.

It is not possible to keep it from coming, because it will. That’s just how Advent works. What is possible is not to see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. So, stay. Sit. Linger, Tarry, Ponder. Wait, Behold. Wonder. There will be enough time for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now. Stay, Wait. Something is on the horizon. -Jan Richardson

 I have noticed during our Advent journey in worship that there have been times when we want to push the pause button and sit. This has happened after my sermons, during the silent time after our “Be Still and Know” prayer, and after some of the music we have enjoyed together. I think this desire to push the pause button is very important to notice because it is counter cultural, especially in the energetic speeding up, consumerism, family challenges, and stress of the holiday season.

As the ever funny and wise Anne Lamott writes, “It is important to embrace the pause; to create quiet space so we can hear God’s voice. If our tongues are wagging, we can’t hear anything but ourselves.”  God’s voice is present in the listening. God’s voice is still speaking in silence and stillness. God’s voice can be heard in slowing down and doing something life-giving. God’s voice can be heard in the silent embrace of being enough and doing enough. God’s voice gets louder when we slow down, notice, and be curious.

I’m smiling at myself while I am still typing away and will resist the temptation to throw more words at you about silence, waiting, pausing, and being still.  What I will say in closing - is that as we prepare for the 4th Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Epiphany, and the New Year, I invite you push that pause button as we give birth to, and re-welcome the Light of Christ into our world- in the face of all that is joyful, tearful, frustrating, shocking, complicated, and (yes) holy.

As the beloved song we will sing in a few nights puts it, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.” May our souls feel their worth. Pushing the pause button will help. Do it as often as you need. Because no matter who you are, where you come from, or where you are on life’s journey- Advent or not, you are worthy and you are loved, no matter what is on the horizon.   

Much Love and Happy Holidays, -Rev. Jeanne

Living Our Values: A Simple Step Toward Being Open & Affirming

Several of you have indicated to me over the last month that you want to find more ways to intentionally live into our UCH/Jesus values statement. So I'm going to start including more articles in Updates that will spark conversation and help us do that from different angles. 

Here is a great article from "Them" magazine about using gender neutral pronouns.

Action items: 

1. Read the article. Think on it. What can you work on? Pray for God to give you awareness. 

2. I invite everyone to share your pronouns on Zoom during worship as part of our public Open & Affirming commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community. If you don't know how to do that tech-wise,  Ashley, Steve, or I would be glad to help. If you want to talk to me about it I'm here. 

3. Also, if you mess up someone's pronouns, don't crawl under the bed and make it all about you. Just apologize and do it differently. Its hard to get our brains out of the grooves of privilege they live in and on different, better tracks. Maybe that is what Paul was getting at (in one of his stellar moments) when he talked about "being not conformed to the world but being  transformed by the renewing of our minds" in Romans 12. 

Also helpful: Think of it like learning a new language like the author suggests. Here's the article. -Rev. Jeanne 

2025 UCH Advent Series and Theme: “Stay. Wait. Something is on the Horizon.”

"Mary treasured and pondered these things in her heart." -Luke 1

“God marked the horizon when they separated the waters and set the boundary between day and night.” -Job 26:10

“It is not possible to keep it from coming, because it will. That’s just how Advent works. What is possible is not to see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock watching God’s hindquarters fade into the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger, Tarry, Ponder. Wait, Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now. Stay, Wait. Something is on the horizon.” -Jan Richardson

We will continue our series about overlooked women in scripture during Advent through the lens of Mary's wisdom and memory. Luke tells us multiple times she "pondered" things in her heart as they unfolded. The Greek word translated ponder is sumballó:συμβάλλω and with it, according to Strong's, there is a sense of tossing things together in one's mind and heart and stirring them around- somewhat like tossing a salad. 

