Appleseed Ponderings – March 2025

March is finished. Yet, we continue living to walk with Jesus through Galilee and toward Jerusalem in our chosen Lenten disciplines today.

Friends, there is much to celebrate as our relationships and connections in Christ are growing and showing! We are grateful for gifts within our local church – Pastor Erik, wise teachers, sharers of God’s word, and faithful do-ers and bearers of God’s image. We see it in the cards of caring sent weekly, concerns and plans for improving security for our kids in the Child Development Center, using the information about our strengths to continue developing disciples who make disciples, and praying for the congregation to embrace change with hospitality.

We are connected in our community in myriad ways where we are light, salt, and hands and feet with others. Many, including Scouts, worked alongside Trustees and church family to prepare our grounds and facilities to welcome all who will come during this holy season. We are also connected in shared worship services with other churches on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday. Best of all, we invite others to hear God’s call on their lives and lift high the Cross of Christ in worship.

We are connected. We are connected to the Baltimore-Washington & Peninsula-Delaware Conference of United Methodists by shared leaders and Bishop LaTrelle Easterling. We give thanks for her appointment of Rev. Doug Robinson-Johnson to Community UMC as we, together, as pastor and congregation, faithfully step into the future, starting July 1st.

We are connected by our confirmands growing in knowledge and experientially in the basilica, cathedral, founding church of Methodism at Lovely Lane, and expressions of church, like the deaf church at Magothy UMC. In the process, they learn about the early church, the Catholic church, the Protestant Reformation, the Anglican schism, and the Wesleyan movement, right up to now. Won’t it be a joy to welcome them as new members on Easter Sunday?!

We are connected in General Boards that serve the whole denomination. What a blessing to see and hear from the principals about one of their major activities this past Sunday: United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Afterward, during the 5th Sunday “Love Your Neighbor” Messy Church, church mission funds were converted through many hands’ service and many hearts’ generosity into 50 cleaning buckets and 60 hygiene kits. Donation of these connects us with people we won’t know, in states of need we can only imagine, in parts of the world where need is desperate, and where Christ’s felt love is practical.

We ARE connected. We are ONE. We are one in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

As we come to worship and to repentance during Lent, we are humbled and amazed that God loves us completely. We are saved to become life-long learners and part of his life-giving reconciliation and restoration of shalom for all peoples and nations.

We are all connected in Christ.

May you find and share hope in the Risen Lord this Easter and every day,
Barb Julian, Lay Leader