God will command his angels concerning you, to protect you.

—Luke 4:10b

Bee Ready

I felt the sting like a hot incision near my ankle. 

I was in mid-sentence when it hit, and I tried to look down at the ground to make sure I hadn’t stepped in a nest. The grass was shining green in the sun. 

The Yellowjacket hovered a few inches away near my leg. It had to be the one. I tried not to wince or to indicate anything, and just kept right on talking, even as the ache spread from my ankle up my foreleg. 

I was preaching, after all. 

Behind the Scenes at PCC!

Yep, this past week I “took one for the team” during outdoor worship, and I can tell you after a careful examination of the ground where I was standing that I believe it was just dumb luck. No ground bee nests anywhere over there, that I can find. Apparently I got in the way of a little pilgrim, far from home, out looking for something. When I’m not speaking at the microphone, I go back and stand by the tree, because there’s good shade there. The bees swarm there, but I don’t get stung back there, no, it’s out here, when I step up to the microphone. 

Is somebody trying to tell me something? Are you there, God? It’s me, Charley. 

I don’t take it as a sign from God. It’s just something that happens along the way. Sometimes you’re after one thing, and you get another. Sometimes you come with good intentions, and you get stung. 

CDC Announcements

I imagine the CDC feels that way sometimes. Here they are trying to ease restrictions to help commerce, and people are hanging on their every pronouncement and trying to interpret. We don’t know exactly why they say the things they say. In part, they want to help get the economy moving again. 

Business is how the USA moves, and churches in the USA are not immune to how business works. But there’s another reason, I believe, why they announced that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in certain situations. 

I think it’s a carrot! 

What better thing to tell someone who’s resistant to getting vaccinated than that once you do, you get to go places and do things without masks? I think (I don’t know for sure) that the CDC hopes this will inspire those who don’t want to be vaccinated to do so. 

For some, the news came too fast. For others, it couldn’t come fast enough. 

I preached about this in church this past week, because we have both types at Pilgrim Church. We will find our way forward in compromise, I know we will. And some will feel we’ve moved too fast, and some will feel we’re not moving fast enough. All will come with good intentions, and sometimes, we may get stung in the process. It happens. But just as I try to avoid stepping on ground bees, let’s move forward together, aware of both our possibilities and our limitations, and let’s write the next chapter of Pilgrim Congregational Church!