Sumballó/pondering is not a linear process. It's a winding journey from present, to past, and back to present. It involves remembering, feeling, thinking things through, tossing them together, and listening for the voice of the Holy- all while cultivating hope for the future. What did Mary toss together in her heart and mind? What did she ponder as things unfolded? Who and what did she remember? What did she struggle with or hold close? 

My suspicion is that one of the things Mary remembered and pondered was the wisdom of the women who were formative in her life, who prepared her with their love, stories, and strength to give birth to the light of Christ that was now appearing on her life's horizon. 

We often wish we had information than the stories in our biblical Canon provide. There are actually many stories outside the Canon that can widen our horizons and cause us to ask more questions about Mary's ponderings in our canon of scripture - especially as they pertain to the formative women in her life. So in addition to the traditional Advent stories in Luke and Matthew this year (and a visit with Hannah in I Samuel), we will be visiting stories in the Qur'an, and The Infancy Gospel of James. 

December 7, 2nd Sunday of Advent: The Infancy Gospel of James and Quaran. We will drop into Mary's story as she is taking on a major sewing project for the temple. As she gets down to work, things start to get weird. I look forward to exploring this story of preparation, and finding God in extraordinary and very ordinary things that Mary must have been remembering as she pondered and prepared for her calling to give birth to Emmanuel, "God with us."

December 14, 3rd Sunday of Advent: Luke 1 and I Samuel. We will explore the more familiar canonical story of Elizabeth and Mary in Luke 1 and ponder their connection with their Israelite spiritual ancestor and matriarch Hannah in I Samuel. Ancestors have lots of ways of showing up in our ponderings. And Hannah makes herself known in a way that shows she was very much on the hearts, ponderings, and well known songs of Mary and Elizabeth recorded by Luke. 

December 21, 4th Sunday of Advent: Infancy Gospel of James and the Gospel of Matthew. Join us as we explore more of James' midrash on Mary's life as she meets and builds relationship with a rather strange older gentleman named Joseph. We will also look at Matthew's (rather scant) record of events around Mary's relationship with Joseph and their instructions to name Jesus, "Emmanuel." (One of my favorite God names that means "God with us") Join us this Sunday as we continue our ponderings with Mary and get closer to the big day. 

December 24, Christmas Eve: Luke 2. We will ponder with and learn from Mary, as we accompany her on this holy night, in the fully divine, fully human task of being a God-Bearer (Theotokos) and giving birth to the light of Christ in the world. May our soul "feel its worth" in this calling. 

I look forward to pondering these things with you during this 2025 Advent season. Join me as we stay. And as we wait. Because indeed: Something is on the horizon. -Rev. Jeanne

How UCH is responding to the SNAP shutdown.

As you all have heard, because of the government shut-down, food subsidies like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) will "expire" and not be sent out to accounts this weekend. This is a disaster for many lower and fixed income folkx who depend on these grocery subsidies to be able to put food on the table. Food pantries and providers across California and the US are gearing up to meet this disaster. And as our values statement at UCH says, Jesus is very clear in the gospels that it is part of our call and responsibility as followers of The Way to feed those who are hungry (Matthew 25: 35-40). 

Here are some ways UCH is responding to this situation:

1. I am attaching a recently updated local services grid that outlines ways to receive meals and food assistance in Hayward on a daily basis. Please share this with anyone who is in need that would benefit. 

2. The United Church of Hayward Council is exploring the possibility of significant church donations to South Hayward Parish food bank, and Comida para Cherryland/Eden Foundation food bank that serves primarily immigrant families in Cherryland. Since this requires a congregational vote to alter the 2025 budget, the Council is calling a short congregational meeting for this vote on Gratitude Sunday, November 23 after worship. Please stay on the same worship Zoom link. 

3. I am also concerned that there may be some immediate and extended members of the UCH Community who will be directly impacted by this situation. If you or a neighbor or friend you know is facing struggle this month, I invite you to let me know discreetly and confidentially. I will use UCH Minister's discretionary fund monies allotted by UCH Council to make sure you will be able to put some food on your table. Please email me privately: revjeanne@uchucc.org.

4. After ongoing conversation with Kristina and me, Pastor Marvin has offered to arrange "a special volunteer orientation" for UCH members who would like to partner with Eden and "take a deeper dive" into Eden's community resilience and community empowerment programs. If you are interested in hands-on volunteer work with others from UCH to help those in need in Hayward (particularly those in the Cherryland immigrant community), please let Kristina or me know: revjeanne@uchucc.org and Kkburnett@comcast.net.  We will get the group together and arrange the date for this partnering opportunity with our siblings in Christ.  

Meanwhile, please be in prayer for all who are impacted by this deeply unfortunate situation. May God have mercy on us and our nation in coming days. -Rev. Jeanne

Finding Treasures, Hearing Wisdom, Encountering Beauty: Gratitude & Stewardship Month

“I have been finding treasures in places I did not intend to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not intend to listen to. I have been encountering beauty where I did not want to look for it. And I am learning so much from journeys we did not intend to take.”

— Suzy Kassem

Dear Beloved Community,

Our journey continues at UCH, and who could have imagined that we would be in this place during our 2025 Stewardship/Gratitude month. We are immersed in ongoing, upsetting, daily multi-level national and global crisis, and living into so many places of not-knowing. In response we are rooting ourselves more fully in the values of Jesus and growing. We are becoming more outreach-focused and thriving and attracting new listeners to our Live-Streams and UCH Rebuild podcasts. Our website and blog visits are also growing. And our new weekly “Updates from the Journey” and monthly “Notes from the Journey” are driving online visits up, indicating that we are reaching more folkx who need an alternative to the distorted christian nationalism that is being served up as truth in our nation. We are delighted to have received a $60,000 Clergy Renewal grant from CTS/Lilly Foundation and are excited and daunted by work that lies ahead to make it happen. Change is thick in the air. And as Suzy Kassem suggests, we continue to find “treasures in places (we) did not intend to search. And are learning so much from journeys we really didn’t intend to take.”

November is Gratitude and Stewardship Month at UCH. And our theme this year is “Finding Treasures, Hearing Wisdom, and Encountering Beauty on Journeys We (Did and) Did Not Intend to Take.”  Each Sunday in November we will be hearing from one of our UCH lay leaders during gratitude time in worship about how they have been surprised, challenged, and found joy on our journey through pandemic, the sale of our property, continuing online ministry, and anxiety provoking politics that repeatedly violate our values.

On November 23, we will be blessing our UCH tithes, bank accounts, investments, treasurer, and bookkeeper, and our growing efforts to make our budget reflect our values. On November 23, as part of our UCH Gratitude Month, we will have a short congregational meeting and vote after Zoom worship on amending the 2025 budget to include two generous donations to South Hayward Parish and Comida para Cherryland foodbanks in response to the government shutdown, and to the suspension of SNAP in particular. This is a powerful way to bring our budget more into alignment with our values statement that clearly states we will follow Jesus’ call to “feed the hungry” (Matthew 25) in our community.

Our Council also asks you to prayerfully consider your gifts of time, talent, and treasure, as we construct our budget for the coming year. Our Vice Moderator Scout has generated an online pledge form for you to fill out and submit. Please submit your answers by November 23 so that we can bless all pledges, of time, talent, and treasure or anything else you want to offer to our church’s ongoing ministry, during worship on that day.

I am deeply blessed to be your Senior Minister and Teacher. And I am grateful for each one of you, and for how our desire to be in Beloved Community has taken precedence over our fear of technology and how we continue to grow in that together. I am looking forward to more opportunities to be grateful with you this month, and to bless our resources on November 23. I give thanks with you—for the difference we are making in each other’s lives and in our communities during these challenging times. May we all find ways to live into our calling to be seekers embracing the journey -- no matter where we are “Finding Treasures, Hearing Wisdom, and Encountering Beauty on Journeys We (Did and) Didn’t Intend to Take.”

Much Love,
Rev. Jeanne, and the Council of United Church of Hayward, UCC

Rev. Jeanne's Top 10 Sermons

UCH has been publishing Jeanne’s sermons to YouTube for nearly three years. Here are the most videos (Click the sermon title to watch, re-watch, or share.):

1. “Woke” Isn’t The Insult You Think It Is

2. Walking Our Way into A Different Ending: The Risen Christ as Healer

3. Bearing the Light, Even When It Costs Us

4. Being in Possession of Our Own Hearts

5. A Shared Regathering of Ourselves

6. Slowly Learned By the Heart

7. The (Holy) Struggle to Find the Words: Wrestling with God, Angels, Ourselves & Particles of Light

8. Ablaze with Blessing: The Spiritual Journey of Ascension

9. Ensoulment: Aligning Soul and Personality

10. The (Holy) Struggle to Find the Words: What Are We Doing Here?

Interspersed in these sermon videos for popularity are also introductory videos about United Church of Hayward and Rev. Jeanne. Have you watched these?

• A welcome from United Church of Hayward

• Conscious Breath & Healing Circle

• Meet Rev. Jeanne Loveless: A Journey of Faith & Healing

• Rev. Jeanne on Christian Nationalism

A Community Letter Regarding ICE Event

Hello everyone. You have likely heard there was an incident Wednesday morning between peaceful protesters and ICE/para military personnel at the entrance to the Coast Guard Station on Alameda Island. What you may not know is that my UCC clergy colleague, Rev. Jorge Bautista, the Minister of our sister church, College Heights UCC in San Mateo was shot with pepper balls and rubber bullets in the face. He is ok physically. But shaken. He was also assisted by Rev. Deb Lee and Rev. Terri Echelbarger who were also traumatized by the event.

Our NCNC UCC Conference Minister, Rev. Dr. Davena Jones sent out a community letter this morning that I'd like to share with you. Please keep Rev. Jorge, College Heights, and all of us who are standing in the values of Jesus by supporting our immigrant neighbors in peaceful protest in your prayers in coming days. 

Here is Davena's letter: 

United Church of Hayward, United Church of Christ and Rev. Jeanne Loveless receive CTS/Lilly Endowment 2025 National Clergy Renewal Grant

Look not at me with outward eye, but with inward vision of the heart; Follow me there and see how unencumbered we become. -Rumi

United Church of Hayward, United Church of Christ, a primarily online progressive Christian community based in Hayward, CA has received a grant of $60.000 to enable our Senior Minister & Teacher, Rev. Jeanne Loveless, to participate in the 2025 CTS National Clergy Renewal Program. United Church of Hayward, UCC is one of 200 congregations across the United States selected to participate in this competitive grant program, which is funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and administered by Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis. Established by the Endowment in 2000, the program’s grants allow Christian congregations to support their pastors with the gift of extended sabbatical time away from their ministerial duties and responsibilities so they can rest and renew.

Ministers whose congregations are awarded grants use their time away from the demands of daily ministry to pursue renewal and revitalization. The approach respects the “Sabbath time” concept, offering ministers a carefully considered respite that may include travel, study, rest, prayer and immersive arts and cultural experiences.

Through the National Clergy Renewal Program, congregations apply for grants of up to $60,000 to support renewal programs for their pastors. Collaborative in nature and implementation, the program allows congregations to partner with their ministers in developing experiences that address their unique renewal needs and aspirations. Recognizing that ministers’ families are subject to the stress and demands placed on pastoral leaders, the program encourages pastors to involve their families in renewal activities. Congregational needs during the minister’s renewal experience also are considered. Up to $20,000 of the grant may be used to support interim pastoral leadership during the pastor’s retreat, as well as renewal activities within the congregation. Since the inception of the National Clergy Renewal Program and the Clergy Renewal Program for Indiana Congregations, more than 4,526 congregations throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico have participated in the program, including the 200 congregations receiving grants in 2025. The CTS Grant Proposal Theme is “What Makes Your Heart(s) Sing?”

The UCH renewal leave theme is “Longing for Unencumbered Hearts: A Journey of Vision Clearing and Renewal.” At UCH, we will be engaging in a special series of online workshops that will allow us to experience different vision and heart clearing healing modalities including EFT, Reiki, and Creative Visualization. We are also planning a poetry reading, an immersive spiritual/nature experience at a local botanical garden, opportunities to share the creative things we do, and an exciting livestream worship/podcast series on the CTS proposal theme “What Makes Our Hearts/God’s Heart Sing?” We will be inviting a diverse group of guest preachers and workshop leaders to create that podcast series.

Equipped with a new camera, Rev. Jeanne will take classes with an award-winning photographer, and she will be going on solo photography retreats in Arizona and at Mt. Shasta/Mt. Lassen National Park, where she will learn from indigenous photography teachers and guides. She and her family will also go on pilgrimage to Greece and Türkiye to experience and photograph early Christian and Byzantine sites as well as ancient Greek spiritual sites. In addition, she will visit Rumi’s shrine in Konya. Rev. Jeanne notes that there is a “heart and vision clearing relationship” between her deep rest, spiritual work and the quality of her photography.

As part of the rest and renewal, there will also be Greek Island family beach time and a chance for her son to run the ancient track at Olympia before the family returns to the Bay Area. After some more quiet retreat time at Mt. Shasta, Rev. Jeanne will return to lead our congregation and present an online photography show for the beloved congregation. She will use her photos to enhance our online worship in the coming year, and she will host a gallery photography exhibit and reception for the larger community.

“Pastors play such important roles in nurturing the spiritual lives of individuals and families and guiding the ministries of congregations,” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “Yet the demands of ministry can seem relentless. We hope that these grants help congregations honor their pastors for their extraordinary service and support them with the time and other resources to step away for rest and renewal so they can return to their congregations reenergized.”

Dr. Robert Saler, Director of the Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Programs at Christian Theological Seminary, noted that interest in the grant programs has grown significantly in recent years, with higher numbers of applications leading to increased competitiveness.

“In these challenging and exciting times, we’re watching the applicants and awardees of these programs expand the definition of what sabbatical can mean. Some pastors are stepping away to rest, while others are stepping away to devote themselves to other aspects of their ministry and their being. Our goal is that these programs supply congregations with the means to express appreciation for their leaders and actively invest in what reenergizes their pastors for long-term ministry,” Saler said.

Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis also directs the Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Program for Indiana Congregations through its Center for Pastoral Excellence.

And we at United Church of Hayward, UCC are absolutely delighted to now be able to share this incredible news with you!

Contacts: Kristina Burnett, Moderator
Scout Husby, Vice Moderator
Jessica Matus, Treasurer

                     info@uchucc.org, (510) 449-7551

10 Books I Would Love For Everyone To Be Reading That Are Influencing My Preaching Right Now

I got a request this last week to share some new reading possibilities with you. My Thanks to Lola for publishing the reading list I created about white Christian nationalism in the October Notes from the Journey (page 8).

 We are going to be starting a new UCH Book Group during the 2026 Season of Lent, that I am hoping will become a permanent small group offering. Some of these books will definitely be on that list down the road. Books on B may have some of these, or can definitely order them. Many are also available as audiobooks if you prefer that reading method. I think it is always a great time to read and learn new things. Thank you to Chris for the suggestion. 

-Rev. Jeanne

1. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans

2. Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women by Sarah Bessey

3. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

4. Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz Weber

5. Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell

6. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes DuMez

7. Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously Not Literally by Marcus Borg 

8. How We Learn to be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde

9. Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible and What We Don’t Know About Them by Bart Ehrman

10. The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy by Jim Wallis